My Sailboat Story - How I got a FREE Sailboat
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- Опубліковано 23 кві 2017
- This is the story about how I got a FREE MacGregor 26d Sailboat. I got the sailing bug about 5 months after watching some videos online of people all over the country taking off and sailing away on their own big adventures. After months of dreaming, all of the sudden, one day out of nowhere I found myself the owner of my very own sailboat... and it didn't cost me a dime.
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I just discovered your channel and you have re-kindled my old dream of owning a Mac 26! I will be binge watching starting now...
GREAT Find. Going to go check out your other vids to see what it ends up costing to get you and your family on the water.
Just watched I'm pretty sure all your video's. I'm much like yourself and have been hooked on these sailing channels and my kids are like yours they come out on the porch to see what I'm doing and have the same reaction yours do! Haha... I have not even sailed yet but have friends that have boats so I hope to take a ride and I'm sure I will have a boat by next season... unfortunately for me I like in KY and don't have access to open water. But plan to sail the lakes around here and learn the ropes or should I say sheets:) glad I found your channel, can't wait till the next episode. Good luck with it all...
Have a great time with it! We have sailed a Mac26X down on the gulf for years and years. Recently sold it. Keep in mind this is not by any means an offshore boat. Flat bottom and high freeboard will pound you to death lol. Close to shore with calm seas it's a great cheap option.
Mastiff Comms no intentions of going off shore. Just something to learn on and take the family on vacation for a few days on some of the bigger lakes maybe even the cape cod Bay Area once I've become more of a polished sailor. Thanks for watching!
I just found your channel & really like ya style & the honesty in you mannerisms
Great score on the sailboat. I own a 1988 MacGregor 26 D and absolutely love it.
+Ken Steinman that's always great to hear! Can't wait to get her in the water!
You hit the lottery with this one, so to speak. Good luck with it. I'll be binge watching to catch up.
Congratulations!!!
What a nice story!
major score! - I bought a similar power boat last year and am looking for a similar sailboat in Nova Scotia - gave you your first thumbs up!
Phil H thanks!!! The more it gets cleaned up the more I can't believe I paid nothing for it. Everything just lined up, Me and this girl were destined to be together.
OMG, GOOD FOR YOU!!!
That's amazing! Thanks for the love we're so happy to have inspired you to get your own sailboat! Excited for the new adventures she'll bring to your family, she should be a great learner and seems like you found her for the right price. Where are you from in MA? We are still very much on that way of life you mentioned, saving all our dimes to get back on the water full time VERY soon!
Wicked Salty lol! I can't believe you guys ended up seeing this! That's great! Yes I am very excited to learn the ropes on this boat and eventually do some 3 or 4 day week-end adventuring! Full time on the water in a big boat seems like a nice goal for when the kids are grown up and an I'm dying for an early retirement. We live out in western mass in a little hill town called Huntington, just east of Berkshire county. There's some good size lakes within driving range, then out in your direction there's buzzards and cape cod Bay I'd love to get out on, and not to mention we also have the Hudson River about an hour in the opposite direction which gives us access to anywhere! Thanks so much for stopping by and your comment, it made my day! Maybe I'll see you guys out there in the New England waters at some point and you can show me a few tricks! Can't wait to watch your next adventure too, I've been chomping at the bit for a new wicked salty video!
Wicked Salty! Love! I am building #openSourceYacht now in Indonesia.
2:10 😅
I get this myself often 🤣. Much fun to watch 👏👏
Free Boat!!! You'll love it! We are out of Georgian Bay. Best fresh water sailing in the world!
Yes! I really do love it! Thanks for watching!
Go haed!
Good luck,and nice wind´s...
Greetings from Ireland delighted for you,all best many years happy sailing
Top of the morning to you John!!!!
Congratulations!
Thank You John!
I know this is an old video but just like you tubers were responsible for your boat, you sir are responsible for mine I just acquired a 1974 macgregor 224 from a friend for free. So thanks alot! Oh and also thanks alot.
What a great score...
+Vw Rosstorations, I think so too! Sure is keeping me busy!
Interesting. Looking forward to seeing it in the water.
+Ray Kelly please check out all my videos! The last one is what you’re looking for!
Well done buddy, myself and partner are looking for a sailing yacht over in europe. Looking forward to seeing your project unfold :D
Wanderlust - Dave & Jana thanks! I can't wait to see what she looks like in the water!
Cool story
plz keep on posting we too are looking for the 1st boat be cool if it was a so called free boat, good luck want to see you do fix up and more ty
Thanks for watching richard!
HI !! It's funny that you mention WIKED SALTY because I did the same thing as you , I started watching them mainly because they are local and got hooked, but always the first thing I do after watching sailing videos in you-tube is go and check craigs list and see what's out there in my $$$ range ...lol good luck with your boat and if you keep posting i'll keep watching
ricardo rodriguez thanks Ricardo! Be careful, you keep that routine up and you could end up with a big ass boat in your back yard! Lol.
