There is a lot of discussion about yachts and everyone seems to praise their own, but what are the yachts that one should stay away from?
Bad design, workmanship, constant issues and sailability.
Up to 35 foot and merely cruising/ casual use. Any production boat built before the 2000's, since that is the majority of the boats on the water today.
#1 McGregor 26
Built terribly, rigged terribly, designed be able look to sail and motor at 20knots, do neither remotely well!!
Plus if you forget to fill the water ballast after motoring at speed, their pretty easy to flip.
Apart from that, no other production boats that rate as shocking overall to me. Plenty with bad bits (rigging, lay out etc) but nothing I'd never own at the right price
Anything based on IOR designs, unless you prefer sailing upwind or enjoy a rolly motion downwind.
Select to expand quoterumblefish said..
#1 McGregor 26
Built terribly, rigged terribly, designed be able look to sail and motor at 20knots, do neither remotely well!!
Plus if you forget to fill the water ballast after motoring at speed, their pretty easy to flip.
Apart from that, no other production boats that rate as shocking overall to me. Plenty with bad bits (rigging, lay out etc) but nothing I'd never own at the right price
thats not a yacht ! so shouldn't be on the list !! 
Select to expand quotestray said..
Anything based on IOR designs, unless you prefer sailing upwind or enjoy a rolly motion downwind.
Ahh shyte, now you've gone and done it. Stand by for thunderbolts to smite you where you stand.
Select to expand quotestray said..
Anything based on IOR designs, unless you prefer sailing upwind or enjoy a rolly motion downwind.
your wrong ! if a yacht cant sail upwind , its not a yacht
Select to expand quoteSandS said..stray said..
Anything based on IOR designs, unless you prefer sailing upwind or enjoy a rolly motion downwind.
your wrong ! if a yacht cant sail upwind , its not a yacht
I wasnt saying boats that dont sail upwind are good, more that ones that are a handfull down wind are bad.
There are plenty of boats that do both well.
Select to expand quotestray said..SandS said..stray said..
Anything based on IOR designs, unless you prefer sailing upwind or enjoy a rolly motion downwind.
your wrong ! if a yacht cant sail upwind , its not a yacht
I wasnt saying boats that dont sail upwind are good, more that ones that are a handfull down wind are bad.
There are plenty of boats that do both well.
All yachts can be a handfull down wind . It is up to the crew how big of a sail goes up the mast , its not the yachts fault if the crew puts a gigantic kite up to the mast head in 25 kts . Rolling will be be least of your probs. ............ When you get over powered in a wide ass yacht it can be just as bad.
Select to expand quoteSandS said..stray said..SandS said..stray said..
Anything based on IOR designs, unless you prefer sailing upwind or enjoy a rolly motion downwind.
your wrong ! if a yacht cant sail upwind , its not a yacht
I wasnt saying boats that dont sail upwind are good, more that ones that are a handfull down wind are bad.
There are plenty of boats that do both well.
All yachts can be a handfull down wind . It is up to the crew how big of a sail goes up the mast , its not the yachts fault if the crew puts a gigantic kite up to the mast head in 25 kts . Rolling will be be least of your probs. ............ When you get over powered in a wide ass yacht it can be just as bad.
I would much rather put up a spinnaker on a wide ass boat in 25 knots and enjoy the ride than an old IOR boat and being **** scared at the bottom of every wave..
Select to expand quoteJode5 said..SandS said..stray said..SandS said..stray said..
Anything based on IOR designs, unless you prefer sailing upwind or enjoy a rolly motion downwind.
your wrong ! if a yacht cant sail upwind , its not a yacht
I wasnt saying boats that dont sail upwind are good, more that ones that are a handfull down wind are bad.
There are plenty of boats that do both well.
All yachts can be a handfull down wind . It is up to the crew how big of a sail goes up the mast , its not the yachts fault if the crew puts a gigantic kite up to the mast head in 25 kts . Rolling will be be least of your probs. ............ When you get over powered in a wide ass yacht it can be just as bad.
I would much rather put up a spinnaker on a wide ass boat in 25 knots and enjoy the ride than an old IOR boat and being **** scared at the bottom of every wave..
of course you would in your 57 foot beast ........ a 57 foot IOR yacht could probs handle a reasonable sized kite in 25 kts also .
