+1 for Al and all the folks there at sailboat owners. When I had some damage to my bow pulpit, Al was able to source a brand new one made from the original jigs and a very reasonable $ including the shipping. Less than half what it would have cost to have one built on site and it fit perfectly!
++1 for SBO. There is no support from Hunter - in fact, Hunter Marlowe is not Hunter, and folks have posted here that they've said that in years past when called for support on Hunter sailboats (when there was someone to call). So for all practical purposes SBO is **the** place to go for "Hunter" parts. They work to source parts from vendors and maintain that supply chain for us, and where "Hunter" parts are no longer available from vendors they source replacements that will work.
A good example - a few weeks ago the plastic clips that hold my cockpit table leaves to the metal frame shattered. They're important, because without them the leaves swing freely as the boat heels. Not good. Can't blame the parts - they were 13 years old and plastic just starts to get brittle and break at that stage. This site doesn't carry the "original" Hunter plastic clips, but they do have a replacement in stock which requires two clips per leaf instead of one, and required me to drill two additional small holes in the underside of the starboard table to mount them. And they work like gangbusters. And they were very inexpensive so I bought extras. And they shipped them quickly. Sure I could've figured something out on my own, but this is the right solution.
Another example - they had the FACTORY deck pinstriping in stock for my 13 year old boat, and it was cheaper than getting it made from one of the online specialty sites that only do decals/pinstriping, which wouldn't have been the same color either.
So as long as SBO is around I don't worry about getting Hunter specific parts. Heck, if SBO doesn't have it on the website you can call these guys, tell them what you're looking for, they'll UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT, and they'll try to find it! Who else DOES THAT?!?! West Marine? Wholesale Marine? Boats.net?
This is the first place I look for most parts for my 2009 H36, and I don't even quibble on price. I sense that they try to keep their prices very fair, which won't be a match for sale prices elsewhere - but so what? I consider it well worth not shopping sale prices for a lot of things that I can get here so that we can help keep these guys in business. We NEED them, and these guys are a business worth supporting with our checkbook.
