Can u tell me what model of Hunter she is?

[danstanford]

This is a boat I saw for sale and understand is a Hunter 33, but the cabin windows do not look like the ones of the Cherubini Hunters of the 1977 vintage she is supposed to be. Does anyone have any idea if she is a Cherubini Hunter or if she is of that age?
I am looking for advice on what issue this hull/boat might have and it is difficult if I cannot be certain of the model.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks, Dan

 

[Ed Schenck]

There are owner photos of the Cherubini 33 under the "Boat Info" tab above. I would not have recognized it with those portlights. But there are a couple of photos that look like this one. You can confirm from the hull id(HIN) that is on the upper starboard corner of the transom. It should have the model and year. Here is the format of HINs: http://www.sailboatinspection.com/cms/?q=node/42 .

 

[danstanford]

Thanks Ed,

So are you saying she is a Cherubini 33 but with different layout to the cabin windows? For some reason she looks newer than 1977 by these same windows and the font of the Hunter name as painted on the hull (along with a logo plate if I remember correctly). Dan

 

[kloudie1]

That is the original config of the 33 Cherubini.. probably from 77 or 78... before they put a trunk cabin on, there was a really slick looking "blister" deck .. this is one of 'em. I have a good friend with a 78 model like that.. Fine sailing boat.

 

[danstanford]

Thanks Claude. By blister deck, do you mean it is likely full of blisters? I haven't actually been up on deck yet as she is sitting on the cradle just like you see her in the picture. I appreciate your comment on the way she sails, anything else to add?

Dan

 

[kloudie1]

LOL.. Sorry.. By blister, I mean the deck just kinda swells up to form the cabin top.. The original H-25 (73-74?) was like that too (no vertical surfaces to insult the airflow).. I have always thought they look sleek because of that design.. My H-34 has a sleek cabin top kinda like that too. The impressive Swan line of boats has that same kind of cabin top in many of their boats.. Nice Looking..
Adding.. Aluminum tank can corrode through if any water gets into the fuel.. the fuel filler is on the floor of the cockpit and the original cap is known for holing through, kinda guaranteeing water in the fuel tank .. The engine is a 2 QM Yanmar (IIRC) that is very reliable.. The rig is stout and relaible.. The "plaid mouse fur" wall covering inside is ...uuuhhhhh .... interesting.. But she really is a sweet sailing boat.. well laid out and a fine cruiser.

 

[Deleted member 78819]

She is a Hunter 33: http://www.sailingtexas.com/shunter33101.html

 

[danstanford]

I had just found this picture as I received your message. It is one of very few pictures I can find on the net of this year and model of this boat. Thanks for looking though and I would happily take any advice anyone has on this boat.

Thanks again, Dan

 

[Steve Dion]

I "think" that these were Hunter "kit boats". They were just a shell and the interiors needed to be finished by the owner.

You can check with Hunter and see if someone knows for sure.

 

[kloudie1]

Yup.. A Hunter 33 designed by Cherubini..I neglected to note that in my first post.. The hunters from that era, the 37 sloop and cutters and the 25, along with the 33 were all Cherubini designs.. Steve they were definitely not kit boats.. That same 33 hull was fitted later with a trunk cabin to increase headroom forward.

 

[Steve Dion]

There were also Raiders by Cherubini

"Antigone and the Raiders
Sam and Terry, thanks for a really COOL question! I've been sort of waiting for this one.

Raider Yacht was founded in about 1976-77 by my uncle Joe and his two sons Peter and Brian. They are completely unaffiliated with Hunter or Cherubini Boat (except that through my dad's influence vendors like Lewmar, Kenyon, and Schaeffer all gave the same-tier parts discounts to all three!). There is a very good write-up on Raider in Ferenc Maté's book 'Best Boats to Build or Buy' (Norton, 1980-ish). The name came from Peter and Brian's favourite football team. The company colours were gold, silver, and black and the logo was a Jolly Roger.

The boats were gorgeous, built by the family's most infamous neatniks– the joinery inside was superb. It was because of the incredible attention to detail that not many were made and they did not sell fast or easily. Their sailing performance is entirely another story!

I have NO doubt that between equally stock Hunter 33s and Raider 33s the Raider would outrun the Hunter on every point of sail. It must be considered that the Hunter 33 is no slouch– it was one of my dad's favourites and there are still members of the family who would clamour after one if it came up for sale. But the Raider was just blinding. There is a picture in Maté's book of one flying a radial spinnaker on a beam reach heeled over to the rail doing about 9 knots in weather that would reef lesser boats into rags. I would like to think that the Raider was my dad's idea of a Hunter 33 done one better. Close comparison to the two boats' plans will ultimately confirm this. But what is certain is that it was a boat drawn by him with absolutely NO restraints by marketing or accounting.