It's hard to generalise by talking about IOR yachts. Do you mean a 1971 S&S, a 1975 Peterson, a 1975 Farr, a 1985 Farr..... all are quite different boats.
It was interesting talking to Lou Abrahams years ago about his IOR boats. He noted that his S&S mastheader Vittoria went from being nice downwind to a pig when they cut the boom down to reduce the rating. His lightweight Dubois went from being tippy to being stable with a new keel. His point was that boats can easily be modified to change their characteristics quite dramatically.
One of my boats is a bit IOR-ish; actually she is an unusual RORC rule boat, heavily modified. Yes, she does roll downwind, but she tracks beautifully. Sure, she has a narrow stern but that means she has low wetted surface so while you lose downwind in a breeze, you don't have to pay for a big rig.
The other issue is that gear has improved a lot since IOR days. If you got a modern cruiser/racer, put a stretchy old kite hanging off stretchy guy, sheet and halyard, put up a stretchy old dacron main on an old-style vang, and then pushed it hard enough to win the Hobart some of them could have major control issues.
It's all swings and roundabouts and surely all that matters is whether the boat suits you. There was a guy near my old mooring with a Macgregor Powersailer and another at my old club, and they seemed to suit their owners.
I'd be worried about some of the Binks boats. The story of the appalling lack of care he put into the keel of Rising Farrster is a very sad tale when you think of the fact that two or three people died as a result. Some say (and this is just second hand) that Binks 11.6s have had issues. However, they are a lovely boat when those issues are fixed.
Like Chris said, depends on the boat, a 1977 Peterson 2 tonner goes uphill like you can't believe while a 1988 Farr one tonner even better a 1977 Farr 1 ton centre boarder goes downwind rock solid.
And just to confuse things, when Ultimate Challenge won it's Hobart it did had a AVS of less than 90 degrees.
Select to expand quotelydia said..
Like Chris said, depends on the boat, a 1977 Peterson 2 tonner goes uphill like you can't believe while a 1988 Farr one tonner even better a 1977 Farr 1 ton centre boarder goes downwind rock solid.
And just to confuse things, when Ultimate Challenge won it's Hobart it did had a AVS of less than 90 degrees.
Talking about unmodified production boats you would stay away from. Yes, there is always a bit of compromise in boat design, but there are boat you wouldn't touch, because all the bad just comes together not worth the risk.
Select to expand quoteSeebreasy73 said..lydia said..
Like Chris said, depends on the boat, a 1977 Peterson 2 tonner goes uphill like you can't believe while a 1988 Farr one tonner even better a 1977 Farr 1 ton centre boarder goes downwind rock solid.
And just to confuse things, when Ultimate Challenge won it's Hobart it did had a AVS of less than 90 degrees.
Talking about unmodified production boats you would stay away from. Yes, there is always a bit of compromise in boat design, but there are boat you wouldn't touch, because all the bad just comes together not worth the risk.
hunter ?
Select to expand quote
Talking about unmodified production boats you would stay away from. Yes, there is always a bit of compromise in boat design, but there are boat you wouldn't touch, because all the bad just comes together not worth the risk.
I dont think there are many that are a big red flag, but in older boats id stay away from bolt on fin keels and be wary of flimsy looking chainplates that have been glassed into the hull.
So you want to start a thread, to compile a list of vessels that members of this site potentially own that you are dissing on. And not only are you not qualifying your opinion, you don't actually appear to have one 
Select to expand quoteToph said..
So you want to start a thread, to compile a list of vessels that members of this site potentially own that you are dissing on. And not only are you not qualifying your opinion, you don't actually appear to have one
Agree. This is not a useful thread.
Select to expand quoteSandS said..Jode5 said..SandS said..stray said..SandS said..stray said..
Anything based on IOR designs, unless you prefer sailing upwind or enjoy a rolly motion downwind.
your wrong ! if a yacht cant sail upwind , its not a yacht
I wasnt saying boats that dont sail upwind are good, more that ones that are a handfull down wind are bad.
There are plenty of boats that do both well.
All yachts can be a handfull down wind . It is up to the crew how big of a sail goes up the mast , its not the yachts fault if the crew puts a gigantic kite up to the mast head in 25 kts . Rolling will be be least of your probs. ............ When you get over powered in a wide ass yacht it can be just as bad.
