Dissapointing 2005 26M

[They Theirs]

Reading posts from despondent and unhappy buyers of “New” MacGregor Powersailors, exposes a “REAL” tragedy of having spent hard-earned dollars looking forward to future boating fulfillment.

Serving consumers inferior, marginally built, poorly crafted boats with obvious unsupported factory or dealer-inflicted damage, only serves to substantiate MacGregors “Sub-Prime” image.

Consumers who pay a fair price expect good clean oats, not those recycled through the horse.

Buyers ignored by the factory and fed-up with poor dealer support, are quick to share their experience.

Matt 777 wrote:
I owned a 05 26M for all of 4 months and had nothing but trouble. The boat was a giant piece of crap and a complete waste of money. Fortunately, someone was willing to buy it used from me and they apparently love it??

Those lucky enough to find satisfaction with their boat, avoiding the gauntlet of factory and dealer lack of accountability, should not glow in their euphoria, with statements of never having experienced any problems, or offer up commentary about accepting the wrong, and move on.

Faulting archived owner reviews of similar problems from a decade ago offers credibility to wronged MacGregor “New” boat buyers, confirming the pre-existing certainty that marginal production quality problems still exists.

The lack of dealer support proves “Salesmen” live up to their rating!

Curious about how your profession rated? Here's Gallup's list, starting with the professions rated "very high" or "high" on honesty and ethical standards:

The bottom of the list belonged to lawyers, advertising practitioners, and salesmen.


"...At the other end of the spectrum are salesmen at 8 percent, who, despite spirited competition from two newcomers, HMO managers and telemarketers ... still technically finish last, as they have every time since the survey began in 1977. However, nearly as many people give the honesty and ethics of telemarketers low or very low ratings (55 percent) as give these same ratings to the hapless car salesmen (57 percent).

[They Theirs]

temall00 wrote:
Tom, the hull is perfectly sound. I don't know anyone with an M that is leaking seawater. If anyone is getting water on-board, it's usually from above.

One of the things I like about this boat is zero holes in the bottom of the boat. There is nothing to keep an eye on like with a bigger boat and no holes to sink her if they fail.

Oh, another Mac, plus, she won't put you in the water even if she sinks, it'll float full of water, I personally don't want to find out.

[Gerald Gordon]

I have the impression, after reading many posts on this board, that many owners simply don't have the skills required to maintain a boat. This may also be the case for their cars and trucks and RV's. When they need service the vehicle goes to the mechanic. I'm not judging...

I feel, no facts, that the boat owner should like to mess with boats rather than work and will fix his own garbage disposal before calling a plumber. Operating a boat is not like operating a car. The operator needs to know the difference and adjust his or her way of looking at boating.

Remember that song: "perils of the sea....."? I wonder why they use chose the word "perils" and not "let me just pull off the road and walk to the gas station"

[Catigale]

When they need service the vehicle goes to the mechanic.

If you are entering into the boating world as a first time buyer, its important to understand that there is NO network of boat mechanics like there are for cars..you may be lucky enough to live near one, but that is the exception. Even if you do live near one, s/he will be booked up in direct proportion to how good s/he is.

Part of my retirement plan is to gas/grocery money by doing boat repairs...I like working on stuff, and I know how to handle customers.

Its amazing how much mileage you can get by calling customers every few days and keeping them up to date with information - even when its bad news. Its equally amazing how many companies and reps cant figure this out.

[richandlori]

It is also important to know that you CAN hire the work done at a boat yard, but you will pay between $60 to $120 PER HOUR for their work, depending on your part of the country.

It is my opinion ONLY, but if you can't do, try, or learn to do some of your own boat work and repair, you may want to take up a different hobby because to hire out all the needed boat work that WILL be reqired you can't afford it.

Here's a simple example. I just spent 30days in a boat yard and did 80% of the work myself but there were some things either could not do or didn't want the liability risk to do myself for example: fabrication of new mast step, adding new water-maker through hull, and such so I hired that work out. My total yard bill was $7300. Material was $1925 and LABOR was $5158. Now granted things are more expensive on a larger more comlicated boat, but your $1000 autopilot will cost you another $1000 to have it "professionally" installed on and on.

[piratetom]

I have no problem with doing a lot of work myself. In fact, I'm in the process of demolishing most of my house by myself to reinsulate and rewire some scary stuff! That's really not the question. I'm confused why someone would buy a "new" boat if problems are the norm rather than the exception? It would seem to me to be logical that one would buy a boat or any other item new in order to be able to avoid chasing and fixing problems for a while and enjoy their new purchase. Otherwise it makes no sense, and one should look at a used boat if you're going to have the same issues off the bat. As for the blistering problem mentioned, my experieince is from years ago and wooden boats (which are expected to have a bit of water in the bilge!), so no familiarity with fiberglass. What causes the blistering, and how are they fixed? With wood, I just sand to bare wood and reprime/paint, but we have gelcoat to worry about here. Someone earlier said the cause has been known for years , so what gives?

!	Frank C:
	Search on gelcoat blister, and click the 'all terms' button. There are numerous, very thorough discussions on precisely that topic

[richandlori]

Spend some time looking at the owners forums of the "big name boats" Catalina, Hanse, Tartan,. People have issues with their new boats even after spending $200K on said boat. So some of this is part of the industry and not Mac Specific.

