...but I am curious if there is anything much bigger and as simple to rig as a mac 26, for being a trailer sailor....
There is. The Balboa 27 (from what I can tell) is the roomiest trailer sailor around with 6'1 feet of headroom clearence in the cabin while still being trailerable but not easily and needing deeper water to launch than the Mac (36' mast). It has a weighted swing centerboard (140lbs) that ads to the shallow draft keel for a total of 2600lbs of ballast. She draws approximately 5 ½ feet, and weighs about 6000 lbs in total. Don't confuse the Balboa 27 with the Balboa 26 which is substantially different and a somewhat less roomy boat. More info here:
http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=644
For a trailer sailor, the 27 has about the best cabin you'll find with lots of room.
Even the Balboa 26 is slightly roomier than our Mac 26C's with 5'6" headroom, and a heavy swing keel (1,200 lbs I believe) that also are prone to fall off.
However, there are several drawbacks to the Balboa 27 & 26
1) Haven't been made since the 80's so they are older now.
2) Company that made them in, Coastal Recreation in Mesa, CA, is out of business and it's hard to get some parts except for the rudder that Ida makes.
3) The Balbo's are famous for losing their weighted swing centerboards without warning. You have to check and double check the keel bolt often. There are few of these Balboa 27's left so once you lose that swing keel, good luck.
4) Go visit the Balboa section of this forum. Compared to here, it's a Ghost town. If you post there, you may never get a reply. We Mac owners don't realize how good we have it with a larger community to help us out.
5) At over 6,000lbs, you need a serious tow vehicle to pull the Balboa 27. Kind of defeats the purpose of a trailer sailor.
6) The 27 suffers from severe weather helm unless you upgrade the sails, get a bigger headsail, & change to the Ida rudder. Big money.
My conclusion is that the Balboa 26 is better than the MacGregor 25 because of much more cabin room and 5'6" head room while having almost the same weakness of the heavy swing keel. But I'd pick the MacGregor 26 over the Balboa 26 because of the tendency of the Balboa to lose their hard to find swing keel. I'd completely disregard the Balboa 27 unless you have the kind of money to buy a dedicated tow vehicle and to make the necessary weather helm upgrades. If you have that kind of money, then the 27 would be an amazing boat.