LOL ....hum...??? maybe that's why every family member and friend keep trying to discourage me and tell me that I'm crazy.....!!!??? since I live in an apartment I'm beginning to think they just don't want to lend me their back yard...!!! lol
ricardo rodriguez Yeah man! I cannot wait to tell my family, I wanna become a sailor just wanna see their faces 😁😁😁⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️👍
Ninjuk you'll probably get the encouragement talk from your parents, you know the one...!! like... what's wrong with you ? don't you watch the news ???!!!... what about hurricanes ?, and rouge waves ?, tsunamis ? and pirates ? and killer wales attacking sailboats ? and sharks attacking sailboats ? and what if you get lost or stranded in the middle of the ocean ? what happens if you get seriously hurt and there's nobody there to help you ?... and when you offer your point of view on how you envision your sailing life it's going to be , you know ... sunny beaches .tropical islands meeting new people, beautiful starred night sky , warm weather, fishing,..etc.. etc ... they'll change the conversation and pretend they can't hear you ...LOL
ricardo rodriguez hahaha! so true...I think it's always happens when you want get out from the crowd and break the rules
I love seeing the kid jumping up and down - they grow up fast - mine are taller than me now.
+Gray Sailor I am experiencing this already! I went from knowing all the words to micky mouse to being a minecraft expert pretty quit.
Well - welcome to the sailing life! You'll find sailors are the oddest ducks in the pond, but by and large we are a group of do it yourselfer's who are quick to lend a buddy a hand.
I have to agree with Tim. You got the best model MacGregor made. The 26D got the dagger board and water ballast while retaining the original sailboat hull shape. The X and M models which came after had the water ballast but moved to a new hull shape more like a powerboat that let them use big, 50 HP engines to get on plane and go really fast under motor power. The new hull shape significantly reduced their speed under sail.
My boat is a 1975 MacGregor 25 which has a similar hull shape but uses a 1,500 pound swing-keel to achieve stability under sail instead of the water ballast. I just bought the boat three months ago to replace my 1981 Mac25. It needed a good cleaning similar to your boat, and I plan several upgrades including a home-built version of the MacGregor self-raising mast system. I plan to sail it a few times near my home, then trailer it to the Florida Keys for some longer term boat camping of maybe a week or two at a time. If the boat proves reliable, I'd like to go to the Bahamas in the latter part of this summer if possible. I'd like to spend at least two months sailing around the Bahamas next summer.
If you'd be interested in sailing together, my email is Sciencelookers@aol.com Neither of us knows a whole lot about sailing our boats. Mistakes will be made. It might be safer for two or more boats to go together so we can rescue each other when the situation calls for it. Your boat could be trailered to Florida in a couple of days. I plan to launch from Biscayne national park, or Bahia honda state park here in Florida. This is a short days drive from my home near cape canaveral. Anyone else with a similar sized boat interested in sailing together this summer is welcome to email me and discuss the possibility.
Sounds like a great time James! Not sure it will happen this summer though. Still lots to do and me and my wife both work full time and have 2 kids. That kind of trip would take some extensive planning. Perhaps sometime in the future though! I would LOVE to go down there and sail around the Florida Keys!!!
Happy days man
That's what I'm talking about bro!!!
Not a bad deal right?
Just sold my M26S they are nice boats. You did well.
Paul Kayak thanks for watching!
Just happened to get an 89 macgregor 26d for free off of Craigslist as well. Super happy I found this series that's literally about my exact situation.
Oddly enough the previous owner bought it new as well and left it parked for 15 years till I picked it up haha
+Jason Stuck that’s pretty crazy! Now you just need to make a UA-cam channel to help fund the project! At least you can see everything I do wrong so you don’t repeat the same mistakes! Lol. Thanks for watching and keep my posted about how your D is coming along!
Hello, so I caught that same sailing bug about mid summer this year. I met some folks at Indian Lake here in Ohio. They had taken a sabbatical from their careers back in the late eighties and cruised a 30 Catalina through the Great Lakes and down the ICW around the Keys and to the Bahamas then back North through the lakes and down the Mississippi to New Orleans. Their trip was a little over 3 years. They kept a journal and turned it into a book called Living Aboard The Robin Lee. I started reading it and got hooked. I was doing the same as you, watching UA-cam and scouring Craigslist. I too found a free boat, a 22' Catalina 20 minutes from home. Fortunately I missed it being the second caller. Yes, I said fortunately. Though disappointed at the time, I kept searching CL and FB marketplace and found a 1986 Mac 25 with a swing keel near Cincinnati. It was not free, in pretty good shape. I ended up selling old dump truck I no longer needed and put the cash toward boat. So since it was a wash in my mind, it was free. Lol. I'm looking forward to cleaning it up over the winter and learning to sailing at the lake next season. We joined the sailing club over there and should have plenty of help learning.
