hunter yachts :'(

[DeepFrz]

Since when was a question a "Fact"?

[bgallinger]

Capn Billl.....Well said. Facts are facts. The rest is nothing but smoke, mirrors and hearsay.
I'm on my second Hunter (upgraded in size) and loved them both. I sail the Great Lakes and have had my share of incredible surprises with weather. Those big black squall lines normally bring winds in excess of 30 knots and my hunter 34 handles it all with ease and comfort.

[GreggL]

All,

Not sure why everyone here thinks I/we are bashing hunter. I just purchased a new hunter e33 this past season for a reason. I also have a fleet of hunter day sailers for my business, which is teaching sailing to children at a summer camp.

The question at hand with this thread was to their sailing ability and overall feel, i replied and made some comments as to it's quality in my opinion. That was not a generalization for the brand but to my personal experiences with my current vessel. My comments about quality only compared it to vessels of a different class, $-wise. IMHO you get what you pay for and apples cannot be compared to oranges; hunter cannot be compared to island packet because they're entirely different on so many levels.

I apologize if I created havoc due to my reply to the original thread question. Hunter is a great brand for those that fit with it as I do.

For anyone that would like specifics as to my issues with my current hunter, I'm happy to have a PM conversation because I certainly don't want to come off as bashing a brand, that's not my style.

Sorry for the misunderstandings!

[Cheechako]

I may have unwarranted faith in modern engineering, but I can't see a manufacturer risking everything, on what will certanly be massive lawsuits, and negative publicity over saving a few bucks during production.
I suggest you avoid having automatic faith in "modern engineering". Many things are built without much testing or engineering detail. Was it a new Ericson a few years ago that the keel broke off the boat in normal weather in the gulf? The most engineered boats in the world are probably the America's Cup boats and one of them broke in half in light airs a few years back. Do not automatically trust that the engineering happened, was based on correct assumptions etc. use your own intuition and eyes.... The lessor mistakes of marine engineering are plentiful out there, cored decks with thousands of screws penetrating, hull flexing/cracks, poor chainplate design etc.

[sarafina]

Originally Posted by GreggL

All,

Not sure why everyone here thinks I/we are bashing hunter.

Err... maybe because you said they "look like junk" and are made to be "marina queens and daysailors"?

What did you expect people to think?

[GreggL]

Originally Posted by sarafina

Err... maybe because you said they "look like junk" and are made to be "marina queens and daysailors"?

What did you expect people to think?

That was not me, nor did I start this thread. Please look back and you'll see that I only responded and have been stating throughout that there is nothing wrong with hunter, actually quite the opposite. I am a hunter owner and happy but I've had some issues I was speaking to.

[John A]

Marry the person you fall in love with.

Buy the boat you fall in love with.

Who cares what others think?

[CnC40sailor]

Originally Posted by capn_billl

One problem I have with these threads, is the same problem I see in "blue water" type threads....I see a lot of theory, but little facts.

Fact??? Has anyone direct or provable experience with a modern production boat, (even a Hunter), undergoing hull failure under extreme conditions?? Minor flexing, or cracking may be worrysome, but doesn't count unless severe enough that the boat sank.

Fact??? Has anyone had direct experience of rigging failure due to under sized rigging, (not from unresolved maintenence).

Fact??? Has anyone actual statistics of number of times fin keeled boats were rolled during breaking waves compaired to full keeled boats in same storm???

Fact?? Has anyone data that supports increased Hull failures with decreasing hull thickness associated with modern design methods?

Without facts all we have are opinions.

I may have unwarranted faith in modern engineering, but I can't see a manufacturer risking everything, on what will certanly be massive lawsuits, and negative publicity over saving a few bucks during production.

Now if I'm not mistaken, hunters are marketed as Water boats">blue water boats. Wide transoms, if not for speed is for interior size. Wide transoms are awful for bluewater boats. Compared to a rounder boat, they round up into the wind more often, developing weather helm (because more boat has been picked up out of the water) and also have a greater tendency to broach, something I have seen a few hunters do, and only on the chesapeake bay.
Most of their boats I think use polyester, which is so much more prone to blistering, creating long term problems

[Ed_Sail]

Interesting discussion. I just changed to a H38, with in mast and all the comforts and general inefficiencies. We have sailed in up to 20kts without an issue and really love the boat. We purchased her for use mainly on the Chesapeake and potentially on the east coast. I am likely a typical person on this forum in that I purchased a boat that met my current boating needs. I do not see a day when we would take of an head for the horizon and if we did it would likely be in a different boat but in the interim I will weekend in complete comfort and safety, continue to build skills and more importantly my families appetite for this lifestyle. By the way I believe most people don't embrace this lifestyle due to one or more members of the family not enjoying the experience which is mainly the sleeping, eating, cooking, sitting at anchor, and not beating into 40kts in the middle of the night. I can attest with extreme satisfaction that my wife, while seated on the very comfy stern seats drinking a coffee one Sunday morning after our first weekend away, which featured great food, friends, and freshly baked pastries, said to me 'I love this boat, even if it does not sail as well as the last one' I smiled as I was happy that she was and that we were doing 8kts at the time. Buy the boat you need for the role it will play - like many things in life perfection does not exist.

