170 hull material - cracking??

[becanddave]

we're very close to a 170 but are concerned about cracks in the hull material...the hull on the boat we are looking at has been replaced once due to cracking and we saw a small crack in the current hull while looking at it with the dealer. (he's promised to look into it, talk with hunter and let us know; we're not worried about him - it's the material.) they've also got a second boat on the lot with a crack problem.we are really interested in this boat but don't want to make a frustrating (or costly) mistake. what have you heard???thanks!

 

[Michael Cohn]

Uh oh

Haven't heard anything specific, but this is a fairly alarming problem. The history suggests an error in the lay-up schedule on more than one boat.I would not buy a boat with a history like this - in fact, I wouldn't even take it for free.MC

 

[Bob Knott]

I thought ...

I thought these were the plastic Hunters, the JY boats that Hunter bought a couple of years ago. If so there is no layup schedule, they are moulded plastic.I'd call Eddie Breedan direct at Hunter Customer servie and ask him. He'll know the answer, or if he doesn't he'll call you back with it in a day. There's a whole rental fleet of these on Cape Cod owned by the dealer I bought my 2 Hunters from and he's never complained to me once about the 170's holding up and you know what a pounding the rental take.Good LuckBob KnottH380

 

[Dave Condon]

170

As a general rule, there are very few problems with the 170 made out of the material. Usually, repairing one is simple. If you treat it like a model plane which one wishes to fix, then it is easy. Not knowing any more specificsthan what you mentioned in your post, I too would want to know. Eddie Breeden is the top man at Hunter warranty but Gregg and Joe know the boats very well too which by the way they make one good warranty team at HunterOne thing that would be asked by me whether or not who delivered the boats used too much pressure on the winch straps on small boats. As for the construction, a good friend of mine who builds catamarans and is probably the oldest whose work was copied by others felt that the 170 is a well buiilt boat made of this material.Dave Condon

 

[Michael Stuart]

Who's Cracked?

I had the 170 for two seasons. In CT the winters are cold and the summers are hot. My boat is outdoors all year long. I have observed no cracking on my boat. But then again I do not ram into things. I agree with the earlier posts. The cracking you saw was not from the construction by Hunter but from the (man) handling by someone, probably during transportation and delivering. Sailing or weather doesn't cause such problems with the 170, but more likely some jerk who treats the boat like a bag of potatoes.