Thread: Mac Boats

Anyone here own a Mac boat or know much about them? I am thinking of upgrading my Haines Hunter v163 for something a bit easier to manage on my own and even perhaps beach launch

You will find the mac heavy and the hulls flex and are very wet , stick with the haines and repower with a 90 4str and set your trailer up for beach launching .But I own a haines and live in the land of haines hunter [titahi bay] most of us run dodgers on the 70s hulls hence the name dodger city . Just make sure the transom is ok , the 163s go like a raped ape with a 140 on the back . If want pontoon go alloy , much lighter and easy to weld bits on .

Family friends had a 570 for quite a few years and spent a bit of time in it fishing mainly out of Moeraki, I always thought it was a nice ride compared to any of the alloy pontoons I've been in (mainly Stabis) maybe that flex was partly a benefit? It did move a bit of water in the front coming into a wave so could be a bit wet, they are nice and quiet at rest compared to alloy boats, quite low freeboard and a big following sea feels a little insecure but lots of alloy boats similar design. Good units the Haines, unbeatable ride, but if I was going to do a lot of drift fishing or fishing on anchor I'd definitely look at a more stable hull I've only ever been seasick a couple of times and both times in a bloody Haines! Lol

I had a small Mac and it weighed a ton but was stable alright.

@Hunter595 How large are you looking? My Brother used to swear by the Macs and still has one he will never part with, and I have a 3.6 which is really a dinghy. Both are great boats. Very quiet as mentioned above and I believe the latter ones have a better hull shape than the earlier ones. If you are after smaller sizes, the smart waves fit into the same category and are also very stable. My brother got these as tenders / dinghy's for when he did not want to launch the 4.7. I grew up woth Ali boats 9 fyrans mostly) and a couple of ply ones that dad owned, but the plastic is the only way I would go next time. It is the right size for my use, and I like the quiet. It suits me.

Mate has a Mac 420 which I dive off occasionally. It's stable, but wet. Beamy, certainly has a lot of space for the size of boat. Trying to say something useful about how it rides, but does any boat of that length ride well? Guess it's all relative. Haven't been in that many small boats to compare.

I,d repeatwith the comments above about weight.They are heavy so you need more ponys to get them to plane,and they sit very low in the water off the plane.For stability the 3.6m model I,ve got experience with had a floodable ballast transome,but should you really need that feature if it was designed correctly?

Thanks for the feedback, my Haines has a near new 90 hp merc 2 stroke, done less than 10 hours, it’s a good boat but just musing about something different.
I was thinking either a 3.6 or a 4.2, but maybe I will stick with what I have

They used to use the 570 Macs in Rarotonga as dive boats. All of them got retired due to splits in the hulls I believe. All that flexing had to come with a downside.
This might not be an issue in a boat that only gets used a few times a year, but when they were used multiple times a day, every day, the flaws really showed themselves.
I've used them a few times, and they are definitely wet, require a lot of HP for the hull length, and ride poorly compared to a well designed fiberglass or alloy hull.
Cannot comment on the smaller models, as I've not used them.
We exclusively beach launch, and you'd be surprised the size of some boats people launch single handedly with the club tractor.

I thought they were pretty tough but rough handleing my 270 off the back of my truck cracked mine which was repaired but took a few goes

very heavy for their size so they need a lot more power

they will keep floating if you dont tie them to something
mine ended up out to sea after the tide took it out of the harbour and across the bay
luckly small town so it found its way back

The smartwaves are a better design than mac imo. Or just go ali. Any number of awesome ali options in that size range

Go 4.2, the 3.5 are pretty small.

Originally Posted by Nick-D

The smartwaves are a better design than mac imo. Or just go ali. Any number of awesome ali options in that size range

Go 4.2, the 3.5 are pretty small.

My neighbour has the 4.2 , they are a much better boat than the mac 420 a mate owned

I suggest you Google Geoff Preston of Mokau fame. He is a keen MAC man. Met him at the beach after a fish. Man he can catch huge snapper. Bloody interesting to talk to albeit briefly because he was off to Hamilton to weigh in the fish in a big comp which incidentally he won by a country mile.

https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/mok...opic85554.html

https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/topic132249.html