Looking at Purchasing a H306

[gladwish]

Hi like everyone who has gone through this process before us we have been looking to purchase a used Hunter and have two great boats that we are interested in. The fist boat is a H310 and the second boat is a H306. Both boats are very nice and would our needs / requirements but I do have a concern regarding the sail area of the 306. When I look at the sail area of 350sq/ft and 7150 lbs it seem to indicate that this boat might not be such a great performer in light winds?

Any comments from 306 owners would be greatly appreciated. We will be using the boat on Lake Ontario where we get our share of light wind versus coastal locations

Thanks you in advance for any sort of insight.

Andrew

 

[Deadline]

Wimpy sails

Hunter is notorious for under-powering its sails, ostensibly as a safety factor since they assert 95% of owners aren't in it for speed. Your short-term solution is to have a genoa built locally for the foresail. It will do wonders for speed. Keep the jib as a backup. When you get around to replacing the main, get it slightly bigger--again by a local sailmaker. In any event, buy a used spinnaker to sail downwind in style and speedy.

 

[TomN]

Hi like everyone who has gone through this process before us we have been looking to purchase a used Hunter and have two great boats that we are interested in. The fist boat is a H310 and the second boat is a H306. Both boats are very nice and would our needs / requirements but I do have a concern regarding the sail area of the 306. When I look at the sail area of 350sq/ft and 7150 lbs it seem to indicate that this boat might not be such a great performer in light winds?

Any comments from 306 owners would be greatly appreciated. We will be using the boat on Lake Ontario where we get our share of light wind versus coastal locations

Thanks you in advance for any sort of insight.

Andrew

Have owned a 306 for a few seasons now and enjoy it very much. We sail on Lake Erie in 5-15 Knot winds...Never felt like we were underpowered to be honest. Take this for what it's worth as I'm not a racer or performance hound at all. We treat her as more of a "Wine and Cheese" boat and don't really care how long it takes to get where we are going. We usually do one really long trip each season. The rest of the time we day sail a few hours here or there on the weekends. She moves pretty will in winds over 15 and I've never really felt overpowered...yet.

 

[gladwish]

Thanks for the insight. We know the Hunters with the B and R rigs are not high performance racers but also don't want to have to turn the motor on in light winds

Your wine and cheese sails sounds very much like the intent of our boat.

Good to hear from other owners

 

[Hannah Quinn]

We have a H306 and absolutely love it! We sail along on the Nova Scotia and do a lot of Basin sailing as well. We have never felt it underpowered. Handles very well and able to cruise comfortably 6+ knots with ease. We have spent up to two weeks at a time on board and felt very safe.

 

[ScottsHunter306]

I've got the stock sails on my 306, only issue I find is downwind, although whisker pole helps a lot. Ive found enough occasions to require reefing. Love the boat, great mix of function and fun.