Catalina - vs - Hunter , NEW BOAT

[Jack]

Often see a question on this site asking about the two boats from a prospective new boat buyer. Just received the Boat US Magazine which outlined warranties for both, which provided some suprising information. The warranties are very different.Catalina, 1yr entire boat/5yr hull construction, non-transferable, 5 yr prorated blister warranty.Hunter, 5 yr, transferable, 5 yr blister 100% coverage.I ran into a similar situation 5 years ago between Honda and Toyota. Honda had a 12 mo. bumper to bumper, 12000mi. warranty while Toyota had a 3 yr, 36000mi warranty with a 60000, 6yr on the drive train. I liked the Honda a little better but opted for the Toyota because of the warranty.Of course the Dealer has a lot to do with warranty performance but this is an expensive purchase and all factors should be considered.

 

[Tim Schaaf]

Blisters

For what it is worth, in 1987, I contacted Hunter regarding blisters on my 1980 h33. I was the second owner of a boat way out of warranty. Hunter took about thirty seconds to say that"since the warranty had long since expired, we feel the best we can do is supply all the materials for the repair at no cost to you". That seemed pretty good to me, and in two weeks I had a big box full of epoxies, barrier coat material, etc. etc Thankyou, Hunter.

 

[Claudio]

Hunter's Costumer Service

Hunter's costumer service is oustanding. To repair a small but difficult spot on a Corian top of my 1996 H430, Hunter sent a master carpenter, Dan Stewart, from Florida to Channel Islands, California. He replaced the whole counter plus he made a modification that improved the results. Hunter's response took me by surprise. This type of response, which is beyond just paying for a warranty item, is what attracts me to the Hunter products and philosophy.

 

[Eric Lorgus]

Hunter is part of Luhrs Marine, employee owned

To give you an example of how they view customer satisfaction, at Silverton Marine, another Luhrs employee-owned company, a group of production managers gets together once a week to call an owner of one of their motor yachts, just to see how the owner feels about his boat. The give and take of these calls helps the factory and design team know how they're doing, and most of the owners are shocked beyond belief that these calls even take place.Hunter is a separate company (although also employee-owned), but it sounds like they have a similar attitude towards customer satisfaction.Sometimes it's the little things that mean the most.

 

[Al Sandrik]

I've talked to Hunter folks...

doing warrenty work on boats at Whitney's Marine and they do seem to care about he quality of their work.