We bought a new Marlow Hunter 40 last year. It was a factory direct purchase that was delivered directly to our marina in Maryland. Two guys from the factory came up with the boat from Florida and did the commissioning and acceptance sea trials at our marina/boat yard. Dealing directly with the factory allowed me to customized some features on the boat. I made two trips to the factory while the boat was being built and met most of the guys working on the boat. I got to ask lots of questions, incorporate preferences and take photos before they put the liner and deck into the hull.
As Sailgunner surmised, they are no longer a production builder. All boats are customer ordered. There still are a couple of dealers, but most of the orders are factory direct. The factory is way oversized for the number of boats that they are building and looking to sell the property and build a much smaller production facility. There were 22 employees when they built my boat, most of them had been building Hunter sailboats for over 25 years. They did take several boats to the Miami and St. Petersburg boat shows last year. The Annapolis show is just too expensive for the number of boats they are building.
www.marlow-hunter.com
