I have always found these to be really interesting and oddly appealing
boats. They are loosely based on Tuesday's Child which was Warren Luhrs Ostar transatlantic
racer. They offer a very good turn of speed on most points of sail and in a pretty wide range of windspeeds. I exchanged
email with a couple who beefed one up and did a
circumnavigation on the boat and were highly complimentary.
They are not especially roomy down below. A person that I exchanged
email with whose
family owned one called it the largest 40 footer he ever saw, which is to say that the narrow beam and the
dinghy garage takes quite a bit out of the
interior.
Build quality wise, they are supposedly better than you average Hunter. Hunter has always been good at building reasonably high quality, standards compliant systems (electrical,
plumbing and the like). Its the details that sometimes can be the fault of their boats. On the 54 the cast iron
steering quadrant and lack of
rudder post bearings can be a problem. Little things like hinges and
latches tend to fail.
Deck hardware was a little undersized and would be quite dated. And of course these boats are getting quite long in the tooth.
Deck coring and
blisters can be a problem. In other words, you are looking for one that has been carefully maintained and thoroughly upgraded over the years because the cost of upgrading and restoring a boat this big can be enormous.
With a PHRF rating in the 40's these are real fliers as far as cruising boats go. It should be remembered that at 21,000 lbs they are quite light for their waterline length and so will not have the carrying capacity of a heavier boat but will have a lot more carrying capacity than an identical weight boat of a shorter length.
Jeff
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