Hi All. I'm thinking of buying a H380 and maybe sailing it over the Atlantic and into the Med. I would like to know your thoughts and has anyone actually tried it with a H380.
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Colin, Love my h37.5 which is a similar boat. Have done extensive coastal cruising on it including some ocean stuff. Probably wouldn't be my first choice for ocean passagemaking. If your primary interest is crossing oceans, would be interesting in why you are focusing on the h380? Gary Wyngarden S/V Wanderlust h37.5
Colin, Love my h37.5 which is a similar boat. Have done extensive coastal cruising on it including some ocean stuff. Probably wouldn't be my first choice for ocean passagemaking. If your primary interest is crossing oceans, would be interesting in why you are focusing on the h380? Gary Wyngarden S/V Wanderlust h37.5
I have the 376
Which is the older sister of your boat. As of now, I am planning on crossing oceans with it but my change my mind once I get a few coastal legs under my belt. I've heard of a Hunter 34 doing that trip from Florida to Turkey. I would say that if you have bad luck, you better be a very good sailor though. The reason so many are against crossing oceans in Hunters are because if you have trouble in the middle of the ocean, help may be a few days away, so many want the strongest boat possible to do those types of trips and Hunter isn't that. The weaknesses on the 380 are the unprotected rudder, maybe the hatches and skylight, quadrant and emergency tiller (not big enough). The chainplates are solid but I can't comment on the rigging because that is done at the dealer, not the factory so you will want to pay extra attention to the rigging. You will have to make many modifications to ready the boat such as adding handhelds and latches on the floorboards and adding additional bilge pumps. Then you will not want to skimp on the safety gear (SSB radio, liftraft, flares, eprb, handheld vhf, emergency water maker, survival kit) because your changes of needed it are greater with a Hunter. Also don't forget the heavy weather gear you will need for the boat like storm sails and drogues and sea anchor. However, if you don't know anything about the weather windows, then don't go in a Hunter until you do and follow the window's advice...or get a different boat.
Which is the older sister of your boat. As of now, I am planning on crossing oceans with it but my change my mind once I get a few coastal legs under my belt. I've heard of a Hunter 34 doing that trip from Florida to Turkey. I would say that if you have bad luck, you better be a very good sailor though. The reason so many are against crossing oceans in Hunters are because if you have trouble in the middle of the ocean, help may be a few days away, so many want the strongest boat possible to do those types of trips and Hunter isn't that. The weaknesses on the 380 are the unprotected rudder, maybe the hatches and skylight, quadrant and emergency tiller (not big enough). The chainplates are solid but I can't comment on the rigging because that is done at the dealer, not the factory so you will want to pay extra attention to the rigging. You will have to make many modifications to ready the boat such as adding handhelds and latches on the floorboards and adding additional bilge pumps. Then you will not want to skimp on the safety gear (SSB radio, liftraft, flares, eprb, handheld vhf, emergency water maker, survival kit) because your changes of needed it are greater with a Hunter. Also don't forget the heavy weather gear you will need for the boat like storm sails and drogues and sea anchor. However, if you don't know anything about the weather windows, then don't go in a Hunter until you do and follow the window's advice...or get a different boat.
I am planning to cross the Atlantic from USA to UK via Bermuda and the Azores next year in my '83 Hunter 34. I did it before in a 30 ft Beneteau First 305 and had a great time and really looking forward to doing it again. With a good SSB radio set up, the weather forcasting is very good and any heavy weather is predicted several days in advance. The most I had was a F6 for a short while approaching the Azores. I relied on my tiller pilot (TP10)and so had a spare, my Furuno radar and a one hour kitchen timer! This time i have a WP32 and a spare. Took me 6 weeks from the St Martins in the west indies to Lowestoft. I also have a wind generator and found it excellent. I sailed for days without starting the engine and only had 2 x 85 AH domestic batteries The ARC rally has lots of light weight production boats doing the Atlantic circuit every year and very few have problems. I don't know the 380 but it makes sense to make sure the hatches etc are strong and watertight, take your time and get the sails reefed early. Most of the time I think you will appreciate having a roomy boat thats easy to handle and has plenty of ventilation. I didn't modify the boat much at all. I didnt add handholds or catches to the floor boards but did add locking catches to the cockpit locker lids and added extra bolts to the sliding hatch rails. I had a builders bag as a sea anchor and no storm sails. I did have a liferaft, EPIRB and SSB radio, hand held VHF and GPS. I had loads of bottled water and used hardly any as most of the water used was from the tanks. I also took a sextant and managed on a sunny day to get to about 15 miles acuracy which I was quite pleased with. There was lots of other boats within radio distance and quite a few in sight. I met up with several boats that I had been speaking to on the radio when I got to the Azores. It's a real experience. Go for it!
