First thoughts on 26X vs. Siren 17

[Starscream]

The Siren really is a tiny boat compared to the Mac. Actually, there's no comparison. But, it was the perfect boat for a novice sailor.

I got interested in sailing on my honeymoon in the Turks years ago. They had a bunch of Hobie Cats on the beach, and one of the staffers who didn't speak English or French took me on a 5 minute test sail, took me back to the beach, made a bunch of hand gestures and arrows in the sand. Then he let me take one out. I sort of knew that a boat could sail into the wind, but was still kind of skeptical. My wife wouldn't come with me until I could show her that I could sail one way, turn around, and come back. Somehow or other I did it, and only got caught in irons once. I had no idea what that was, but logic told me that I had to try again with more speed. Shortly therafter I figured out the hard way that boats don't have brakes. Small accident with a parked Hobie, no damage.

I was really blown away by the physics, and the "free" motion without power input from a mechanical device. At that point, I was a gearhead--recreational pilot, motorcycle, the whole bit. But that one hour of sailing the Hobie percolated in my mind and 5 years or so later, I was riding the motorcycle down a country road, saw the Siren in a field with a for-sale sign and made up my mind right there. A couple of days later the bike was sold, and I had an old SIren and a new copy of Sailing for Dummies. I read to about chapter 8, then went for a sail. I figured if worst came to worst, I would just abandon ship and let it sink to the bottom and only be out $2,250. I can swim.

So, we made a ton of mistakes with that boat, learning pretty much everything the hard way. Many of the rocks around our boat launch had blue-paint marks where the hull had ground up against them. Maybe on another post I'll go through all the bonehead things we did...lot's of embarrassing stuff.

Anyway, we had that Siren for several years and it taught us a lot, including that we eventually would move up to a "real" boat. I have been researching the options for the last three years, hemming and hawing over what was the best choice. The leaders were the Mac26 M and X, possibly a D, a Hunter 240, 26 or 260, and a brief thought about the hunter Edge. Along the way O'day 222's and 24's were considered, and Catalina 22's and 25's.

Finally, the '02 X won for several reasons:
--Centerboard not daggergoard. I hit the keel enough times on the Siren to know that sooner or later I was going to do some serious damage to an M's daggerboard
--Some posts on the internet suggested that the 01 and 02 X were more solidly built than the earlier models. I still don't know if this is really true.
--standing headroom below. After years of slouching in the Siren, I knew that would be real nice.
--Floats in 8" of water. We launch from a ramp at the end of a public road normally used for jet-skis. The siren fit right in, but when I backed down the ramp for the first time with the X I had a bunch of people lined up expecting to see it sink on the rocks. No one could believe it when it was floating right beside a jet-ski.
--dual nature. There are times when I love a quiet sail, and there are times when I could imagine having a 50HP at 20mph+ speeds would be really, really fun. So far, seems like that's true.
--largest trailerable around. Living in Montreal, a trailerable is almost mandatory. The couple of small "lakes" on the St.Lawrence River are crowded, small, shallow and they get kind of stale after a while. Especially in a boat with a top speed of 6 mph.

I was worried about all the negative posts, but as I mentioned I found that almost every Mac owner was quite happy. It seems like it's the people who don't own one who are the most negative.

More on the bonehead plays later.

[Québec 1]

Welcome aboard starscream,
I'm in Québec City and can vouch for the Mac on the Saint Lawrence. Next summer my goal is to haul it to La Baie des Chaleurs and cross over to Prince Edward Island.
Q1

[markaram]

Here in Ontario there are a lot of Sirens
around and I must say Im not impressed.
One must love his sailboat and this includes
nice lines and a good looking boat which will
also by the way, sail well.
the Siren is an ugly duckling and there is no
comparison with a 26X.
the 26X has a modern power yacht look to it
and that is unbeatable and unique in the boating
world.
its better looking than the 26M.
good purchase and enjoy your 26X.