Macgregor Owner Reviews

Serving sailors online since 1997

Review of the Macgregor 36 by Dana Simmons

Year built	1982
Location of boat	Atlanta/Marietta Georgia USA
The boat is sailed on	Lakes
How the boat is used	Weekends and longer
Normal wind strength	10-15 knots
Average size of crew	solo
Liveaboard?	No
Owner bought the boat in	2010
If the clock could be turned back, would owner buy again?	Yes, I would buy it again. I love it! I need to install the autopilot since I sail just a little bit over 50% of the time solo. Being so big, I never worry about how many people show up. The smooth, most of the time dry, ride is way better than expected. My bench mark is 20 years on a NACRA 5.2, so speed is expected and it delivered.
Gear that's been added	AutoPilot - Still need to finish installing. GPS/Sonar/Fishfinder - Still need to finish installing. I sail instead of work. Lol!
Structural or complex improvements	The plywood in a few spots was soft. Cut it out and replaced. Since neither marine or aircraft wood is treated, it was all treated, sealed in thinned resin, and fiberglassed in areas. Since 99% of it is still in great shape, she should be fairly maintance free as she has been so far. The floor was raised about 1.5" with white oak, but the extra width of about 4-5" came in nice. Since sailing is more fun than work, that is what I do. The biggest work is the trailer. Added 4 Kodiak Vetilated disc brakes, Panhard Rods, Town Car aluminum mag wheels (-37lbs), and use a plasma cutter to wittle of excess (-300lbs and counting).
The boat's best features	Best part? ... smooth ride that is dry most of the time. Room for as many people as you want. A dry place to keep your stuff. SPEED! Not having to crawl under the boom. Not having to be Mongoose quick to shift weight or let out the sheet. Not being so prone to flipping. Never raised a hull to date, not for a lack of the wind trying trying from sudden 35-45mph substained winds. Being able to sleep overnight, and continue sailing in the morning. It gets attention everywhere you go! It feels so solid.
Problem areas in terms of design, materials, maintenance, etc.	A single motor makes thinking ahead very improtant especially when docking. Set up is still just over 4 hours. I am still working to get it under 4. It has been done solo in 4 hours, but that was with someone younger than me. I have set it up solo a few times to be a good host. It does not pinch the wind as well as my NACRA. But I need more time with the Jib vs the Genoa to see if can do better. The Genoa can be a pain in strong winds on tacking due to the sheet pumping in and out so much till you can get it onto a winch snug. About 5% of the time a sheet gets snagged on something from the wind whipping it around ... only when the wind is up. So once in while someone has to stand up to clear it. Lol! To easy most of the time. The genoa seems to know like a rat how to run the maze of rigging. Guest like to watch it in amazement as it weaves through the shrouds and stays.
Sailing characterisitcs	The wind for me is either 35-45mph and I am short handed, or it is light to medium to measuring speed by inches. Just bad luck as I have not seen such in 20 years on my NACRA. Being caught with the Genoa up in such winds is SCARRY. But nothing happened. Just kept her pointing tight to the wind and used the helm to adjust power. Finally I got the 20-22mph steady winds I wanted and she was getting light on one side. The Navy man who said he knew how to sail, could not, so that is a lot of power solo with full sails. She sails very easily with the Jib and does not lose much speed in light winds. But for really easy sailing, hoist up the Baby Jib on the Baby Stay and you still get good speed, but with the drive down lower and tacking is so effortless. I think it could be rigged to auto tack with the sheet length adjusted just right (Next sail I give it a try :)) Both the Jib and Baby Jib make tacking much easier (less work) as it keeps the force forward of the daggerboards to help pull the front around. If your speed is low, it helps to let the traveler out about 1/3 to 1/2 way over. If you do get stuck, it is MUCH easier than a NACRA. Simply force the boat to stay into the wind, and soon you will be making a wake from going backwards, then kick the rudder over and she will back the rear around till you have the wind on the side again. In seconds you will be going forward again. The rudders have a dead spot depending on the wind. They do NOTHING. Then once over say 2mph in a 15mph wind, they suddenly start working. Go figure. In light winds they always work. My NACRA was never a problem. If the boat moved, the rudders worked. She is neutrally ballanced, so that is not it. Once I got a day or two sailing her, I learned what makes her happy tacking and avoided such. 99% of the time it was from an unexperiance crew person at the helm. Everything seems to happen very slow in comparison to the NACRA. While the top speed is very similar, the acceleration is MUCH slower. The sail area per pound is less, but the speed is there from