Quick Setup for the Hunter 216

[Ranger Paul18580]

Anohter H-216 Improvement

I had trouble with moisture in the cuddy this winter and wanted to improve the ventilation so I drilled a bunch of holes (at an upward angle obviously to prevent water intrusion...duh) in both the upper and lower Star Board cuddy door pieces.BUT...I did it with **class**. Using a piece of butcher paper, I made an outline of the stylized sailboat Hunter uses as their logo. I used different size bowls to make the outline. Then I marked where I was going to drill 1/8" holes. I then make a jig for my drill (using my old Portalign) to keep the angle constant. I then taped the butcher paper to my Sea Board pieces and drilled my little heart out. It came out looking really "kewl".I put one set of holes in the middle of the top and bottom pieces. This, of course, gets covered up with the locking strap. Drat! If I were to do it again, I'd put two patterns on both the top and bottom pieces so they would show better.

 

[Lamar Sumerlin]

List of Upgrades

I purchased a 2004 model H216 new. Under your category of "Other", my dealer had to install new ball bearings in the cassette rudder assembly. The original bearings absorded water and apparently swelled such that the increase in diameter made it difficult to move the tiller around. I don't know how widespread the problem was in other model years for the boat, but it was an upgrade for a lot of the 2004 boats.

 

[Mr.Ernie]

Rudder bearing replacement

This problem exists for all of the earlier boats. Hunter has acknowledged it and will send out a replacement set of bearings. We have not installed them on our boat as yet but during a race, we did have the bearings swell up and make steering a little difficult. As a temporary fix, we sprayed "Sail-Kote" down into the slot and it worked just fine. (This is not just a salt or fresh water problem.)Unfortunately, we do not have a dealer close by or I'd have them replace them as it is certainly a warranty problem.

 

[Mr.Ernie]

Relocation of Jib fairleads

Paul, how about a picture or two of the new placement of the jib fairleads once you finalize them.

 

[John]

ventilation picts too

wouldn't mind see picts of your ventilated cuddy too....

 

[Ranger Paul]

Dang! Camera smoked today!

OK, as per you-alls request, I took my camera to take pictures of all the improvements/tweaks I have made to my Hunter 216 today (BTW: Total AWESOME day of sailing...we were smokin'!) and the camera did not work. Sigh... There is a bunch of other tweaks I have made that make my life easier, my boat dryer, my boat neater, etc. that I was going to include, e.g., my Binford Mark IV Masthead Telltale.I'm afraid this thread will archive before I get my camera fixed or a new camera, but when I do I'll photo doc everything I've done. I usually do one tweak every two weeks...call me anal.Winds cooking today 15-20 mph...gusts probably in the 25 range. We reefed the main...we were also short rail meat as my neighbor and I just decided to splash the beast on the spur of the moment. With reefed main, heel averaged 10 degrees and never got much more than 20...perfect (I have a "heel-o-meter"). The local lead dragger club (I belong to the local dinghy club) was racing so we kind of tagged along, keeping well clear of course. We were not flying the spinnaker (thought that would be too much for my neighbor who measures his sailing experience in minutes!). My boat is fast compared to the lead dragger's. Downwind we were gaining on a monster Olson(?) 36 flying a masthead MONSTER spinnaker.Only boat in the lead dragger club I am impressed with is the Ranger 26 owned by the club commodore. I can take him but it is a good fight.

 

[Mr.Ernie]

Sounds Great - Good comparison

FYI, The Ranger 26 has a Portsmouth rating of 86.4 and the H-216 is at 92.0 which is on the high end of what the boat is designed for (87.5-91.7.)Our club will not allow us to race with the rest of the big boats unless we'll accept a Portsmouth of 86.7 or below. At 86.7 we've won the first two summer series races. From your results today, it looks like a PM of 86.5-87.0 is going to be a fair number for H-216s to use.Anyone else having any results to share?Looking farward to the pix.