More to consider on Mac 19 ...
MacDaddy, you have most of the caveats right ... I would add, make sure of the trailer before you tow it home 500 km. Especially the wheel bearings. Cheap to replace, but they can RUIN your weekend if they go bad on the road!
The Mac 19 motorsailer is enough boat to spend the night, but not much more. I referred to mine as "an obese Flying Scot with indoor plumbing," and I'll stand by that description. Kept it at a marina five minutes from my office; went sailing numerous times, rather than do "rush hour", and slept aboard a couple dozen times during the two summers I owned it.
You will not have stand-up headroom, a fore-deck hatch (unless you're buying Highlander's super-19), a wheel helm, a rudder-motor interconnect, or a very heavy centerboard. I wanted to reef in winds over 10 knots, and I put in an intermediate reef on my mainsail below the factory reef-point. But it's enough boat to have a lot of fun, and surely enough boat to learn on; after two years of hard and clumsy sailing, I sold mine for just a few hundred dollars less than I paid for it.
And by the way, "expensive" is a relative term on a 19-foot boat. Things are simple to work on, and cheaper to replace than pieces on a larger boat.
Good luck!
Check the rig and deck hardware out really good. A rig that needs alot of work or rehab will be expensive. Also the sails check them out really good. Those are the high dollar items on sailboats. These boats use alot of wood core in the decks and other areas, water intrusion usually through lack of maintenance and poor bedding of the hardware are the culprits.
