Has any one added any great equipement or inprovements to the 306 or found any likes or dislikes with equipement or lay out of the 306.
- Status
- Not open for further replies.
J
Jim Bomar
Evaluation/Improvements/Complaints
Evaluation: Great sailing and motoring boat. Have had many sailboats and this is the best handling boat of all. Some minor complants below but nothing serious. Buy the in-mast furling, it is the greatest improvement to sailing gear since the GPS. Improvements: Added a NAVMAN 5500 GPS Chartplotter, a Dripless Shaft Seal and replaced the Danforth Anchor with a 22# DELTA. Complaints: Dinette table is always in the way and should have been bulkhead mounted. Problems with TANK-TENDER not working and the Anchor Windlass is more trouble than it is worth. I raise the anchor by hand now. Some delamination in the anchor well.
Evaluation: Great sailing and motoring boat. Have had many sailboats and this is the best handling boat of all. Some minor complants below but nothing serious. Buy the in-mast furling, it is the greatest improvement to sailing gear since the GPS. Improvements: Added a NAVMAN 5500 GPS Chartplotter, a Dripless Shaft Seal and replaced the Danforth Anchor with a 22# DELTA. Complaints: Dinette table is always in the way and should have been bulkhead mounted. Problems with TANK-TENDER not working and the Anchor Windlass is more trouble than it is worth. I raise the anchor by hand now. Some delamination in the anchor well.
Hunter 306 improvements
"Sailor 921: You will find that rain will blow in at each side of the top of the uppermost hatch board of a 2005 boat. This is not a Hunter-unique feature. So a canvas Hatch Combing Cover is in order to keep the interior dry when the boat is not in use. Also our main sail cover came with a Velcro strap to keep the main cover closed around the mast. Unfortunately there was nothing to Velcro it to, so the dealer has to get a mod made for the sail cover. Check all hatch screens for fit. Most of ours did not fit, but the dealer made good. Check for leaks at all cabin windows and ports. We found three or four, and also a leak at the pedestal base. (The pedestal base is used to run wires for any pedestal mounted electronic add-ons, so any watertightness you find there at time of delivery to the dealer, must be suspect after post-dealer delivery mods to the pedestal mounted electronics.) We think a ball valve add-on is in order just after the holding tank in the line from the holding tank to the macerator pump. This will prevent the line from filling up with fecal matter and sitting there for the season. Hunter's design never considered how a boat owner could empty this line without using the macerator pump to pump that stuf overboard (a big "no no" within the continental US). We haven't put one in yet, but the job would be much easier if the head has not yet been used (e.g. at delivery time). The added 8" Raymarine chart plotter has been really great. We added a 30 amp battery charger. We are adding a bimini for the Ches. Bay's hot summer sun, and a pedestal cover. It will also make the chart plotter easier to read in sunlight. We have added a remote vhf radio mike to the steering pedestal, and a GPS input to the VHF radio; a Raymarine auto pilot with GPS input; anemometer, depth and speed indicators. We added 5 Hella 12 volt fans. One each in the aft and fwd cabins, and three in the main. We also added the mandatory two coats of bottom paint, one hard and the second ablative. We used a different color for each coat so we can tell when the ablative needs freshening up. Hunter has really gone all the way in outfitting the boat. There is an isolation transformer for the AC elect. system. Although not often understood by boat owners, this is a big safety system. They put in piping fixtures (in the hot water tank plumbing system) for bypassing the tank (winterization requirement) by simply clipping together two pipe adaptors with no need to pipe in (add) a bypass kit. But unfortunately they then failed to include info in the owner's manual about how to use this great winterization feature. The Hunterowners.com forum is bereft of complaints re the 306, so this seems to bode well for the boat. Except for the above ones, we are quite happy with our 2005 model. The shallow draft and bimini are great for the Bay where shoal waters, hot weather and summer calms can sometimes make sailing here (someone else's quote) "like a root canal". Over all we think it is a great boat, and the best one for the Bay. It combines comfort and shallow draft features in a way that no bigger sailboat can match."
"Sailor 921: You will find that rain will blow in at each side of the top of the uppermost hatch board of a 2005 boat. This is not a Hunter-unique feature. So a canvas Hatch Combing Cover is in order to keep the interior dry when the boat is not in use. Also our main sail cover came with a Velcro strap to keep the main cover closed around the mast. Unfortunately there was nothing to Velcro it to, so the dealer has to get a mod made for the sail cover. Check all hatch screens for fit. Most of ours did not fit, but the dealer made good. Check for leaks at all cabin windows and ports. We found three or four, and also a leak at the pedestal base. (The pedestal base is used to run wires for any pedestal mounted electronic add-ons, so any watertightness you find there at time of delivery to the dealer, must be suspect after post-dealer delivery mods to the pedestal mounted electronics.) We think a ball valve add-on is in order just after the holding tank in the line from the holding tank to the macerator pump. This will prevent the line from filling up with fecal matter and sitting there for the season. Hunter's design never considered how a boat owner could empty this line without using the macerator pump to pump that stuf overboard (a big "no no" within the continental US). We haven't put one in yet, but the job would be much easier if the head has not yet been used (e.g. at delivery time). The added 8" Raymarine chart plotter has been really great. We added a 30 amp battery charger. We are adding a bimini for the Ches. Bay's hot summer sun, and a pedestal cover. It will also make the chart plotter easier to read in sunlight. We have added a remote vhf radio mike to the steering pedestal, and a GPS input to the VHF radio; a Raymarine auto pilot with GPS input; anemometer, depth and speed indicators. We added 5 Hella 12 volt fans. One each in the aft and fwd cabins, and three in the main. We also added the mandatory two coats of bottom paint, one hard and the second ablative. We used a different color for each coat so we can tell when the ablative needs freshening up. Hunter has really gone all the way in outfitting the boat. There is an isolation transformer for the AC elect. system. Although not often understood by boat owners, this is a big safety system. They put in piping fixtures (in the hot water tank plumbing system) for bypassing the tank (winterization requirement) by simply clipping together two pipe adaptors with no need to pipe in (add) a bypass kit. But unfortunately they then failed to include info in the owner's manual about how to use this great winterization feature. The Hunterowners.com forum is bereft of complaints re the 306, so this seems to bode well for the boat. Except for the above ones, we are quite happy with our 2005 model. The shallow draft and bimini are great for the Bay where shoal waters, hot weather and summer calms can sometimes make sailing here (someone else's quote) "like a root canal". Over all we think it is a great boat, and the best one for the Bay. It combines comfort and shallow draft features in a way that no bigger sailboat can match."
- Status
- Not open for further replies.