+Geoff Rigney that’s awesome! Sounds like a good deal! I like the concept of the swing keel over the daggerboard Incase you have a brain fart and forget to pull it up in shallow water. Best of luck to you, keep me posted, I like seeing everyone’s progress.
Keep us un tow wanna see you bring it to life I subbed
CC Rocker will do. Working on a couple episodes today. Patrons get them first and will be public in a couple days!
You did great
Thanks!
Man that is a sweet deal!! Looks like it was meant for you.
Nerd3927 thank you! I can't wait to get her in the water!
Livin the dream mate!
+Mostyn Gale something like that! Haha thanks for watching!
You did well...very well indeed. I'm another "Dollar Sailboat Guy", mine being a 1993 Com-Pac 16. No UA-cam videos, but you can Google "Compac Foundling" for the whole lowdown and pix of her weeds-to-water over on the Com-Pac Yacht Owners Association forums. As it happens, I also have a Macgregor--a 2001 26X. In fact, it was while rehabbing her in the state park boat lot I keep her in that I kept seeing that poor forlorn Com-Pac: clearly untouched for more than a decade, being engulfed by vines, cabin wide open and sails strewn through the cockpit. Just the prettiest little sailboat who'd fallen on bad times...just a sad composty mess. Finally, I contacted her owner and Bingo!: There's your Dollar Boat. After about a year's fussing with this and that, I got her back into the water for the first time maybe since the '90s a couple of weeks ago, and she acquitted herself like a real lady.
As for your Mac, you would do well to disregard naysayers and other trollery who may belch up here. You got your family what may very well turn out to be a perfect little boat for your needs. You know those "winter boat blues" you describe? Yeah, well next Christmas you could hitch up that comfy but super easy to tow 26D and be in the Florida Keys in a couple-few days...What's the hurry? Use it as a camper on the way. And those snotty Sailor Sailor Joe types with their big manly salty blue watery heavy keels dissing our Macs? Yeah...We probably won't be seeing them there, unless they set off in maybe late summer.
I'll be following your channel with great interest. Although you've likely stumbled across it by now, to help you make your Mac all she can be, you should check out the MacGregor and Tattoo Sailors forums. You would do well to especially check out postings and mods by a fellow named Sumner. He's sort of like our Obi Wan, especially for folks with "Classic Macs" like yours.
See you out there!
BilgemasterBill wow great comment bill!! I'm going to have to rea read it a few times to pull out all that info. I will definitely check out your restoration project. And while I have lurked around in the shadows of the forums a little bit, I'll dig a little deep to find this old Ben Kanobi you speak of! Sounds like a wealth of invaluable information there. Thanks again for watching and for your comments!
How good dose your little truck pull it?
I just found your videos. How long have you been working on the boat?
+Ken Steinman since May I think
Cool ass freeboat.....more vids please...I'm starting a 15.5 Vanguard this week for a c note
Marty Handley awesome! Thanks and good luck with your project. Sounds like you have your hands full too!
jammy JAMMY .. Well done good days ahead FAIR WINDS
You are going to need a mastgate.
That is a very spacious boat for a family.
Best wishes.
Are the trailer box sections treated with an internal wax? Have you stripped, checked, regreased the wheel bearings? It is a tragedy to see a broken trailer or one with a seized wheel bearing, just because the owner was thinking 'boat'
Not sure what you mean by “box sections” but yes the bearings are all packed and I even rewired the lights and replaced the bunks with new pressure treated lumber.
Wicked Salty Rules!
Uncle Bob yea they do! Can't believe all they accomplished on that journey. Hope they get back out there soon so we can see more!
Out of Curiosity, How much was the original price?
I think the PO bought it for $14,000 in 1991
interesting project--sure would be easier to follow if you somehow numbered the
episodes so we can see them in order--too late now after you name them??
+SailorAllan if you go to my channel page and click playlist it will play them all in order. I can go back and add numbers too in a a little bit for you.
All set for you.
does it float
Yes it floats. 🙄
You got the Deal of a Lifetime.
+Life Needs Adventure thanks! Still can't believe its was $0.00!
I know. It's hard to believe. But it happens.
I've always wanted a sailboat..but...can't afford to buy one.
You'll be amazed at what a magic eraser does
We used that inside a lot!
Sailing FreeStyle cleaned my entire hull and deck as well, boat was a nastybmess from sitting outside unattended for 6yrs
I wish someone will give me a Catamaran for Free. My wife and I are drooling to live in and sail one. May be one day ;D
Well it could be your new toy or your new headache
Difinately a new toy. Even boat head aches are better than a good day at work.
Looks like a duplicate comment to my one just below posted, so I'll take this opportunity of editing it out and instead pointing to this great resource for Macgregor sailors of all types: www.macgregorsailors.com/. They'll help you make you Mac everything you've hoped for.
BABY WIEGHT STILL ON, WHAT A SHAME FOR YOU DUDE!! OLD ONE LEGGED JOSEPH T.