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AirBoyzT · 26-10-2012, 23:51

As mentioned before this will be my first boat.....choices are a friends 1978 O'Day 25, Tiller/Outboard or this Hunter I found. The Hunter is a lot closer and only a couple hundred more. Buddy wants $4700 for O'Day (Sorry no link), they want $5,000 for this Hunter. I don't plan on going to Bermuda or anything, the most I would do is go to the bahamas and around that area (years from now)...

1979 Hunter Sailboat Sail Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

I appreciate the feedback!
-Aaron

fgd3 · 27-10-2012, 00:36

The old Hunter 27 was a famously poor sailing boat. Go with the ODay.

Fabbian

michellepinto · 27-10-2012, 01:58

The O'Day is faster than the hunter.

Ocean Cowbuoy · 27-10-2012, 02:02

Inboard diesel (and a great brand of engine at that) plus wheel steering. You will cruise a lot more comfortably in the hunter. cruising means motorsailing a lot of times so I wouldn't get hung up on sailing speed unless this purchase is just to bang around the race course on Wednesday nights

dianaofburlingt · 27-10-2012, 20:08

I would go with the Hunter; but then again, that's me.

I looked at several Yanmar-powered H27s before buying my H25. The Yanmar conversion is worth about $12,000 if it's still got the Renault, so this boat is a bargain. The major improvements of the H27 over the more daysailer-friendly H25 include: lav sink in the head; chart-desk area suitable for adding a 'fridge underneath; bigger galley; wheel steering; inboard engine.

The 3'3" shoal-draft ones are fabulously underperforming. They were made on the request of the two biggest Hunter dealers of that time, Havre de Grace, MD (where this one, doubtlessly, is from) and Brick, NJ, both shallow river deltas leading into famously shallow bays. If the boat you're looking at is a 4'0" draft, it will surprise you. First, the deep keels are rare-- maybe one out of 8 or 10. Second, the long near-vertical leading edge is a boon going upwind. Most people who complain about the H27's performance are referring (perhaps without realizing it) to the shallow-draft model. Shallow draft is never preferable for seakindliness and pointing ability.

The biggest drawback to the H27 is the confounded mid-boom sheeting arrangement. The boat should have had a bridge deck, even a narrow one, on which to mount the traveler. Tiller-steering and earlier boats have a traveler aft of the rudder head. This conflicts with a seated helmsman at the wheel and so a decision was made (by Hunter marketing, not my dad) to put the A-frame sheetline on the cabintop. On a boat this small, this makes little sense. The sheeting point is too far forward of the boom and the boom is too small in section for it to provide much stiffness or control. Nevertheless, fitting a traveler and its necessary brace across the forward edge of the cockpit is not out of the question (I did it on my H25; see the blog) and this would improve the performance dramatically.

One thing many H27 owners do is to add a proper bimini top. I would strongly recommend not doing this if you have to raise the boom to do it. The H27 does not behave well when the boom is too high-- it raises the center of effort and the boat heels sooner, farther and oftener. Figure a better way to incorporate the awning, dodger or bimini; or else just sit under an umbrella.

The only other things to be concerned with are the usual issues popping up in boats of this vintage. Be wary of compression-post softness; this happens to all older boats with deck-stepped spars eventually. I altered my H25's maststep and filled the cored deck with epoxy, which made it rock-solid. This is an easy (if messy) fix that I recommend to everyone (and give textual instructions in my blog). I would also be vigilant for leaks coming through the metal toerail. The main reason I selected the H25 I bought was because this wasn't leaking; but that's rare. Still this can be remedied without any excruciating work as well.

All in all the H27 is a bigger boat than the O'Day and will behave more reliably, the benefit of sheer size. Now, if you'd been thinking of the O'Day 27....

J Cherubini II
Yacht Diana, of Burlington
http://dianaofburlington.blogspot.com/

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