[Frank C]

... I'm confused why someone would buy a "new" boat if problems are the norm rather than the exception? It would seem to me to be logical that one would buy a boat or any other item new in order to be able to avoid chasing and fixing problems for a while and enjoy their new purchase. Otherwise it makes no sense, and one should look at a used boat if you're going to have the same issues off the bat.

The reasons I chose to buy new, not "used," was that I wanted to choose my own, newer tech outboard. All the used boats had older-tech engines.

Another reason, if you find any "really serious" problems with the boat, you can challenge the Dealer or MFG to fix them. The problems you've been reading of here are not "really serious." Therefore, it's easier to just fix them than lose the use of the boat while the Dealer tries.

BTW, gelcoat blisters are not covered by the MFG warranty, even though this problem is usually related to the quality of the hull layup. It's basically a very rare, but very costly problem ... see my search advise, above. This would be a good reason to choose a "used boat" that has been kept in a slip in the water. Considering your experience with new cars, this 'blister exclusion' is analogous to finding a bad paint job and having the MFG deny responsibility.

This 'blister exclusion' is not just my attempt to dissuade you, it's the reality. You CAN find a blister warranty elsewhere among the major MFGs ... but you'll pay about $80,000 for that kind of daysailer. I doubt you want any new boat, but you definitely don't want a new Macgregor.

[piratetom]

Are gelcoat blisters something a DIYer could repair on his own, or is this a dealer-only or factory fix?

[Catigale]

They arent hard to fix - not that I have ever done it.

There are reputable schools of thought that blisters can basically be ignored - they arent failure prone spots on the hull, just cosmetic defects.

[delevi]

your $1000 autopilot will cost you another $1000 to have it "professionally" installed

So true. Actually, they wanted $1200 to install my $1000 AP. I did it myself. I'm not a do-it-yourselfer. I have always been the kind of person to call the plumber, take the car into the shop, hire a painter rather than paint the house myself, etc. Having owned my Mac for 3 years now, I have changed my ways. After shelling out nearly $1k in the first couple of months for various small improvements to the boat, I decided to pick up the drill, the wrench and the screwdriver and take a stab at doing some of this stuff myself. Though some of the work was a bit sloppy, and some had to be re-done I slowly got the hang of it and actually learned to enjoy working on the boat. Well, everything except when the porta-potti exploded. The nice part about having worked on m own boat, and believe me it’s been hundreds of hours, I know every little corner, every nook & cranny of the vessel, short of disassembling the OB. I think this can be quite useful if ever stuck in a jam in the open water. I would surmise that to own a boat, you must accept working on it. Perhaps the only exceptions to this would be those who are very wealthy. The folks who own the mega yachts for which they have full time crew and other hired help.
Now how do you get rid of fiberglass splinters?
Leon

[artalv]

I am a new dealer for MacGregor in Florida.
I visited the MacGregor plant a few times last July and saw the way the build the 26M. I can honestly say I was very impressed with the quality and methods they use to build these boats. I thought to myself they were adding too many and very close (about 6 inches on center) ribs in the hull. The few boats with defects (blemishes mainly) where pulled aside and taken care of.
I received my first shipment (2 boats in a sealed container) in perfect conditions. We took time to take the boats out of the container, and used the proper equipment and technique. This is very critical.
When I asked them why they did not move the plant south of the border, they said they wanted to control the quality. Roger and/or the staff were there all the time and their employees seem to be well trained and synchronized.
I could not do that to anyone and I don't think MacGregor would let me continue being a dealer if I damage their reputation.
If I was you I would not accept this situation and ask the dealer for compensation or a new boat. But please don't blame MacGregor.
Sincerely
Art at Yachts Marine

[Paul S]

I guess quality control is hit or miss at Macgregor, or what people consider acceptable (search my early threads).

The first few Ms (03/04) I saw, including the dealers demos, had significant flaws in the fit and finish, large gelcoat chips, scratches, crack in the galley top, HORRIFIC gelcoat repair attempts (have pics of it all). Our boat was delivered in, what I consider, dismal condition..but after all the replies I got early on...I finally got it that I had to lower my expectations on quality and fit and finish. Accessories not installed.. it worked out in the end.. but was painful

The boat has it where it counts. But the 2 Ms we owned (hull 225 - never took delivery of and 360 we own) were dismal at best(fit and finish)...

But it sure sounds like a crapshoot, as I hear good reports from other new owners. Either their boats were made and prepared better, or their expectation levels were a lot lower.

The boats are still a spectacular bargain, but I wish they would either hire better workers or better quality control to avoid boats going out the way our 2 were delivered. I can not believe that ours is an isolated case (or some dealers took care of the issues before delivery for other owners). We were going to call the boat 'drunken monkey' after, what I coined, the workers who assembled our boat... we did name it something else..

[Paul S]

The few boats with defects (blemishes mainly) where pulled aside and taken care of.

Ah yes, taken care of by workers that were trained by Helen Keller herself! Seriously, there is no way our boat should have left the factory the way it did. Obviously they need to tighten quality, IMO.

(edit add link) Blast from the past - our initial experience with our Mac. 4 years later and I am STILL p*ssed off! LOL http://macgregorsailors.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=334