Hunter 290 questions

[Jeff 21307]

Hello all,
I am looking for some information regarding the H290. Can anyone share any positive and or negative experiences with this model? I am an experienced sailor, my most recent sailboats have been a Catalina 27, S2 27, and a Catalina 22. Specificallly, what are your experiences regarding boat handling under power, comfort under sail in heavy wind, ability to point, down wind performanc,e and would you consider the boat "tender"? My S2 would require a reef by 15 knots or she would round up after heeling quickly. My C27 was much more stable and able to handle more wind before reefing. My first mate does not like to be tossed about and prefers to sail flat as often as possible. Any input is appreciated!
Thank you,
Jeff

 

[Steve Dion]

Most of that era of Hunters are known to reef early reef often. Best to put in the first reef between 12-15 kts

 

[seadaddler]

Reef

I had a 290 non inmast for about 5 years and we loved it but as said most Hunters need to be reefed at bout 15 and my wife dislikes the heeling also,Most woman don't like the heeling and sailing flat is pretty hard on sailboats for sure.
I almost tried talking my wife into a buying a Gemini cat before buying our H-36 thinking less heeling and shallow draft for Florida but looking at them at the boat show she was not crazy about them and I was already in love with the 356/36 Hunters and now living in Florida for 5 years most hate them or love the Gemini are not the greatest sailing.
The nice thing about the 290 and most Hunters are easy to sail and if inmast easy to reef and the 290 was easy to handle all around motoring,not the fastest.
Nick

 

[Clark]

Agree with the others about reefing. We have a 280 which is very similar and I'd add that they are not-so-good off the wind without an asymm spinnaker. They have a lot of space below but the tradeoff is a tall hull with lots of windage.

 

[daddycool_4]

Re Hunter 290 Questions

Hi, I'm new here. I bought a 290 last year and I adore it. My wife is a slightly nervous sailor who also doesn't like the heeling motion but she is completely relaxed on the 290 in a way I've never seen before in our smaller cruisers, because of the large cockpit with good grab rails, very high boom and in-mast reefing - which means no venturing onto the foredeck and infinite reefing variations. She also enjoys - for the first time - helming; a wheel is so much more intuitive than the tiller of other boats.

The 290's no great shakes downwind but gives very acceptable perfomance on other sailing points. We too reef around 13 knots though yesterday a squall blew up suddenly around 25 knots and the boat neither screwed uncontrollably into the wind nor shipped anything on the sidedecks. We had both sails reset to smaller size in no time.

I think she's very nimble, turns sharply and, though there might be higher than average windage, this gives us no problem as we approach our swinging mooring.

There's fantastic space below but therein lies what I think is the only disadvantage, the trade-off being limited locker space in the cockpit and elsewhere.

I still think though this model is a perfect one for a couple sailing together.