I’m a dinghy girl. Give me a laser any day (errr … I guess that’s a catboat for purposes of ‘favorite rig’). Seeing that I’m in grad school and owning a boat isn’t an option, I’ve had to bum rides off of anyone that will take me - mostly I’m on J22s (sloop rig).
Nice boat. Love the long lines.
I guess you don’t bother with a spinnaker then, eh? 
I suppose my boat could have been called a ‘sailing dinghy’. It’s only 12’ long. When I was thinking of painting it and giving it a name I thought Leviathan would be appropriate. 
Or, I thought about painting it grey and calling it Dory In Grey. Or maybe, whatever colour, Funky Dory.
I saw a bumper sticker a while ago: ‘I drives me boat. Me wife drives me dinghy.’
Quick boat! Race much?
Hobbies are fun to sail and show off. Hardly a comfortable ride though. I’d almost rather windsurf.
The macgregor 26 is a good boat. Water balast, right? I’ve heard of blistering problems but that may be in the early models.
I know that Hunter makes a really nice and very roomy 19’ day sailer. I’ve seen it once in action. Looked very functional and trailerable.
I am fondest of the center cockpit ketch. Having the cockpit in the center makes for some good layouts below. But that’s only when I have a full compliment of crew. I’m a bareboater, so I don’t have my own yet, but I’ve sailed alot of different boats. I sure think the Schooner rigs are pretty, but not quite set up for single handed sailing. So, my purchase will most likely be a sloop. But really, the Center cockpit ketch is pretty easy too. I usually just set the mizzen, give it very little travel, and leave it be, so it’s essentially a pretty sloop. If need be, I can pay attention to the mizzen at my leasure after I come about. Anything gaff rigged is just too much work (But they sure do look perrrdy)
On preview, I see OldBroad nailed it, ya can’t beat the simplicity of a sloop. Things have a tendancy to break if they get too complicated. (Plus, I really like her step stern)
If you can’t keep those straight you’ve got bigger problems and it’s probably not safe to sail with you.
I think I’ll sail with Johnny instead. At least I know he can tell the difference!
I think it’s water ballast. I’ve seen a bunch of them up here. The woman who bought my sprit rig is waiting for her (or her SO’s) new MacGregor to be delivered.
Trailerable is good. Birch Bay is a tidal flat, so you can’t sail half the time – and you need a dinghy to go to your boat when the tide is in or else wade through the water to it. But plans are still to move to L.A. No matter what boat I get, storage will be a problem. Or maybe not; just expensive. The larger the boat, the more expensive it is to keep – and I’d rather put money into an airplane or helicopter. Between the MGB and the Triumph (if I decide to keep the Herald), the motorcycle, filmmaking and flying, would I really use a larger boat? A small sloop would probably suffice. But it would be nice to sleep over on the boat, have something I can dive from, and have a place to hang out with friends.
Typical female. Always looking for a bigger boat.
Exclusively racing, these days. I grew up sailing sunfish and hobies on a small lake with no racing. That gets a little boring after several years but even that beats not sailing at all. Wanting to learn to race and needing to bum rides if I want to sail has been a wonderful match. I can crew compentantly but have a ton to learn. The J22 is a great boat - big enough to reward competant crewing and teamwork but small enough to sail by feel and utilize all of the small boat skills.
Its a Robert Perry design - one of his “sleds”. Has only a 12’ beam so it really looks longer than its 43’. It’s fast and sails well.
And it came with a spinnaker but we’ve not had it up yet. Pervious owner used it traveling from San Fran to Houston, but I’m almost afraid of having to deal with it. We’ve got this big ol’ whisker pole stowed on the front of the mast that is intimidating all by itself.
It is now 8 months and counting until retirement and move aboard time.
Sloop.
We had a Mac 26 a couple of years ago. Decent starter boat, we really didn’t have any trouble with it. Yes, it is water ballast.
I don’t know when we plan on getting our next one, probably not until my youngest son is out of High School, but I’m sure it will most likely be a bermudan sloop and at least 40’.
I used to crew on my uncle’s C&C 30, and I really liked it, but it’s not a roomy boat by any means. Now he’s got a First 40.7 (designed by Farr, I believe).
BTW, my nickname on the C&C was “Ballast”. He’s got a much more experience crew now…
Hey, I crewed out of Etobicoke Y.C. for a couple of years in the early 90’s. We raced the C&C 34’s. Great experience and very competitive. The skippers were all high strung, type A personality, Capt. Bligh type bastards. Some races were just stress from the moment you stepped foot on the boat to the moment you stepped foot in the bar.
Yeah, like staying dry and in the boat. 
Consider it a spare fending pole.
<envy smiley>
I was crewing out of RCYC. I know what you mean about the skippers. My uncle is the exact opposite, although he is somewhat type A. He has a brass plaque that he’s moved from boat to boat: “Quiet please. We’re racing.”
On one memorable occasion, we’re just about to come around for the downwind leg, the spinnaker’s ready to go, and we’ve got two guys grinding like hell on the winches. I don’t know how it happened, but I looked around just as one of them pulled up on the winch handle (don’t know why), lost his grip, and it went flying off into the drink.
My uncles response? He glances at the water, looks at the guy and says “You owe me one winch handle.” I almost dropped the spinnaker pole I was laughing so damn hard. The other boats must have thought we’d gone bonkers, 8 people doing their level best to get a spinnaker up, all laughing fit to bust.
Yeah… good times…
Given that I’m used to little boats, I’m always suprised when people come to sail in clothes that won’t dry quickly. They seem to forget that it’s a water sport. And hiking out doesn’t require any of these … what are they … life lines?
Our first boat (as a married couple - hubby owned several before we met) was a 1937 wooden gaff-rigged cutter. Sailed like a pig, but a heck of a first boat. Then we owned a couple of sloops, a Hobie 16, a Newport 30, and finally this, our current vessel. It’s a Fisher 37 motor sailer ketch. Personally, I prefer sailing a sloop. In fact, I’m half-heartedly looking for another Newport 30…