The Macgregor 26 on its trailer. Without a fixed keel, the boat sits low on the trailer.
made to their boats. Most of these stock sailboats have limited amenities, and that leaves a lot of opportunities for the owners to customize and personalize them to meet their needs. Nearly every manufacturer of these pocket cruisers has associations whose members participate in these forums, covering such things as modifications to owners’ boats, a marine store with every imaginable gadget you can buy, resources and customizing features. There are even associations that celebrate the freedom and lifestyle that having a trailerable sailboat affords. One such site is www.trailersailor.com. I have made numerous modifications to my Macgregor 26X, Magic (see my boat review in the March 2013 issue in Sailboat Reviews at www.southwindsmagazine.com), some of which I have shared with others. I started making changes out of necessity. There was no place to store dishes
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in the galley, so I made a custom dish rack. The next thing I changed was replacing the hatch boards with a door because it was such a hassle to store the hatch boards every time I went in and out of the cabin. I live in the Northwest. You may find this hard to believe, but it rains a lot here. I had a full cockpit enclosure made to keep me out of the weather, and for just over $1000, the new enclosure doubled my living space and allows me to sail year round. The company I worked for transferred me to another state to help manage a store for them. With the expense of having a son in college at the time and having to maintain our home in Washington State, it only made good sense for me to live on Magic during the workweek and return home on the weekends to do laundry, etc. With my change in living arrangements, I decided to do more modifications to my boat. I added an Air-X wind generator and additional batteries, so I could power the Coleman refrigerator/freezer and the microwave I added through a 1000-watt inverter. Just having a self-contained vessel is empowering—and the ability to easily transport that vessel is a real plus. With the weather we have in the Pacific Northwest, once I installed the wind generator with the additional batteries, I never had to be on shore power. One evening, in my home away from home, I was watching a movie on my laptop and I sensed that something was different. I stuck my head out of the hatch and looked around and everything was dark. The power had gone out in the marina, but here I was with a cold drink in my hand enjoying all the comforts of home, and I never needed to be connected to shore power. When I arrived in Florida, I discovered that there was
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News & Views for Southern Sailors
SOUTHWINDS
October 2013
49