I just bought a boat

[oldsalt_1942]

I spent most of my adult life working as a U.S Coast Guard licensed captain. All up and down the Atlantic coast from Cape Cod to Key West. Ran yachts and crew boats in Louisiana back in the  mid 70s to mid 80s. Even ran an 85-foot ketch over on the French Riviera for three years. HEY! SOMEONE was going to do it, why not ME??? Sailed it from Antibes, France (between Cannes and Nice) to Ft. Lauderdale in '91.

Had my own small sailboat in '92 and took off for nine months single-handed from Lauderdale to Mexico, Belize and Guatemala and back. Have been an expat in Panama for the last eight years but for the last couple it's seemed like all I've been doing is waiting to die. Not ready for that yet. Since I've always worked on and around boats it's natural that I should seek one. Today (Sunday, April 2) I bought a 25-foot MacGregor sailboat, and plan on doing the nautical version of "boondocking" the littoral of the Gulf of Mexico.

Small sailboats and RVs of the van genre have a LOT in common. I come to sites like this for ideas that can be adapted like electrical needs, storage, galley, etc.

 

[AbuelaLoca]

Love it!! I watch boat build videos for the same reason... to get ideas on storage and organization!! Congrats on the boat and deciding to get about living!!

 

[highdesertranger]

congrats, make sure you include us when you do upgrades to her. highdesertranger

 

[Ballenxj]

Small sailboats and RVs of the van genre have a LOT in common. I come to sites like this for ideas that can be adapted like electrical needs, storage, galley, etc.

NICE! I learned to sail on a 25 ft MacGregor probably over 20 years ago. I had also considered living on a sailboat, but in the PNW.
My goal was to keep it between 25 and 30 ft. Never did it because I lost confidence in my ability to live on the hook.
Congratulations to you for doing it.  
French Riviera? I bet you got some really nice photos there.

 

[hepcat]

Aye, Skipper! Welcome aboard! Nice looking old MacGregor! They're a LOT of fun. We've got two or three of them in our mast-up storage area. I've never done anything but lake sailing, but I've got a Precision P-21 that we're starting our fourth season with in Iowa. She's 21 years old this year, but in great shape too. We had a Neptune 24 on Clear Lake in NoCal for about six or seven years before this. There's NOTHING like sailing... Keep us posted on what you do with her!

20160724-DSCF0031 by Roger H, on Flickr

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

The Technomadia people have bought a boat and are parking their bus for a while.  They are going to do what's called the Grand Tour:

Up the east coast from Florida

The Great Lakes, either up the Hudson to the Erie Canal, or all the way up to the Saint Lawrence and down that way

Down the Mississippi to N'Awlins

Across the Gulf back to Florida

Just another way to see this great country of ours

 

[ZoNiE]

I have a buddy that has a similar boat in Maine. Was great sailing around the islands near Portland. That Grand tour sounds ideal... I sold my seldom used runabout two years ago and really miss having a boat.

 

[hepcat]

I've always thought it'd be great fun to be a Looper... (The Great Loop)

but I don't think my wife's too keen on the idea.  It can be done most economically on a sailboat, but there's a bridge in Chicago that you have to step the mast for... I think the clearance is less than 20' or something.  That limits the size of the boat pretty significantly.  There was a Looper who, a few years ago, bought a 35' sailboat and de-masted it and did the whole loop on about $1500 worth of diesel.   Folks who do it with twin-engine trawlers can end up spending between $10k and $20k on fuel alone.

 

[DannyB1954]

I lived on a Tartan 30 for a few years, before that a 46' Chris Craft double cabin cruiser. When yo get out of bed and your feet stay dry, it is a good day, (no leaks). Welcome to the forum. Bob might have to add another forum category, Boats and aircraft. I don't know which costs the most, (had both).

 

[Every Road Leads Home]

I've always thought it'd be great fun to be a Looper... (The Great Loop)

The great loop is on my bucket list for sure.  I read that article/blog where they did it in a sailboat with no sail.  Huge fuel saver.  


Read about another guy that put his mast on a hinge and could raise and lower it with a winch attached up near the bow if I remember correctly, it was a pretty neat set up.  I think it was the only way he could get his wife to tag along with him, was if she didn't have to help with the mast stepping, as it was a stressor for her.

 

[hepcat]

I was looking seriously at the Hake 26RK or 32RK... the 26RK has a step-able-from-the-cockpit mast and is a true gunkholing boat with a minimum draft of 15"... perfect for this kind of trip; yet is supposed to be sea-kindly and well founded according to those who sail them. The 32RK is only slightly deeper draft at 20"... with a LOT more room in the saloon and berths. If ONLY I were wealthy... *sigh"

http://www.seawardyachts.com/32rk/

http://www.seawardyachts.com/26rk/

 

[ZoNiE]

Wow, Just came from the MacGregor website. $30K gets you the basics with a 60HP outboard. This thing has no keel. I think I'm sold!!!

