Sights setting on a Catalina 36 - Thoughts before I purchase?

[jetlaggedchef]

I've been shopping for about 6 months. I don't own one yet, but I've been sailing a ton of different boats here in Florida. Because of price point, I've also been looking at the Hunter vs Catalina in the 35-38 foot range.

My feedback for your questions is:

1. Most people will seem to say that their main complaint with Hunters is that they're wide and slow. This is true, and while it's mostly a problem if you're trying to outrun a storm, the other (less mentioned) issue is that you need at least 8 knots of wind to move most of the Hunters. I've noticed that Hunter owners tend to motor a lot more than other sailboats. I don't know if it's because they're more in love with the *idea* of sailing versus actually sailing, or if it's just that there's often not enough wind to effectively sail them. In Florida, we're usually trying to get from point A to point B and there's a huge difference between sailing for 7 hours vs 11 hours when it's an every day thing, plus our wind is dead 6 months of the year and extremely unpredictable the other 6 months.

2. In my experience, the Hunter is *definitely* a lot more tender than the Catalina. A sudden gust of wind huts and it feels like the boat is going to flip. Any boat will heel, but it felt excessive and a bit unstable in the Hunter. I've never heard of one capsizing. but I think the extra tenderness would be uncomfortable to people without sea legs.

Another observations is that I've looked at Hunters from 1981 - 2016 and I've been overall impressed with the condition of them. I don't know if it reflects the quality of the build, or that they've spent their life sitting at a dock, or if their owners just maintain them better... but I've definitely noticed this compared to other boats here in Florida.

I am also attracted to the interior of the Hunter because of the size and price, but here in Florida where we often get intense quick storms with rough seas, I'm leaning towards a Catalina. As long as you intend to use the boat as described in your OP, it's probably a good fit because you generally have calmer, flat seas on San Diego with a fairly consistent source of smooth wind.

There are a lot of people on the internet who spend a lot of time making angry posts about disliking Hunters and the Hunter owners for the most part seem pretty silent, but perhaps it's because they're too busy out sailing to be posting about it.