MacGregorSailors.com

Just curious on how the M gets used. I have had boats in the past and some have been moored and some have had to be trailered. I know how nice it was to just go down to the dock and drop lines and go, but it was also nice to trailer to a different area and put in. So just curious on how you use the M, and how much of a pain it is if trailering to do the set up and take down each time?

THe benifits in owning a trailer sailer are
a) you get to sail in a heap more areas. If you are not retired, spare time is limited, you cant just sail off where you want when you want. Having a trailer sailer you can get to enjoy far off places in your two week vacation that you will have to wait until retirement to do if you own a keel boat! And even then you wont be able to sail half those places if they are inland lakes etc
b) you can eliminate the cost of mooring as you can keep the boat on its trailer. If you have the space, that means keeping it in your backyard and then the costs of ownership become very low. I also much prefer to keep my boat in the backyard as I can play with it when I want and you kind of have much more of a sense of ownership when you can see your boat out the window! This also means much less chance of anything being stolen or the boat broken into (depending on where you live of course)
c) much less maintance and you are more inclined to keep your boat nice if it is with you. (go look at any Macs on the hardstand or in pens compared to those kept in backyards.)

I believe the Mac to be the best "Trailerable" cruising boat, certainly where I live, but if I were going to keep my boat in the water, there are plenty of much better keelboats I'd have (that I could have bought quite a bit cheaper) Now, I realize that keeping it moored works for for many here for whatever reason. This is just my way of thinking of course and others certainly see it different!

For me, setup on pulling up at the ramp takes about 45 minutes. It is a pain in the butt but all of the above makes it a better option for me. Packing up takes quite a bit less for me, as if I have others in the boat, I will get someone else to drive and I will get everything sorted while they are driving, e.g setup the mast raising system, store the boom in the cabin etc, and this way, all I really need do at the boat ramp is lower the mast and tie everything down. THen of course, if you are just going for a days powering, it is easy as pie and takes no longer than any fisherman in his 12 foot boat to launch because you can leave the mast at home!

If your intention is not to go blue water cruising, but just to cruise in protected waters with perhaps some limited coastal hopping, I think trailer sailer owneringship and keeping it in your backyard is a far better and far cheaper option. If you want to do a lot of blue water work and money is no object, a keel boat in a pen is a far better option.

yes!

Q1

Another nice thing about the Mac. In my area some marinas offer dry storage where you're able to leave the mast up for about a third of the cost of having it in moorage. I've been thinking about this if I upgrade to a aluminum or galv trailer. I think it would be worth it to still be easily be able to go down after work and get some sailing in!

First year and a half that I owned my X, I trailered everywhere. Found that most of my boating was local, so this past year, I have had it in a slip. If I want to trailer somewhere, I just pull it and go, then come home and drop it back in the slip. Much easier than trailering every time and the boat gets used much more. I can go have an hour sail in the evenings, without it taking 2+ hours.

Of course, this all depends on slip availability and cost in your area. Cost for the slip that I have was a one time initiation fee to the yacht club and $50/month after that for a slip. I just happened to get a slip, as the economy has caused a lot of folks to drop out and the waiting list moved very quickly.

~Rich

I keep it on the trailor in the back yard. See my mod under storage. Every month I save $300 or more on slip fees.

Bob

I moor mine out and use a dinghy. She hardly ever will go on her trailer. Only for storms or longbterm storage. I did not get the boat to take on the road but rather for her other attributes.

Ixneigh

I do both. Most of the time I keep my boat on a plug in the river as the seasonal rental is VERY reasonable through the yacht club.
We also trailer it if we want to sail on another lake. Next summer we're looking forward to cruising in Lake Huron's North Channel, sometime we couldn't do with a keelboat.
Dale

I've done both...

First few years trailering, the a few years on a dock

Now I'm back to trailering for a week at a time to the Cape, and day sailing in small boats that take 10 minutes to setup.

Still trailering.....

Right now tells me the ice is going to be a little thicker this year.

I also tend to look for "mast up" storage on the trailer at a marina. Only takes about 10 minutes to get the boat in the water then maybe another 20...if I take my time...to get everything ready to go (covers off, electronics installed, etc...).

Same basic timelines when I come back to the marina.

Just another thought.

Cost about $70 per month for this service.

Cheers,
Jim

We keep our in the driveway for most of the year (no slip fee). I like having the boat close to do maintenance and mods. This year we found a marina that will go month to month, no annual lease, so we kept her in a slip for a couple of months during the summer. When not in the slip, we trailer to local lakes for weekends. We also trailer for week long trips to the Florida Gulf Coast and the Tennessee River.

Marc

We store on a trailer, but rent guest slips for periods of a week to a month at a time at the San Diego or Oceanside public docks and at various marinas that have reasonable guest rates around the bay. There are about 14 marinas here you can guest in. We look at the calendar, figure a good time to put in, and then rent a slip for just those weeks, sailing as much as we can in that time and often camping on board with the kids. It's a lot of fun, and much less expensive than being slipped 100% of the time. Then the boat comes out for a month or two until the urge hits again.

Slip rates in San Diego range from $13 to $30/foot (yes, you read that right) and the Mac is magically 30' feet long for slip measurements, not 26. There's no real mast-up storage in San Diego unfortunately. I'm currently storing about 3 miles from Shelter Island for $4.50/ft in what amounts to an unused parking lot with a combo lock on the gate.

hello all,

i have done both over the years. i belonged to a small yacht club in florida and used to keep my boat in the water there for around 140 a month if i remember correctly, that was a great deal but there are more worries when in the water depending on the water itself and the slip position. the boat gets banged around a bit, bottom jobs to worry about, especially in florida's warm waters, are the lines secure when one can't get out there? these kinds of things. one advantage of the yacht club is there was always someone there keeping an eye on things, and they would retie one's boat if needed.

for most of the time, i kept my boat in a mast up dry slip on the trailer at the club. that was about 80 a month. that was probably the best deal, everything ready, pull up the truck, load the cooler, drive a couple hundred feet to our private ramp, back the boat in and go. no lines tied to the dock, no banging boat, no fancy bottom jobs to worry about.

currently, i keep the boat at home, and in the tradition of duane dunn's allegro have been using it mostly as a powerboat. reading his site over the years gave me the willingness to appreciate the mac for the reasons i originally bought it, and use it however the time i had available deemed it to be used. it has been great this way. i have two little children, now 4 and 5, and had thought of selling the mac a few years back, but those of you on this site convinced me to keep it. i thank you for that.

i have a small sailboat racing background, so just buying a boat like the mac was a huge leap for me, friends laughing, and all the usual ribbing about the "powersailer"! but i love it, and i have taken it places i could never take a keelboat. trust me, those of us that live in florida, especially the gulf side with the world's shallowest waters can really appreciate a mac. it is amazing to see other boaters watching me like i am crazy as i head up to a beach, or through some skinny fishing water where the fishermen have to poll through and i am powering in, just great!

anyway, sorry to go off on a tangent, i don't write much so just wanted to share my overall thoughts,

francis joshua