Worked my way up from a SouthCoast 22, Mac25 swing keel steel, to a 1991 Mac 26S. All of them had pop tops which the family and I enjoyed standing in when camping. I have to admit that I often sail with the pop top up which is not recomended. I pulled all 3 boats 5 miles to the boat ramp with my Ford ranger 4 cylender truck. The Mac 26S was the easist to pull out of/up the ramp. I have not found instability to be a problem, trim your sails and adjust the point of sail. Good site to look at is http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/macgregor/macgregor-index.html