Bought an H170

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So a couple weeks ago I purchased a Hunter 170. I had done a bit of reading up on them before making the buy. I knew about cracks so knew what to look for. I saw no cracks anywhere and I went over it well. Very clean boat and no hull scratching. The guy I bought it from had a NICE house. and I could tell he takes care of his toys. Nice Cobra in the garage with 2 Mercedes and a Land Rover. Also had a hoist so the Mercedes was above his Cobra. House was for sale and had a sold sticker on it. I said to the wife he may need to sell. Turns out he was moving to a gated community and down sizing. He had it listed for 5500 Canadian so we offered 4300 and he took it. I looked at many boats in the summer so I knew what was selling and what was not. We even drove 500 miles round trip to see it. Kelowna is hot this time of year and we are in Surrey. I can see the Pacific ocean from my balcony and am 6 miles to the USA. So I have had the boat out twice now. First time was next to zero wind, 2nd was a bit more wind. I have a gps tracker on my phone so I got stats. Top speed was 9 mph and we travelled 12 miles in 2 hours. Avg was 6 mph. Had the grand kid with me. 11 years old first time on any boat. He was a bit nervous when it started tilting. At one point he went over the side. Not sure how he did it but I managed to grab him and pull him back in the boat then we fought the wind to recover some cushions. All in all I enjoyed it. At one point tilt was so much that it took on water over the side. I then let everything go to spill some wind. Asked the grand kid if he wanted to try the ocean, Water is colder and more wind. He was OK with that idea. I doubt I would take in in salt water but hey ??? I also had no water come out the back when I removed the plug. Good sign. Anyhow gennaker is in factory sealed bag. Sails are pristine condition as is rudder and keel. Have all the bags including rudder bag. I doubt the seller used it much. He even said don't worry about the bearings. He re-did them just prior to selling. We drove 1/2 hour and checked bearings fro heat. Cool to the touch even after 250 miles. I picked up a Yamaha 2.5 brand new from a dealer. Paid 1200.00 CASH. At least with the motor we can still do some trolling for fish. We have a house up country we spend holidays and
statutory weekends at. Trout get upwards of 10 pounds. Google Tunkwa provincial park. We are 8 miles from it.

 

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It is also a 2008 boat.

 

[Sailavie1]

Congrats, she looks in very good shape. I looked at one in Calgary a few weeks ago and it was full of cracks. The cold prairie winters are not kind to the plastic boats.

 

[stickinthemud57]

Sweet deal on a very clean boat! Makes me jealous!

Good to hear that your grandson is up to going out again, the unexpected dip notwithstanding.

The thing I realized first off with the 170 (and likely true of any small sailboat) is that sailing it is a full-time endeavor, especially on a lake where you have constantly shifting winds. You have to pay close attention to tuning the sails to suit the expected winds. It's easier to reef the main before you go out and then un-reef it if you feel you need more power than vice-versa. If you find yourself dumping wind often, then it's time to reef. Sailing the boat will be much more fun, and you will actually achieve better speed when you have the sail/wind equation properly balanced.

My hope with the roller furling was that I could let out only as much jib as I needed, but soon found that lacking the foil at the front stay that it would not work that way. I found a nice used jib, effectively 65%, that works great on the windier days to keep things under control.

I have done a lot of mods to my boat (video at

), but the first one I would recommend is a tiller clutch so you can let go of the tiller while you attend to other necessities. While I have my own home-grown version on my 170, I can wholeheartedly recommend the Tiller Clutch (Tiller Clutch: Simple, Durable, Tiller Taming Device - Small Craft Advisor). I bought one for use on my MacGregor 26 and it is great. Can't imagine single-handing the boat without it.

Happy sailing!