The Raider was only 27 ft on the water, which at least one dealer considered a drawback because it limited interior room. The bow was steeply raked, and out of the mould it was, as Maté reported, as sharp as a razorblade– probably a 1/16-inch radius. (Peter is/was probably one of the best fibreglass mould workers in the country. That's worth about 8 bucks an hour.) But we all know that waterline length has a direct correspondent in displacement. The Raider's lines are so typical of my dad– incredibly fine underwater, 10,400 lbs fully dressed under 455 ft of sail. As with so many of them this incredible lightness of being resulted in dizzying heel angle, but, also typically, once heeled that was the end of it.

Antigone (1978) was the ultimate physical incarnation of the Raider 33 (there are others in the plans which will further blow you away). The custom layout contributed to a full 1000 lbs weight savings. The engine was set directly over the aft end of the keel for weight distribution. There was no vee berth, only a toilet and sail room. The interior was like the Hunter 25 but with two quarter berths. Originally it had a tiller but we put in an Edson pedestal with a 40-inch wheel geared so tightly that lock-to-lock was like 2-1/2 turns– it steered like a Formula One car. The Kevlar mainsheet went through 6:1 Haarken ball-bearing blocks, one end cleating on the traveller car and the other on the cabintop at the winch. The keel on Antigone was the 6-ft deep version, a slightly tapered quadrilateral, and the rudder had a small skeg but later a full spade rudder was developed. Four days before race season in 1979 we added a fibreglass 'cuff' on the aft edge of the keel making it more vertical. The result was a little more stiffness and I guess a tighter point to windward (less 'burble' aft of the keel). In a race you sat with the coaming under your knees and played the mainsheet like you were racing a 470. Everyone else held on for dear life. It was like racing a Jag XK-120 on skinny period tyres in the rain without seat belts.

We piled up quite a collection of silver-plate 'hardware' with that boat and lined the beams in the rec room with first-to-finish and first-in-class pennants. We rarely came home with worse than third. Antigone and several other Raiders raced in the Northeast were responsible for lowering the PHRF on the type from the 170s in 1977 to about 154 in 1978 to 145 in 1979. I don't know of anyone who raced one who ever complained about it. They all knew they had got a winner and you don't complain about temperament in a winning race horse.

The 33-ft size was a favourite of my dad's and I have been recently talking to my cousin Mike (CherubiniModels.com) about making the Raider's forerunner, a 33-ft double-chine plywood daggerboard day racer, what we called the River Rat, available as a 1" = 1 ft scale sailing model. More on that as it develops."

J Cherubini II
Cherubini Art and Nautical Design Org.
JComet@aol.com photo:

 

[Ed Schenck]

You might be on to something Steve. It is that keel design that really does not look right for a Hunter Cherubini. If it is a Raider 33 then for sure grab it. If it is a Cherubini 33 same applies.

 

[Steve Dion]

Ed: From information collected here I was always lead to believe that the Raiders were Hunters. I guess "the man" should know.

The other thing that made me believe that it is NOT a Hunter was those fix ports. They were normally opening ports except on the 25 that had a couple of fixed ports but they did not look like those.

 

[danstanford]

Steve and Ed, thanks for the input.

She certainly has the Hunter Logo on her flanks and I have found another ad for her claiming she is a 77 Cherubini Hunter 33. She is supposed to have 6 year old sails, but I am not sure how old the ad is, but there is a picture of her in a slip and I don't think she has been afloat in a couple of years. I have found only one other boat with this deck and it was also a 77 and some have said that this was the only year this was done. I did read somewhere that there was a resin shortage in 77 and so one wonders if the fiberglass might be a little on the skimpy side. I will keep on digging till I get on board to see how she looks inside.

Any opinions on the shoal draft as opposed to the deeper keel?

Thanks again,

Dan

 

[danstanford]

I have spent a little more time on her and am posting a picture of the hull below the water line. Bad paint or blisters in the gelcoat?

 

[DianaOfBurlington]

That is the early (mk-1) Hunter 33 from '76-'77'-'78 and yes, it was modeled off the mk-1 H25. Something about a Hunter 'family resemblance' -- though ironically the 'bubbletop' H25 was discontinued by the time the 'bubbletop' H33 came out.

It is no more related to the Raider than the more common H33 is, though it looks cool. (Thanks for the reference to the cool pic from SailingTexas!).

I would buy it.