macgregor 26 advertising claims and abilities.

[enw]

yep lots of great feedback from everyone. Thanks.


Having read the suggested topics i think i would want a 70/90 hp but from what i read into it people are either lying to their insurance companies, not giving them all the facts or cruising around uninsured all of which is incredibly
risky!

How many of you have oversized engines?

[Bobby T.-26X #4767]

this has been discussed and argued about many times over.

on the Mac website this is what it says about the M:
"We limited the engine size to 50 hp for a number of reasons. An electric start 50 hp motor provides lots of speed, yet it is light enough so that sailing performance is not compromised. It is about the largest engine that can be started by hand, a nice feature if your battery goes dead. Also, the heavier, higher horsepower engines really eat up gas."
that said, there are no hp maximum plates riveted to the hull.

1) many Mac dealers are putting 70hp on M's today and honor a standard warranty. i assume that the owner(s) of these vessels have insurance.

2) a Mac is warranted for the ORIGINAL owner only and only for a period of two years. hence, owners who have repowered are typically not under warranty and continue to maintain insurance.

3) is powering a Mac with a 70 or 90hp unsafe? i suppose if one powers at high speed without ballast with a 70hp or higher there is a chance that one could flip on a large swell if not careful (or tries to perform this feat), but probably not likely if one used a common sense approach.

4) is powering a Mac with a 70 or 90hp a threat to damage the hull? if proper shims are placed in and around the fasten points it appears unlikely. that is, none who have powered with a 70hp or higher have shared their damaged hull stories on this website. however, if one tries hard enough (ie. using a Mac as a Tug, doing hole shots while pulling 2 - 250# water skiers, porpoising/flopping on large swells, etc.) i'm sure some hull damage can be achieved.

personally, i like having the ability to motor at 18mph at 2/3 throttle. my engine runs quieter than a 50hp at WOT, and i get similar MPG results (4.5-5 mpg).
if i want to pull a skiier on a smooth & glassy morning, i can go 22-24 mph in a fully loaded X.
i don't do "hole shots", i don't run at WOT, and most of my boating is done in the Pacific Ocean so i rarely go over 18-19mph due to the surface wave action.

Bob T.
"DaBob"
'02X w/ '04 90 TLDI

[enw]

Thanks for that bob. Having read the other threads on this on here I appreciate that at a higher hp you would want to take care and that it should really only be taken advantage of on a flat water, but my point is that no insurance company will insure a boat if you tell them that the boat is limited by the manufacturer to a 50hp when you have a 90hp on it or certainly wouldnt payout on a claim! Therefore these people must be neglecting to tell the insurance company that there is a manufacturers limit of 50hp or they are lying about the size of their engine ..... right ! or am i wrong??

[Frank C]

... no insurance company will insure a boat if you tell them that the boat is limited by the manufacturer to a 50hp ... right ! or am i wrong??

Wrong, I think. In the USA, boats of 20 feet and larger do not bear "manufacturer limitations" for loading capacity or engine size, rather "recommendations" (maybe). There's no government mandate that the builder prescribe anything. Insurance companies ask about horsepower, but they don't evaluate it. It's quite easy to find 20-footers with 150 hp outboards or 350 hp inboards.

Search on [insurance]. There was a very lengthy discussion just a few weeks ago. Obviously this is just a users' forum, so discussions of legal liability are just laymen's perceptions, of course. Besides, "Mac's for export" must go through changes for EU certification, and your safety and liability laws would probably differ too.

Actually, insuring "overpowered" Macs was discussed in the last pages of the
thread on "90 HP Outboard" ... if you missed that one you missed lots of good stuff.

[cuisto]

It can be done, it has been done!

[enw]

very good cuisto! but are you sure? The car appears to be stationary on a fairly gentle hill

Thats interesting frank, It is a requirement over here to have a maxhp and it must be displayed on a metal plate on the transom. Maybe i should contact our sole dealer over here!

[cuisto]

Here is what the owner with the volvo wagon had to say

The boat was shipped to Sweden in the spring of 2002. The Swedish dealer used it on diffrent boat shows untill the spring of 2003 and then it was stored. Me and my wife was looking after a new 26M but the M is just a little bit to heavy and the X is just inside the limit for towing around in Sweden after a standard car with a standard drivers licens. We was talking with the dealer and he offerd us to buy his 26X showboat. This was in november 2004 and when we picked it up it was snowing and we towed it for about 200km after a Volvo V70. Now we has bougt a Land Rover and it feals much more safe. I was even abel to load it on the trailer with the ballast tank filled with water

So it can be done but....
at the time this picture was taken I believe he said he was doing a safety walk around

For this owners posts search author "mss"

[Hamin' X]

enw,

Although I do not own a Mac, I need to throw this out there. There are differences in the Macs sold here in the States and those that are "legally" sold across the pond. Yours require the CE rating. This may include a HP rating for the hull and might limit your engine size. I say "may", because I really don't know. Check with your dealer.

