2004 Hunter 44 Deck Salon any opinions or experiences?

[Kenomac]

I'll send you a PM.

Ken

[RichandHelen]

We LOVE our boat. We would only only trade up to a Hylas, Passport or the like to have finer joinery and a true ocean-crossing vessel. I would not hesitate to recommend a well-cared-for Hunter.

[TomLewis]

Ahoy Capt. Kid,
I chartered a 44 DS in St. Pete in 2010. It was probably 5 yrs. old. I was at first intimidated with the size, but it handled easily.

Pros: My wife loved her own head forward and stateroom. She also loved the TV and other comforts. Generator, reefer, tunes, yanmar, etc... Sailed beautifully. Docked stern to so walked off onto the dock at Bradenton marina. (Very windy, took out a piece of the dock at Moores Stonecrab Eatery and didn't damage the boat at all.)

Cons: Unable to fully deploy furling main. Much windage with the cabin top at anchor.

Overall, loved the boat, not sure about longevity, but sure was sweet for the week we had it.

[RickDelaune]

So let's see ???? Warren Luhrs and Steve Pettengill with 300,000 miles racing boat offshore. And the rigorous testing and running Hunters aground and trying to tear the keels off and the history of the B&R rigs on the boats, it must be an Armchair Wanta Be Sailing Hack that would say anything about a baot they have obviously never sailed or crewed on or delivered for that matter.
Capt. Rick Delaune proud owner of a 1993 Hunter Passage 42. When everyone else on Lake Pontchartrain comes in cause it's blowing too hard. We are going out in 30 plus winds. And Lake Pontchartrain will beat the **** out of you with that wind strength. Single reef and 80% roller furling genoa. Just my 2 cents.
And the Beneteau that the keel broke off sailing back to UK after Antigua was a tragic reminder that any manufacturer is open to a failure every now and then. Have you ever seen the keel bolts on a Hunter ????
Smooth Sailing, Capt. Rick 90,000 miles and counting........

[RickDelaune]

Here is the article on the Hunter testing.......
Hunter's Own Crash'Test Dummy - SailboatOwners.com

forums.lancer.sailboatowners.com/attachment.php?attachmentid...d...

Interesting short read. Rick

[nolagal]

Nice read, thanks. Plus I'm hijacking this thread for a one time post. Nice to see there's another Hunter Passage 42 in Lake Ponchartrain. We sailed away in 2012 on Wahoo our own 1992 Hunter Passage and we're still doing just fine sailing around the Caribbean. Missing our New Orleans life is the only downside.

You can check us our at S/V WAHOO

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by sailpower

Lots of arm chair types seem to think that Hunters can't survive in the ocean.

I'm not a "chair type," I'm a former Hunter 450 passage owner.... I wouldn't trust our former Hunter beyond the sight of land. Neither would my good friend George... That's why both of us sold our 450's.

However... Our former boat would be just fine for the OPs intended purpose which sounds like island hopping and live aboard in the Caribbean. It would also be just fine in the Med for live aboard, but I would strongly recommend him shipping the boat across any ocean.

Sure the boat would probably survive an ocean crossing, but in the end, it would be cheaper to pay shipping instead of all the wear and tear and breakage experienced during a crossing. I think there's a video on YouTube of two guys crossing the Atlantic on a Hunter 50, it's difficult to even watch the video without throwing up.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tob5HcPKMVM

[sailpower]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

I wouldn't trust our former Hunter beyond the sight of land.

However... Our former boat would be just fine for the OPs intended purpose which sounds like island hopping and live aboard in the Caribbean. It would also be just fine in the Med for live aboard, but I would strongly recommend him shipping the boat across any ocean.

My original comment was obviously tongue in cheek as evidenced by the multiple smileys.

My second was a reference to the reaction that the mere mention of the name, Hunter, can have on these forums. Sailing to/in the Caribbean will necessitate some sailing out of sight of land so your type of response is what I was referring to except that you yourself are obviously not sitting in a chair.

Are there any numbers as to how many Hunters go down each year or comparisons of their sinkings compared to other brands? That could be useful.

It seems that there are a few 42 DS boats already doing what the OP wants to do so maybe they are a notch above the 450/50?

You are fortunate that you could move on to an Oyster. That is not the case for everyone.

[S/V Illusion]

Originally Posted by sailpower

My second was a reference to the reaction that the mere mention of the name, Hunter, can have on these forums.

If your experience is similar to mine, you may have mis-stated "on these forums". Having read many forums over many years, my take is it's limited to just a few internet prolific commenters who seemingly dwell on this forum.

Absent a child psychologist's participation here, we may never know why.


As to relative failure rate among different boat brands, I don't recall ever seeing any statistically valid samplings on which to make any objective judgments.

"sinkings" might not be a valid indicator of anything other than negligence of the operator.

[Cpt.Kid]

Thank you all for your posts these past few months have been an amazing learning experience and my wife and I have made our decision, the hunter that we were looking at was more of a project than we initially wanted as our first boat and we decided to go with a 2015 Jeanneau 349 after much study and research.

This boat fits us well and has brought more joy to my wife and I than I imagined, we just closed on "Zephyr" this past week .

[malbert73]

Originally Posted by Cpt.Kid

Thank you all for your posts these past few months have been an amazing learning experience and my wife and I have made our decision, the hunter that we were looking at was more of a project than we initially wanted as our first boat and we decided to go with a 2015 Jeanneau 349 after much study and research.

This boat fits us well and has brought more joy to my wife and I than I imagined, we just closed on "Zephyr" this past week .

Great! That will be a really good boat which will hopefully bring you more sailing and cruising joy than fixing joy. You may have avoided the trap of buying the biggest cheapest boat out there only to find the project list is more endless than on a usual boat.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Cpt.Kid]

Originally Posted by malbert73

Great! That will be a really good boat which will hopefully bring you more sailing and cruising joy than fixing joy. You may have avoided the trap of buying the biggest cheapest boat out there only to find the project list is more endless than on a usual boat.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

... and thanks to this forum and the power of the web that is exactly what I learned, there were plenty of videos that informed me on what to look at when buying a used boat and as soon as my list ran past 5 items and over 5k I was definitely turned off. We didn't want to have a project boat. so yes this boat of ours should bring us a lot more sailing and cruising joy.