 

[bullfrog]

You guys are killing me, my wife has an inner ear problem, can't even drink a glass of water without getting sick, but I almost bought one to use as a camper at boat ramps a marina parking lots!

 

[ZoNiE]

I...Bob might have to add another forum category, Boats and aircraft. I don't know which costs the most, (had both).

You know the saying, "If it Flies, Floats, or *****, rent it!"

 

[oldsalt_1942]

NICE! I learned to sail on a 25 ft MacGregor probably over 20 years ago. I had also considered living on a sailboat, but in the PNW.
My goal was to keep it between 25 and 30 ft. Never did it because I lost confidence in my ability to live on the hook.
Congratulations to you for doing it.  
French Riviera? I bet you got some really nice photos there.

I used to have some nice pics but they were the old paper kind, and living on a boat with the attendant humidity they tend to stick together and I lost most of them. But when I close my eyes I can see those things on the inside of my eyelids.

 

[oldsalt_1942]

The Technomadia people have bought a boat and are parking their bus for a while.  They are going to do what's called the Grand Tour:

Up the east coast from Florida

The Great Lakes, either up the Hudson to the Erie Canal, or all the way up to the Saint Lawrence and down that way

Down the Mississippi to N'Awlins

Across the Gulf back to Florida

Just another way to see this great country of ours

That's called "The Great Loop." I did it in two stages on two different boats. The first was my first captain's gig and on a 43-foot Hatteras Tri-Cabin. A real slug of a boat. This was in '74. Left Burnham Harbor in Chicago and went out through the lakes (Michigan, Huron and Erie). then the Erie Canal from Buffalo to the Hudson, etc. Dropped the owners off in Stamford, Conn. Had to let the deckhand return to Michigan when the boat got to Norfolk. I then dit the 1,100 miles of the Intracoastal Waterway BY MYSELF! Ended up at Bahia Mar Marina in Ft. Lauderdale.

In '75 I helped a young couple bring their 51 foot Out Island sailboat from Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale. Oddly, we left from Burnham Harbor again, went down the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, across the Gulf through the Keys and ironically ended up at Bahia Mar again.

 

[Ballenxj]

Bob might have to add another forum category, Boats and aircraft. I don't know which costs the most, (had both).

You know, Jimmy Buffet has a Grumman Albatross (seaplane) that I understand is set up like a motorhome inside.
Wouldn't it be cool if he flew into an RTR?  
After reading this article I see he retired that aircraft.
http://www.buffettworld.com/aviation/albatross/

 

[hepcat]

Wow, Just came from the MacGregor website. $30K gets you the basics with a 60HP outboard. This thing has no keel. I think I'm sold!!!

The Macgregor 26 is out of production as they retired the company.  I think someone else is building them under a different name now though.  FWIW, freshwater sailing is just about the LEAST expensive leisure activity you can do, once you make the initial investment... and even that doesn't have to be much.  I bought my '96 21' boat in 2014 (boat, 8hp Honda outboard with generator) and trailer for $6500 in near showroom condition.  It'll sail in 22" of water. I have a 3 gallon gas tank for the Honda, and I generally use about 2 gallons in an entire season of sailing.   I store her in mast-up storage at a state park year-round for $200, so I don't worry about bottom paint, or having to clean the hull.  

You can buy really nice older boats all day long for $3k or less.  Recreation doesn't get much cheaper than that.

 

[Queen]

So jealous of you boat owners! We even have docks at our Florida condo, but like several of you, I have wife that isn't interested. She loves to look at water, but is scared of being in it/on it. I would LOVE to take off and sail the Caribbean, but not gonna happen... so I'll have to live vicariously through you folks.

 

[Ballenxj]

The Macgregor 26 is out of production as they retired the company.  I think someone else is building them under a different name now though. 

I was unaware that Macgregor had gone out of business, so I did a little research, and found that they were gone by 2015.
Read online that Tatoo Yachts bought the tooling and is now producing the same boat, calling it the Tatoo 26?
The one I learned to sail on at Lake Mead was a 1965 vintage, so swing keel. The newer 26 footers were water ballast. Both systems were pioneered by MacGregor, which makes me sad they went out of business.
Since I found it, I thought I'd post a link to MacGregor Yacht history here.
http://sailboatdata.com/view_builder.asp?builder_id=180