Alexandria Seaport Foundation

Iain Oughtred Designed

MacGregor Sailing Canoe

The name pays direct homage to John "Rob Roy" MacGregor, a Scottish lawyer who built a 15-foot oak and cedar canoe named Rob Roy in 1865. He traveled 1,000 miles across the rivers and canals of Europe and wrote a massive bestselling book about it. Iain Oughtred’s 20th-century redesign took that romantic concept of a go-anywhere solo cruising boat and used modern materials to cut the weight in half, turning it into a true high-performance sail-and-paddle vessel.

The modern MacGregor designed by Oughtred is a highly capable, double-paddle "double-ender" canoe that can be paddled like a kayak but carries a sailing rig beautifully.

Oughtred designed it to be a more stable, "beamier" sister to his ultra-light Wee Rob canoe. While the Wee Rob is an excellent paddling boat, the MacGregor’s extra width gives it the initial stability required to handle a decent gust of wind without immediately tipping over.

Key Specifications

Length Overall (LOA): 15' 8"
Beam (Width): 2' 7" (31 inches)
Weight: ~40 lbs (unrigged, making it incredibly portable)
Lug Yawl / Cat-Ketch Rig: A main lug sail and a smaller mizzen sail at the stern totaling about 57 sq. ft.
Leeboard: Because it’s a canoe, it doesn't use a heavy fixed keel or a traditional centerline daggerboard casing. Instead, it uses a removable side-mounted leeboard to prevent drifting sideways when sailing close to the wind.

The MacGregor occupies a perfect sweet spot for wooden boat enthusiasts. It’s small enough to store in a standard garage and car-top onto a vehicle by yourself, yet seaworthy enough to handle coastal estuaries, large lakes, and breezy evening sails.

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