It was 340 not 34 Franklin..
..that did it two years ago. Turkish couple bought a H340 in Florida and sailed all the way to Turkey,via Azores / Canaries / Med,even without any modification on it.
..that did it two years ago. Turkish couple bought a H340 in Florida and sailed all the way to Turkey,via Azores / Canaries / Med,even without any modification on it.
Buy My 380
Sir Buy my Hunter 380. I just posted it on the website tonight, 9 Oct 2006. She's a 2001 model and fully loaded. She's already made a Norfolk to Bermuda passage and is completely blue water ready, including your SSB! Look her over and give me a call. John Day
Sir Buy my Hunter 380. I just posted it on the website tonight, 9 Oct 2006. She's a 2001 model and fully loaded. She's already made a Norfolk to Bermuda passage and is completely blue water ready, including your SSB! Look her over and give me a call. John Day
Actually it was a Hunter 34 that crossed
There was a crossing by a Hunter 34 a few years back. Actually he went both ways with the same boat. It's the sailor, not the boat.
There was a crossing by a Hunter 34 a few years back. Actually he went both ways with the same boat. It's the sailor, not the boat.
If a 380 is what you want
and you want to someday cross the Atlantic than go for it. I have a '99 380 and I would take it across, however, it is would not be my choice if I was buying a boat specifically for the crossing. The short comings in my mind are: -Storage, I rarely carry my spinaker, I don't know where 3 weeks of food would go -You would need a watermaker, b/c the 380 only holds 75 gals -Jerry cans would be everywhere b/c the fuel tank is only 35 gals. It uses approximately 3/4 of a gal an hour at crusing speed, that is less than 2 days of motoring, not counting a generator -the boat is set up for cruising, not passage making The H380 is not bullet proof, but you don't need a Swan to do a crossing. Sail magazine had an insightful quote a couple of month's back regarding spending too much for the 1 out of 100 days you would want a bulletproof boat. And then that 1/100 would be more uncomfortable than dangerous. JohnnyMac S/V Dawn Treasder H380
and you want to someday cross the Atlantic than go for it. I have a '99 380 and I would take it across, however, it is would not be my choice if I was buying a boat specifically for the crossing. The short comings in my mind are: -Storage, I rarely carry my spinaker, I don't know where 3 weeks of food would go -You would need a watermaker, b/c the 380 only holds 75 gals -Jerry cans would be everywhere b/c the fuel tank is only 35 gals. It uses approximately 3/4 of a gal an hour at crusing speed, that is less than 2 days of motoring, not counting a generator -the boat is set up for cruising, not passage making The H380 is not bullet proof, but you don't need a Swan to do a crossing. Sail magazine had an insightful quote a couple of month's back regarding spending too much for the 1 out of 100 days you would want a bulletproof boat. And then that 1/100 would be more uncomfortable than dangerous. JohnnyMac S/V Dawn Treasder H380
regarding three weeks of food
JohnnyMac (what a great name!) says that he doesn't know where you'd store three weeks worth of food on a 380. I suspect that this is because he doesn't understand the scientific fact that the further you venture offshore, the better Spam tastes. Ask any native Hawaian about Spam; it's considered a delicacy on the islands precisely because they're so far away from the beaches of any known continent. Better yet, grab yourself a tin of Span and a box of your favorite crackers, sail far enough offshore to lose site of your continent of origin from the deck of your 380, and then dig in. Delicious. I can attest that the 380, though it indeed suffers from insufficient tankage, contains ample storage space for an Atlantic crossing worth of Spam.
JohnnyMac (what a great name!) says that he doesn't know where you'd store three weeks worth of food on a 380. I suspect that this is because he doesn't understand the scientific fact that the further you venture offshore, the better Spam tastes. Ask any native Hawaian about Spam; it's considered a delicacy on the islands precisely because they're so far away from the beaches of any known continent. Better yet, grab yourself a tin of Span and a box of your favorite crackers, sail far enough offshore to lose site of your continent of origin from the deck of your 380, and then dig in. Delicious. I can attest that the 380, though it indeed suffers from insufficient tankage, contains ample storage space for an Atlantic crossing worth of Spam.