I would much rather put up a spinnaker on a wide ass boat in 25 knots and enjoy the ride than an old IOR boat and being **** scared at the bottom of every wave..
of course you would in your 57 foot beast ........ a 57 foot IOR yacht could probs handle a reasonable sized kite in 25 kts also .
I was not talking about my boat, I mean boats like the Youngs, Elliotts, Inglass all from the 70s and 80s My boat like many of the modern boats are a totally different kettle of fish, they don't even carry a spinnaker pole and rely on asymmetric spinnakers and Code 0s which reduces to rolls considerably.
I've done a bit of reading up on the McGregor & there seems to be two categories people love them or they hate them .
But one thing I know for sure is that they seem to retain there value a lot better than most boats .
A 2011 sells very very fast at
$50 000 .
Can't help but think that must be close to the original price new .
Can I ask have you owned one ?
Select to expand quoteactiomax said..
I've done a bit of reading up on the McGregor & there seems to be two categories people love them or they hate them .
But one thing I know for sure is that they seem to retain there value a lot better than most boats .
A 2011 sells very very fast at
$50 000 .
Can't help but think that must be close to the original price new .
Can I ask have you owned one ?
There is one for sale for 30 grand at the moment. Watch it and see if it sells. Mate was going to bring a secondhand one in on a trailer from California and use it as a trailersailer. The earlier generation ones are dead cheap there and used correctly for their designed use they would be fine. I actually passed one sailing in the river a few years ago in a light breeze. They do sail but don't appeal to me.
OK there is actually 2 McGregors for sale, one for 30 grand and the other for 29.5 grand.
Select to expand quoteToph said..
So you want to start a thread, to compile a list of vessels that members of this site potentially own that you are dissing on. And not only are you not qualifying your opinion, you don't actually appear to have one
obviously yes, own or owned. unfortunately there is no statistics in Australia and also, I cannot own and try every boat made out there.
but yes, the idea is to get a list of boats that people or prospective buyesr should STAY away from. People get hurt even today, because of people, perhaps such as you, rather start an argument about dissing boats than take it for what it is. A public vote to BENEFIT the public. I was fortunate not to own a terrible yacht yet, but they exist. On the other hand, I could give you examples of motorboats I have owned and were bad, but that's for another forum.
Select to expand quoteMorningBird said..Toph said..
So you want to start a thread, to compile a list of vessels that members of this site potentially own that you are dissing on. And not only are you not qualifying your opinion, you don't actually appear to have one
Agree. This is not a useful thread.
So, when you go out an buy your next boat, get hurt, sink, or end up spending fortunes to fix a boat, that is going to be okay with you. Because, that seems to be the case in the industry. Got a bad apple, I patch it up and sell it on with praising it and if someone gets hurt, dies, it ain't going to be my problem. But I suppose, everything is perfect in your life..
Select to expand quoteMadmouse said..
Agree. Can't end well.
God forbid, someone starts poking the S**t right?
The topic is difficult as the boundary is undefined as to what makes a bad yacht.
A bad yacht in ones eyes may be a vessel with low head in the cabin but a midget might find it fine.
And a Mac 26,,, terrible to some, eg: might look butt ugly but to others everything they've ever dreamed of.( and its not uncommon to see families out there really enjoying them)
If you contribute to the list, you need to state why you think something is terrible so any criticisms you make can be debated.
Select to expand quoteRamona said..
OK there is actually 2 McGregors for sale, one for 30 grand and the other for 29.5 grand.
Here is a Macgregor for only $6,500!! 
www.boatsales.com.au/boats/details/1960-MACGREGOR-Day-Sailer/SSE-AD-4649291/?cr=3&psq=%28%28Service%3D%5BBoatsales%5D%26Make%3D%5BMACGREGOR%5D%29%26%28%28%28SiloType%3D%5BDealer%20used%20boats%5D%7CSiloType%3D%5BDealer%20new%20boats%5D%29%7CSiloType%3D%5BPrivate%20used%20boats%5D%29%7CSiloType%3D%5BDemo%20and%20near%20new%20boats%5D%29%29&pso=0&pss=Premium
Dubois 1/2 tonner , plenty on and rock solid.