the long hulls. Oveall, I find her like most catamarans to be very easy to control and once you get a little. The steering is very precise and small movements in the helm make equally small adjustments. The NACRA was never that precise at holding a heading. This makes keeping her on course very easy. The helm is very light. My 11 year old daughter can easily steer her. Ummm ... to be honest, it is about as light as my NACRA. One advantage of the M36 over the NACRA is that she does not loose speed in the waves. As a joke I have started putting out a glass of water and a picture of my wife out. So far they have not fallen or spilt a drop including when the front launched about 5' into the air off a large set of waves. To be honest about 2 more like that the picture frame would have tipped. But you get the idea. SMOOTH! FLAT! Just like the engineering people on the net say, 5.5 degrees is about all you will get out of her and then she lifts a hull. That is FLAT! They say heavily loaded it is 7 degrees. Still flat. We use lounge chairs till they hang off the back on the safety lines through them like flags hanging off the back. Lol! Then we put them away. That happens on giant beach cats as they create their own wind. On downwind jibing she is sooo easy. My NACRA shut down and stopped generating her own speed when you let the weather vane get past 90 degrees. The M36 keeps driving, but it does start loosing speed. There is no sudden break. Simply it is very forgiving. Mabe that is part of a Genoa Vs a partial sloop jib. I have two regretts on this boat. 1. I wish I had a good crew when the wind hit 35-45mph. The waves were non existant (for this size boat) and a reef or two with the Baby Jib up would have shown us her true potential. Everything was perfect except for the man power to do it. 2. I was young enough that such an easy to sail boat was not hard. Lol!
Motoring characterisitcs	With the solo engine on one side, the previous owner was in misery. Simply it was often uncontrollable. As a pilot, I know that twin engine aircraft are often lethal when they loose an engine. But when engineers point the engines in some, that reduces the nastiness a bit. So I tried ~10 degrees and then ~5 degrees. Both work well and the speed was identical. 9mph with a 28hp Johnson and a planning prop. It is bogged down and needs a “work boat” prop bad, but we only use it in wake zones and getting out of a bay for most of the time and just don’t care. With the engine angled, it does ventilate more easily, but reduce throttle or rudder angle will almost always prevent or cure it once it starts. You have to do something to start it. She has very little turning power to the engine side till the speed is up, so we always dock with that in mind. Of course when coasting in, she is neutral. Bottom line, it really is not that bad with asymmetrical thrust if you angle the engine in some. I would HIGHLY recommend 10-15 degrees till you get the feel of it. It looks like it would kill your speed, dragging the motor sideways, but GPS consistently says it does not.
Liveability	I have no problem spending over a week on board. My family of 4 sleeps fine in one hull only. One friend likes to set a tent up on the tramps. My wife likes honeymoon close, but I prefer a little more room, so sometimes we turn our feet toward each other with a little overlap with plenty of room due to the ~11’ length. Our kids are 11 and 8 so they fit fine sharing the 8’ rear berth. We cook on deck, but can in the kitchen if weather make such necessary. Sometimes we sleep at anchor, but I prefer to beach when I can. Just like MacGregor said, she will typically beach the front while the rear is still clear ~+18” that it needs. I still consider her to be a day sailor or weekender. Longer stays don’t bother me, but for most people, I feel they need more room. I always make sure we get hikes in and food on land to break things up. It is snug inside, and it works for me, but not everyone for long sails.
The owner's experience in dealing with Hunter (if any)	They will NOT talk to you about this B@... child.
The owner's experience with the boat dealer or broker, if any
Other comments	Sadly the MacGregor is for sale. My X has litigated child custody for 7 years and we have about 6 more to go. Money needs to be wasted on lawyers as I love my daughter more than the boat. She is the only one, or only one of two MacGregor M36 Catamarans with an expandable trailer. She is ready to sail today. See U tube with a “MacGregor 36 Catamaran” search. The video has a lead thumbnail right now of my Town Car used to tow it. I love to watch X40 and AC45 race catamrans action. I think of these M#^ Cats as 90% of the fun for about $460,000 less than a used X40 much less a AC45 and about 4' less length. And I can sleep overnight and our beer never spills. She does not burry the nose trying to pitchpole, and you have to work at it to raise a hull. Also watch the real numbers on these boats in action. They don't hit thoese speeds they brag about.

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