Comments re: MacGregor fit and finish
It's been said a million times: "every boat is a compromise". The key is to know exactly what compromise you are making as you go into the deal.With MacGregor, you have a solid, proven hull and a lot of boat for the money. Depending on how particular you are, you may sail it away and be perfectly happy and never change a thing, or you may get into the details and want to make a bunch of "improvements" - that is something to decide as you look at boats, and you have to be realistic with yourself. For instance, in my case, I wanted the layout of the 26M and the ease of trailering of a Mac, and I was willing to accept that I'd want to re-wire it in a year or two. Here on these boards we grouse about the wiring, but remember there are a lot of folks out there sailing ten year old 26X's who have not had any big electrical problems.As far as the difference between 26X and 26M, you HAVE to look at both boats for yourself. They are very different inside. For me, I really like the way you can remove the table in the 26M and have a nice big "living room/lounge" area, but then you also can't look out the windows when you do put up the table - compromise, compromise. I also like the colors inside the 26M better, but the head area is less useable - again a compromise that I didn't mind making since I singlehand a lot and will rarely even use the head.As far as holding value - I think if you look at most 26X's on the market, you'll find that they seem to hold value very well.As far as Hunter and Catalina go, they are a little more pricey - but by the time you add all the "options" to the Mac, I don't think it is a huge difference. The difference is more in the layout and the trailerability. A close friend of mine has an older (1998 I think) Hunter 26, and his experiences with it definitely helped me choose the 26M. Compared to the Mac, the Hunter seems HUGE on it's trailer - it is wider and sits a lot higher, and by his report is very unstable on the road. I also found it significant that early this year when I asked a Hunter dealer why they never bring a 260 to their boat shows around New England, the dealer told me that "they could care less if they ever sold a 260" - basically, that dealer gave me the impression that they wanted to sell bigger boats and not be bothered with us small fries. Conversely, MacGregor only has one model to deal with and one "class" of clients.Finally, as others have already posted - think hard about what you plan to do with the boat. I live on the Narragansett Bay, so I could definitely have done with a used 30' or so, but my brother lives on Lake Champlain and my parents like to spend time on Adirondack lakes - in order to be able to enjoy my boat and family in all those places, I needed a trailerable and was ready to accept compromises to be able to do so.I've had my 26M for six weeks now, and had her out sailing 6 times, and each time I go out I am a bit more confident that I made the right choice of boat.- AndyS