Hunter Abandoned At Sea!

[R.W. Landau]

someone said

That the owner is registered on the owners pages. So who is going to e-mail him and ask all these questions for the preservation of those who follow?r.w.landau

 

[Rick D]

Let's Leave Him Alone

until he comes to the site on his own. He's got enough to do and recover from. The insurance process alone will keep him plenty busy. If he's like the rest of us, he'll be here in due time. We should just give it a rest in the meantime. Just my opinion. Rick D.

 

[Miles]

For those that missed the photo...

This is a different 376, not the one that was abandoned at sea. The photo was posted a few weeks ago and stirred up some controversy.It appears that Hunter secures the chainplates to the deck rather than the hull and then relies on the hull/deck joint to hold everything together and keep the rig up. In this case the joint failed. I'm sure this method makes it easier to assemble the boat but it really seems like a bad design. Shouldn't the chainplates be attached to the hull directly?I don't know if this is what happened in the latest case but it is a bit sobering...edit: can't insert link for some reason, you'll have to cut/paste...http://users3.ev1.net/~sailord/H376.jpg

 

[ss]

Ups

x

 

[Tom]

Miles, I saw your photo and all I can say is Wow !

Lets not assume that this is what happened to "Summer Heat" the H376 that is in the HOW group. From the original pictures it doesn't look like the hull came apart. But your picture opens up a lot of questions. I'm not sure, but it looks like the chain plate is through bolted tothe inside liner which might takes the stress down to the hull? Not sure though, it looks like the chainplate isn't attached to any glassed-in hull structure, just the deck? Was this an earlier H376 and have they changed this design since then? Is this attachment typical for Hunters. Is this the only point of attachment for the side shrouds?

 

[Rick D]

Composite 'chainplate', Tom

The Hunter chainplate is actually a composite structure element that is part of the hull and takes the loads directly from the attachment via bonded FRP sections. Since the rig loads on the B&R are at the hull itself (instead of being inboard as are the Legends), this should provide a very rigid and strong anchor. In this case, the bond was apparently defective, so the load did not get properly transferred. (You can think of it as what would happen if the tie rod on a legend broke. It would rip up the deck.) But, in any event, it wouldn't be correct to think that the rig is anchored to the deck. The rig is anchored to the hull as designed. RD

 

[Colin]

Hunter construction

Here is some info direct from the horses mouth on construction methods used in Hunters.I have to agree with all those suggesting we wait for the facts before jumping to conclusions.This is a great forum but folks do have a habit of not letting the facts get in the way of a good story! What actually happened to the 'abandoned' boat??Colin

 

[Tom]

Thanks Rick, so you are saying the the stress

from the chainplate on the deck is transfered to the hull via the bond at the "hull to deck joint". So in this case the bond (looks to be epoxy) didn't hold ? I don't see where there is any Fiberglass overlay on the hull to deck joint anywhere in these pictures.

 

[Miles]

As I understand it...

The 376 in the picture apparently had a faulty hull deck joint right in the area where the chainplate attaches. It looks like the hole in the deck for the fastener to go through was drilled too close to the edge and it ripped out. This far right picture shows this.What worries me a bit is that the chainplate seems to still be attached to the deck rather than the hull. In fact it's not clear that it was ever attached to the hull directly.I don't know the whole story on this incident but I can imagine that it could easily lead to rig failure as well as ripping off a large section of the deck. In rough conditions that would be very bad...

 

[Norm Freedman]

The story from someone at Hunter

I have no personal knowledge of this situation, but I pass on this information I received from a Hunter rep at the St. Pete boat show this past weekend. I think it's instructive because it adds to the frequently mentioned good advice to withhold judgement until we have some facts.According to this rep, the boat had been recently surveyed. The surveyor made a finding regarding some repairs to the rig. The owner chose not to follow the surveyor's advice to make them.Again, I have no personal knowledge as to if this is, in fact, the case. If it were, it would have a major impact on my thinking.