Hunters 'creampuffs' and other pretty faces....;-)

[William]

New Math???

I don't really get where this thread is going other than bashing Hunter for one bad boat that most likely had less to do with them than the PO. But the statement was made that older Hunters are selling for the same as older HC's. I looked at the prices shown in an earlier post and I am lost. The Hunters seem to be going for the mid 30s to mid 40s and the HCs are upwards of 60s and 70s. That is a huge spread...at least in my wallet.

I am not a Hunter owner but I would never rule out one for a future purchase. They make a nice boat. NO company builds a perfect boat and not everyone can layout the cash for a new Hylas

 

[Ross]

William, The Hunter Boats are a successful

product for today's market! Their predecessors were excellent boats most of which are still in service but not market place successes. The Hunters and the Catalinas are compromises between excellent boats and market place successes. Most of the time for most people those brands meet the needs of their owners. Don't for a minute start to believe that they are top quality cruising boats. They don't make that claim and knowledgeable people will never attach it to them

 

[William]

I agree Ross

Ross. I agree totally. I was just trying to understand the reasoning behind the $20k-40k spread being considered close.

 

[Jim]

Ross, is almost right

They are top quality coastal cruising boats but not top quality offshore boats but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There all all different classification for sailboats. They are all built for different reasons. For instance, Ross boat is build stronger than my Catalina but my boat is a lot nicer inside. Everything is a trade off.

 

[Rick D]

Oh Geesh...

..it's nice to see that Hunter owners are not jumping all over here defending their boats. They don't need to anymore. Hunters are all over the globe, cruise coastal and offshore, can be seen in most cruising grounds, and even win a few races. It used to be that the drone of disinformation and bias caused us to circle the wagons and defend our purchases, but it's grown tedious and unnecessary just like Catalina and Beneteau owners I'd guess. The whole notion of 'best boat' is a bit silly, even given some criteria as 'cruising' or 'racing' since some interesting and non-norm boats do well in both categories. And, I won't go into the 'issues' I've seen on plenty of boats the folks seem to deify in these threads, as if their failures somehow make other maligned boats rise in people's opinion. Good grief, people are largely smart enough to consider the relative merits of various boats and make decent decisions. And, lots of boats are good boats. As far as the 'offshore suitability' I'd like to suggest that is a lot more than just passagemaking, so there are a lot of other factors to consider as well. Further, most people considering some years of cruising are going to wind up with a modification and to-do list that would apply to most boats anyway to make them really suitable for living aboard for an extended time. Aw, heck, I guess I did allow myself to get sucked into this *grr Rick D.

 

[cat38skip]

Vitriolic egoism

I am risking adding fuel to this pyre and eliciting some personal attacks...

I have watched various streams-of-consiousness on this site that usually stem from some individual's tesosterone-driven " my boat is better than thou's " comments.
In this case, I would suggest that Ron does a search on Freedom Yachts mast failures and then lightens up on the odd failure of a Hunter keel.
Or consider that Freedom Yachts has a serious design or manufacturing problem with repeated mast failures and he not stray too far from Richardson Bay.

 

[Buck Harrison]

Rick Is Right On ...

As we speak, hundreds of Hunters ARE sailing (and crossing oceans) all over the world. I guess the owners of these boats never got the word that they are "offshore unsuitable", and ...
"Don't for a minute start to believe that they are top quality cruising boats".
Come on Ross ! ! .. Go to any harbor in the Bahamas, Carribbean, or South Pacific. Odd are, you'll see one or more Hunters. You might want to express your opinion to their owners and receive a good laugh.
If Hank Metzler(?) in Vanuatu reads this I'm sure he's smiling.
You may also be amazed to see what types of boats some people actually cruise all over the world in. I have personally seen boat that I wouldn't consider seaworthy enough to cross from Harve de Grass to the Sasafrass, that have sailed thousands of miles across the Pacific!

 

[Rob]

FWIW

I had a Cherubini 25 which I bought after Hurricane Katrina cheap. I found out it had a broken keel (could make it flex 6 or 8 inches from center, either way, with one hand and little effort). Most probably storm damage, but who knows. My partner did go aground once in soft mud? We sailed the boat in lake Ponchartrain for a couple of months before we found the damage. It was so slow we thought the bottom was fouled an had it hauled for a bottom job. This lesson taught me the value of a survey, or at least a haulout and thorough inspection even on a dirt cheap boat because of the potential danger we faced. Lesson learned.
FWIW here is a marine surveyors take on a Hunter 28, and in a way on Hunter, you draw your own conclusions:
http://www.yachtsurvey.com/boatreviews/hunter28.htm

 

[Ken]

Yeah but

"Some of the more common problems encountered include deteriorated deck cores, compression fatigue at the mast step, failed wooden spreaders, failure of lower chain plate attachments on older model boats, leaks and separation at the keel to hull joint and delamination and damage along the vulnerable deck to hull joint caused generally from minor docking incidents over the years. "

US Boat review of Catalina 30

These are some of the problems encountered with the most popular 30' sailboat ever produced (catalina 30). They all have problems, not just Hunter.

 

[Rob]

Exactly

"They all have problems, not just Hunter." Is kind of the gist of Pascoe's review. IE his last line. Not really trying to pick on Hunter, just thought it was relevant.

 

[Ross]

Buck, I never suggested that a Hunter build boat

would kill you if you took it out of sight of land. I said that most of the production boat being built today including Hunter are NOT first class cruising boats. Would you or any one you know swap a Pacific Seacraft or a Hinkley, or a Morris built Bristol channel cutter for a Hunter or a Catalina. Hunters are nice boats but they need a lot of praise to keep their market share.