My wife and I are looking for a sailboat to introduce us to the pains and pleasures of sailing. I've sailed a few times on my buddies 26 foot boat but besides that know very little about anything related to sailing. I've used motor boats all my life, but not sail. Anyways, I want to know if the below boat is good for a starter and a good deal and anything else anyone wants to tell me about it. I'm looking at a 1986 24 foot hunter sloop. My first concern is that on the NADA pricing site there is no 1986 Hunter 24 foot boat. Does this boat exist, or is it really 23 feet trying to pass with an extra foot? In any case, I went to the Marina and looked at it yesterday and it appears to be in excellent shape. The broker couldn't find the keys so I didn't actually get to go inside it, hopefully he'll find them soon... You probabably already know this, but it has an alcohol stove, porta potti, and single sink. For motoring, it's got a 9.9 Evinrude (outboard) with the hookup to charge the single battery in the boat. The interior was recently all redone and the bottom was repainted in 2001. It comes with a 90% mainsail in fair to good shape and a 135% jib (dumb question, what does the 90 and 135% mean... does it mean size?). It doesn't have a trailer but from comments in another forum and rethinking what I'd want the boat for, I think I'd just take over the moorage in the marina it is at now. I would have to put in a bilge (the hole is there but it is listed as having no bilge?!), a vhf radio, a compass, and whatever other essentials there are. It was listed for $5800 but just went down to $5400 and I bet I could get it for $5000 or maybe less... what do you all think. I'll try to post the picture, but if that doesn't work, you can check it out at the "related link" site. Let me know what you think, any and all advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks, Brent
