We bought our 03 356 in March of 03 and have put a lot of miles on it. The recall on the thru hulls I remember, but can't remember how to tell the difference. We've been primarily fresh water, so our HVAC pan is still ok. I've got stress cracks, fixed them once and they have returned. They are cosmetic and haven't caused any problems. The propane locker hasn't been an issue for us and we just refill when one of the small tanks is out. U-Haul's have propane and are pretty much everywhere.
We like the 03 kitchen layout with the Adler barber refrigerator/freezer better than the undercounter type now being used. Have much much more freezer space.
I have had some leaking of the windless as have a few others that I remember. I think mine is fixed, but we keep the Vberth full of stuff and I don't unbutton the wood very often to check it, so I may still have some small leak. Check it out.
I think Hunter hit a home run with this model. We have spent 869 nights aboard and have sailed/cruised over 6,000 NM. It handles very well in 4-6 foot seas. For the length boat, I have people with bigger boats comment on the interior volume compared to larger boats of other boat brands. It has the interior feel of a much larger boat.
We just haven't had much break, very small things like I have changed out 3 of the push button cabinet latches. I do have a couple of overhead lights that are out, but I could replace them- just haven't gotten around to it. Haven't really noticed that they don't work, but you should make sure they all work in the boat you are looking at.
We have changed the kitchen faucet to a single handle model and that is an improvement. We also changed the toilet lav faucet to single handle. We changed out the head from the Jabsco to an electric Raritan Sea-era and that was a good improvement, especially for guests as it is easier to explain how to use it. Before this cruise we are on now from Kentucky Lake to Punta Gorda, Florida, we added a SafeH2O water filtration system and it filters through two stages and UV light and we drink the water from our tanks with no worries. This system is just after the tank and before the manifold that distributes to all plumbing components, so we use the water just like at home.
The digital snake river tank gauges work for waste and water, but don't work for diesel fuel for me. There is a compatible replacement that you can find on the forum. I use the hour meters times flow rate but find it a little lacking in the area of knowing exactly how much fuel I have used.
We have a few of the red led diode lights out on the DC electric panel. Don't know how to fix those, but I bet someone on this forum does.
I'm having to dig hard to find things that have broken or that we have improved - all of these things are nickel and dlme items. I don't think there are any consequential flaws with this model boat.