Rich

[Rolf]

ENW,
Don't know where I was during those 90 horse posts, but here's my 2 cents..

I got my 90 tldi at the same time and place that bob did. It was the best move we've done, he'd agree. In the real world, a 50 on a moderately loaded down x is just too small for a boat of this MASS, not just weight.

The TORQUE of the bigger motor really helps when powering through rough wind and swell at a comfortable speed of about 10-11 knots, ballast or no ballast. I've made about a dozen 44 mile roundtrips to Catalina island off California here, and five of the first of them were with a tldi 50. Sure the 50 works, but the 90 is so much more practical!

I've averaged 18 knots ther and back under clean, glassy conditions. I've gone 28 knots in the harbor lightly loaded by myself also clean conditions. Anyone with common sense isn't going to abuse his boat and go so fast in chop conditions with uncomfortable pounding.

The x is more than up to the challenge of a larger motor for those who see it as a true power boat first, sailor second. Spend a few grand extra and that is what you will have, a 75 grand power boat for about 26 grand (new US boat and tohatsu 90 in american dollars).

Warranties run out, and the boat sails just as well to me with the bigger motor. These are non-issues. I like the proven reliability of the tohatsu over the e-tec, but that etec sure is pretty! Also for comfort a good dodger/bimini setup is a must.

Rolf
Albatross
2002 26 Macx5173H203

[Mork]

Enw
I too live in the UK and I agree with you that no insurance company here would entertain a claim if the engine size was over 50hp. BTW there is a UK based web site and assc that you can join for information help and the odd meet up on the water. PM mee if you want the details

PS the mac is great and does exactly what it says on the tin. I have motored fully laden in southampton water and the solent at 19.3 knots, there was still room left for more but thats for the next time.

regards

[They Theirs]

I like to sail; and when there is little wind, enjoy a reasonable cruise with the Iron Jenny. I prefer a time-honored balance of weight combined with skill and ability to keep the boat sailing on its best lines. A sailor prefers a boat to perform well enough under sail without the need to reach for ignition switch and throttle. The Biggest and Best of Bolt on Engines can only emphasis the Motoring capability of these wonderful boats.
I enjoy the Exhilaration of Sailing with the Power of the Wind more
than Powering with Oversized Outboard that's Break'n Wind.

[elia]

Here is a link to the MacGregor export site that has some information that should be helpful to you.


http://www.macgregorexport.com/options.htm

[They Theirs]

EXPORT FAQs

[Chip Hindes]

If you are not interested in high speed powering, the boat performs well with a 10 hp engine.

Like towing with a Taurus, that statement is at best misleading. If you sail only on calm days on inland lakes with no wave action, performance would better be described as adequate. As long as you weren't bucking a head wind, you might be able to hit displacement hull speed but I don't believe you could empty ballast.

Three years ago, returning to the U.S. from Bimini, our entire group was forced to power against the Gulf Stream and a 10 knot headwind. A single 26X with a 9.9 Honda, the best he could maintain was about 2 knots SOG, sometimes less. Performance in that condition was grossly, even dangerously inadequate, and it made what would have been a merely unpleasant experience excruciatingly, nauseatingly long. As freely admitted by the owner of said 26X and loudly confirmed by his first mate. Immediately on his return he bought a bigger motor.

I'm primarily a sailor. Even so, I occasionally enjoy flogging all 50 horses, and if I had it to do over again I would definitely opt for at least 90. I really appreaciate the fact that, at least so far, Big Brother has not yet taken over this aspect of our lives and that I'd be allowed to do so both legally and insurance-wise, if I could afford it. The first mate says as soon as it's paid off.

I understand and sympathize those who don't care. Even so, I would not even consider a Mac 26, M or X, with less than 18HP.

[Catigale]

To put a number on it, If I were looking to buy a used Mac in decent shape that sell for roughly 20k, if it had a small motor on it, I would immediately lower the offer to 13k (the delta for a new 50-60HP type motor....thats a 33% hit on the used price.

If you might be unloading the boat after a few years, a small motor is not the place to try save imho...