Macgregor Owner Reviews

Serving sailors online since 1997

Review of the Macgregor 65 by Lawrence

Year built	1989
Location of boat	Sod
The boat is sailed on	Open ocean
How the boat is used	Blue water, extended passages
Normal wind strength	Press here to select
Average size of crew	2-4
Liveaboard?	Yes
Owner bought the boat in	1994
If the clock could be turned back, would owner buy again?	Yes, My wife and I cruised our boat for 6 years and 30,000 miles fromthe gulf of Alaska to the top of South America, the Caribbean and eastern US. We loved the boat, it sailed itself for most of those miles. We had plenty of room for family and friends. We sailed it through all kinds of conditions and seas and never had a moments worry about the boats capacity to deal with it (we were sometimes a different story).
Gear that's been added	WHen we bought the boat it was failry loaded with air condtioning, watermaker, washer dryer and all sorts of nav gear but - ditched the washer/dryer in favour of storage- added a decent holding tank- upgraded the autopilot- turned the stove from LPG to propane (necessary for cruising)- added a dodger- added a stern arch with dinghy davits and a place for antennas, solar panels etc.
Structural or complex improvements	Stern arch as above
The boat's best features	Sails beautifully, motor sails well and motors well, all necessary if you cruise widely. It is also nice that looking at your boat as yo return to it in your dinghy is a pleasure each and every time!
Problem areas in terms of design, materials, maintenance, etc.	The windlass and autopilot as delivered were a little underspeced so we had to upgrade them. There was no decent holding tank. ANy time you get a boat to go crusing however you have to do some things to make it work.
Sailing characterisitcs	Hmmm easy to sail and handle with two people. I would probably put jiffy reefing and a stack pack on it if I were to do it again. We called it an 8 knot boat as generally we could count on averaging at least that for passages. Top speeds for us were probably around 18 knots (once or twice) when surfing but usually the autopilot drove and we depowered to keep speed below about 10 knots so she would not surf withoutus at the helm.
Motoring characterisitcs	we did 8 knots steady under most conditions with a Yanmar 110 hp
Liveability	excellent
The owner's experience in dealing with Hunter (if any)	not to much but they were supportive when we had questions.
The owner's experience with the boat dealer or broker, if any	Bought it from Don Ross and sold it through Don Ross at Heritage Yachts
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