More noise 
but if there is anything on the 380/376 I know about, it's the storage as I am a live-aboard. I usually only go grocery shopping every two weeks. I don't eat a lot and I eat my lunches out but there is plenty of room if you also consider that most passagemakers (from what I've read) catch a fish just by trolling a line behind them as they sail. When it's time for dinner, they just pull in the line and cook the fish. I would imagine that one good size fish could last at least 2 dinners for a couple. On the other hand though, I'd take 4 weeks worth of food just in case. Places you can store cans of soup, SPAM (if you must), tunna, veges, beans (can't forget them...high in protein and very low in fat), and pasta is under the aft berth, under the floorboard in the galley, under the propane locker and behind the backrest in the aft cabin. You can also rip out that useless seat in the aft cabin and build a nice storage there. You can inclose the shelf between the aft birth and the aft bulkhead for lots more storage. You can get those plastic closable baskets from walmart and fill those up and slide them onto the port lockers in the aft cabin. The whole V birth is one big storage area during a passage (nobody but Herb would sleep up there). AND....you would be surprised at how much you can squeeze into one of those little storage bins in the galley. That's where I keep all my can goods now (No need for all those other places I told you about yet).
but if there is anything on the 380/376 I know about, it's the storage as I am a live-aboard. I usually only go grocery shopping every two weeks. I don't eat a lot and I eat my lunches out but there is plenty of room if you also consider that most passagemakers (from what I've read) catch a fish just by trolling a line behind them as they sail. When it's time for dinner, they just pull in the line and cook the fish. I would imagine that one good size fish could last at least 2 dinners for a couple. On the other hand though, I'd take 4 weeks worth of food just in case. Places you can store cans of soup, SPAM (if you must), tunna, veges, beans (can't forget them...high in protein and very low in fat), and pasta is under the aft berth, under the floorboard in the galley, under the propane locker and behind the backrest in the aft cabin. You can also rip out that useless seat in the aft cabin and build a nice storage there. You can inclose the shelf between the aft birth and the aft bulkhead for lots more storage. You can get those plastic closable baskets from walmart and fill those up and slide them onto the port lockers in the aft cabin. The whole V birth is one big storage area during a passage (nobody but Herb would sleep up there). AND....you would be surprised at how much you can squeeze into one of those little storage bins in the galley. That's where I keep all my can goods now (No need for all those other places I told you about yet).
How to store.....
how to store food is a great topic.... Space is a function of how you use it... Some links I have found useful are: Using Dry Ice to aid in food storage http://waltonfeed.com/self/upack/dryice.html Varieties of compact, cost efficient foods http://waltonfeed.com/ A good food "preparedness" list http://www.millennium-ark.net/News_Files/Hollys.html A "1 year" food supply exmaple list http://outlands.tripod.com/farm/example2.htm Home preservation of dried grains http://waltonfeed.com/self/upack/bugs2.html There is also a great deal of information on preserving and canning foods that is out there.. some really good books, too... If space is an issue, then a good water maker (electric or solar) powered might the ticket - along with a lot of dehydrated foods. And then again, you can learn to like spam and so forth... I do not have a lot of experience at this.. just doing my own planning for home and boat... --jerry
how to store food is a great topic.... Space is a function of how you use it... Some links I have found useful are: Using Dry Ice to aid in food storage http://waltonfeed.com/self/upack/dryice.html Varieties of compact, cost efficient foods http://waltonfeed.com/ A good food "preparedness" list http://www.millennium-ark.net/News_Files/Hollys.html A "1 year" food supply exmaple list http://outlands.tripod.com/farm/example2.htm Home preservation of dried grains http://waltonfeed.com/self/upack/bugs2.html There is also a great deal of information on preserving and canning foods that is out there.. some really good books, too... If space is an issue, then a good water maker (electric or solar) powered might the ticket - along with a lot of dehydrated foods. And then again, you can learn to like spam and so forth... I do not have a lot of experience at this.. just doing my own planning for home and boat... --jerry
Ocean Crossing
Can't speak from experience but spoke with a guy a while back who had a 37.5 Legend and sold it to a former Royal Navy guy who comes to the US, buys boats and then sails them back to the UK to sell at a tremendous markup (apparently this is how he makes a living and gets to sail constantly). The seller told me that when he questioned the wisdom of sailing what is supposed to be a coastal and inland boat across the Atlantic the Brit told him he's seen boats in the middle of the Atlantic that someone around here wouldn't sail across the Pamlico sound. As mentioned in some of the previous posts I guess it's the sailor not the boat.
Can't speak from experience but spoke with a guy a while back who had a 37.5 Legend and sold it to a former Royal Navy guy who comes to the US, buys boats and then sails them back to the UK to sell at a tremendous markup (apparently this is how he makes a living and gets to sail constantly). The seller told me that when he questioned the wisdom of sailing what is supposed to be a coastal and inland boat across the Atlantic the Brit told him he's seen boats in the middle of the Atlantic that someone around here wouldn't sail across the Pamlico sound. As mentioned in some of the previous posts I guess it's the sailor not the boat.
Ersin
Do you know the names of the Turkish couple who bought the H340 in the U.S. and sailed to Turkey?
Do you know the names of the Turkish couple who bought the H340 in the U.S. and sailed to Turkey?
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