Hunter 17 - move by hand

[Warren]

Hi All,
New member here, my wife and I are looking at buying a 99 Hunter 17, how hard would it be to move the boat by hand on the trailer? I have a very small private launch area that I will need to disconnect the trailer, back around it and turn the trailer by hand and reconnect.

 

[Warren]

One other question - the owneres are asking around $4800.00 for the boat , trailer and several upgrades - is this price in the running or too high?

 

[Dave D]

Any idea what the weight of the combo is? I think it's a general rule that only 10% +/- of the boats weight would be on the tongue, so I would think you could turn it by hand. Another consideration is your condition. If your 73 pounds, it's doubtful, if your 93 years old I would think it's doubtful. Go take another look at the boat and try it. You should know right away if it is doable.

You might also be able to convert the jack stand to a more solid apparatus with a larger wheel and be able to simply roll it around. Is the prep area level?

 

[txjim]

Two years ago I paid $4200 for a 99 w/ all options except spinnaker, including a 2.5HP Mercury and LOTS of extras. $4800 sounds a bit high and I would verify that the sails are in good shape. FYI, if the jib is excessively worn, roller furling is difficult.

It's a very easy boat to move by hand although you may want to have a hand dolly available. I am able to lift the tounge and move it on a driveway, gravel or grass may be a different story. Trailer dolly is much preferred over depending on the trailer jack wheel.

 

[Captn Stubby]

I just bought a 2003 Hunter 170 and it is very easy to move it around by hand on the trailer. My trailer has a very long center bar, so you have a lot of leverage. When I bought it, we turned it around 180 degrees to hook up to my SUV in a minute.

 

[wundrbar]

Before you buy a Hunter 170, check out what happened to mine last winter http://picasaweb.google.com/p.eisenschmid/CanonEPP070204?authkey=Gv1sRgCL3Zp-H_tP-cAw&feat=email. It developed severe cracking. Some were 1/4" thick, several feet long and completely penetrated the hull. I had properly drained and prep'd the boat. Its just that the ACP material can't handle wide temperature fluctuations. Hunter refuses to offer acceptable restitution to me.

 

[JerryA]

Wow wundrbar! What year is your 170? Is this one of the early boats, as it looks like it's had little care at all? The degree of cracking is impressive. Are the pictures representative of how you normally stored it, or is this after becoming understandably frustrated? I'm glad my H170 experience was 200% positive and that I never had any cracking of any sort.

JerryA

 

[wundrbar]

Hi JerryA. Mine is a 1999. Everything was fine until we had a large drop in temperatures last winter. I woke to find my boat with the cracking shown in my photos. Then I started digging. Turns out lots of other Hunter owners have had the same problem, even with newer boats. You can read about them in some of the closed posts in this web forum. It turns out the raw material, BASF Luran S has a coefficient of thermal expansion that is far worse than all other boat materials - and Hunter knows it!! Check out your owners manual where they tell you not to cover your boat with a dark colored cover. Have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous? I am still waiting for Hunter to stand behind their product but they refuse to provide acceptable compensation.

 

[JerryA]

Out of warranty

Hi JerryA. Mine is a 1999. Everything was fine until we had a large drop in temperatures last winter. I woke to find my boat with the cracking shown in my photos. Then I started digging. Turns out lots of other Hunter owners have had the same problem, even with newer boats. You can read about them in some of the closed posts in this web forum. It turns out the raw material, BASF Luran S has a coefficient of thermal expansion that is far worse than all other boat materials - and Hunter knows it!! Check out your owners manual where they tell you not to cover your boat with a dark colored cover. Have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous? I am still waiting for Hunter to stand behind their product but they refuse to provide acceptable compensation.

That really sucks! I bought mine new and had researched the issues of cracking prior to buying. I stored mine inside for that very reason. Others have had some cracking as well like you say. They do seem to require some special care to prevent rapid temperature changes. It's very unfortunate for such a pretty boat.

JerryA

 

[leftwing24]

Re: Boat weight -

According to the Owners Guide, the boat alone (for 1999 model) is 600 lbs unloaded.


Re: Hull cracks -

I got the boat from the original owner (a good friend of mine). The boat had been sitting in his yard for several years, bow down, and was full of water. The only damage on the hull was a handful of vertical hairline cracks at the rubrail (hull and deck, the longest was about 2 ft long), and a 2ft long split in the deck along the starboard rubrail. The verticals showed up in the first couple of years he owned the boat, and (I believe) was caused by too much rigging tension. I fixed them using the procedure specified in the manual. I fixed the longitudinal crack with marine epoxy internally and fiberglass externally.

 

[dcrunch]

I have 6 Foot crack at the rub rail. I am wondering how you repaired the crack in such a tight area.

Re: Boat weight -

According to the Owners Guide, the boat alone (for 1999 model) is 600 lbs unloaded.


Re: Hull cracks -

I got the boat from the original owner (a good friend of mine). The boat had been sitting in his yard for several years, bow down, and was full of water. The only damage on the hull was a handful of vertical hairline cracks at the rubrail (hull and deck, the longest was about 2 ft long), and a 2ft long split in the deck along the starboard rubrail. The verticals showed up in the first couple of years he owned the boat, and (I believe) was caused by too much rigging tension. I fixed them using the procedure specified in the manual. I fixed the longitudinal crack with marine epoxy internally and fiberglass externally.

 

[David Hall22685]

What I did was at the suggestion which was to replace the rub rail. I removed it with a hand router with a saw blade which did take some time, but was worth it. With the rail off, I repaired it in the usual way with fiberglass, devcon and spraypaint. Then after the fix, replaced the rail with a new one from Hunter and lots of superglue. If you choose this route, have plenty of people on hand to help with the rail. It is one long piece of hot (out of the oven) rub rail.

Good luck and blessings.