[nautical62]

When I started my last boat search, a Hunter was about the last boat on my mind. However when evaluating what was actually on the market, it seemed to offer the most for the price, so that's what I got. In today's market, I'd be happy to get 15K for her. I have a hard time faulting a boat at the value capable of provided me with some wonderful Bahamas cruising.


Having owned 4 different cruisers, here are some of the things I see as pluses and minuses of the Hunter 30:

Negatives:

1. A bit cramped - v-birth is short, hard to get past another person, hard to get around wheel, cockpit is tight - hard to add instruments like gps. - L-table is harder to get around than typical settee with midline table arrangement.
2. Thru-hulls are located under rear berth with elbow joints making them hard to access and easy to clog
3. Thu-hulls originally all backed with plywood
4. Cabin top skylights are asking for leakage
5. hard to get at water strainer and other things in very tight engine compartment, - must remove pump to change impeller.
6. Little ventilation in back bunk
   

Positives:

1. Good price for a boat of it's age and ergonomics - has more "modern" ergonomics
2. Turns very tightly
3. 4-3 draft is reasonable, though I'd have preferred shallower bilge keels
4. walk out transom with a few lockers for fins, fenders, etc.
5. sails well
6. good chain locker - no hose pipe, etc for chain to foul in

She's a coastal/island cruiser, not a blue water boat, and for what she is, I think she's a good value. I find people often fault boats, for not being something they were never intended to be. Few would fault an economy care for not being a race car. One shouldn't expect an economy coastal cruising boat to have the attributes of a blue water cruiser.

[CnC40sailor]

Gregll is not the one who has been talking about the deficiencies in hunter yachts, he is mearly admiring their strengths while admitting their weaknesses; being realistic. To even attempt to say that hunter is equal to sabre, tartan, x yachts etc shows your blatant ignorance.

[CnC40sailor]

My 1980 C&C 40 has more sail area than 45ft hunters. When my friends and I go out racing, we always blow by hunters on our way back from Annapolis (even tend to laugh). In 25kt+ winds, there is never a hunter in sight. This is either a testament to the boat itself or what the owners feel comfortable sailing the boat in.

For what they are designed for, a weekend boat/daysailor that has lots of space, I think hunter is a great boat. I didn't mean to create this thread to bag on it. I just wanted to see how realistic people were, I'm just sad to see the results (in most cases).

[KnuckleDragger]

Originally Posted by CnC40sailor

My 1980 C&C 40 has more sail area than 45ft hunters. When my friends and I go out racing, we always blow by hunters on our way back from Annapolis (even tend to laugh). In 25kt+ winds, there is never a hunter in sight. This is either a testament to the boat itself or what the owners feel comfortable sailing the boat in.

For what they are designed for, a weekend boat/daysailor that has lots of space, I think hunter is a great boat. I didn't mean to create this thread to bag on it. I just wanted to see how realistic people were, I'm just sad to see the results (in most cases).

I call BS!!! A quick google shows sail area on a stock 1980 C&C 40 to be around 750sq ft. My 38' Hunter (vertical batten furling main) is around 900sq ft. Show us a 45' Hunter with less than 750sq ft please...
BTW, my Hunter 38 has a PHRF (not that I care) of 99, about the same as yours...

[sailorboy1]

So today I sailed across Mass Bay from Salem to Provincetown. Winds 15-20 but pretty choppy out. So I put our first reef in and rolled up the head sail because we weren't really in that much a hurry. We just plugged along at 6-7.5 knots reaching. Guess that must be a poor sailing boat to some for 43' cruising boat reefed doing 6-7.5 knots (on stock 11 year old sails)!

We passed a few boats during the day going the other way (also reaching), all of which were sailing on head sails only. Guess their boats couldn't handle putting up the main.

Now I'm anchored out, cooked on the BBQ, enjoying a cold one, took a shower in our stand-up shower, plan some cards games in our nice roomy salon, then into our nice aft berth that has a queen+ bed that my wife wouldn't have to wake me up to get out of just to go pee in the night!

It is a rough sailing life but someone has to do it!

CnC40 - you know what you are full of! Your initial post here is like me calling your mother fat, ugly, slow and poor health. And there using that to say the same applies to your whole family!

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

Hy Hunter 410 sails great , is easy to handle, comfortable at sea and port, is very well constructed! In fact there is nothing about it that I would change for the size of the boat. The larger Hunters I'm sure are different than smaller ones, because there is no "lesser quality" in mine.

Other than that all this thread is just a troll to trash a boat line!

MAYBE it depends on when it was built.

Mine is a 1983, 31' (not a Cherubini).

There isn't a single leak in the entire toe rail. I think that's remarkable in a boat of that age.

I also take it as a sign of good construction.