Hunter, Catalina, Benneteau Debate

[sailtheworld79]

While I know this post is going to (in all likelihood) generate an argument I feel it needs to be rehashed for the millionth time and here's why. Hunter and Catalina get a bad rap for no good reason. Benneteau and Jeanneau seem to be well loved for no good reason; allow me to explain myself.

While it is true that Hunter made some less than desirable boats during certain model years there were also periods where their boats were not only good but excellent. Catalina has been a never changing rock more or less since it's inception. Some less than desirable designs and some less than desirable sailing characteristics in certain models sure but their build quality has always remained the same.

Then we have Group Benneteau boats. Iron keels attached to the hull with lags that rust instead of J bolts in lead. This is a built in failure but they were designed to fail. No tabbed bulkheads. Cheap (and subjectively ugly) veneers. Ridiculously shallow bilges. I could go on and on. Benneteau builds boats for one purpose: the charter market. Yes they sell boats to Jonny boat owner but their main market is the charter fleets. As such they have a designed end of life so the charter companies continue to buy new ones.

During the best years of Hunter's production (2003 to 2007) the larger cruising boats had tabbed bulkheads. Deep bilges. Kevlar in the load areas. Lead keels attached with oversized J bolts and backers. Further, the interiors were stick built instead of having exposed fiberglass everywhere in the furniture. You can take apart every piece of furniture in a Hunter and modify or rebuild it to your hearts content. They're fast, handle extremely well and have a ton of space. Folks gripe about the B&R rigs but those folks are completely ignorant as to the engineering of said rig. It's simple geometry and if you maintain it, it'll take you anywhere.

Catalina being the manufacturing rock they are has never really changed their construction methods. Hand laid hull, lead keel, hull pan, deck mold with a shoebox joint. You really can't go wrong buying the mkii version of any of them. Yeah, some of the mki versions didn't do so hot off the wind and some of them had really poorly designed rudders but their larger boats make excellent cruisers for pretty much anywhere. No radical designs (Benneteau Jeanneau) just a solid cruising boat for the ages.

And to me. I've restored, refit and delivered boats for the last 20 years and currently work in management for a sailboat manufacturer who will remain nameless (not Catalina or Hunter). I've been aboard and sailed long miles on all of the boats mentioned and I'm well versed on how they're all put together and what their shortcomings are. I've owned 2 Catalina's an O'Day an Irwin, a custom Rhodes design, a Hunter (to name a few) and a bunch of sailing dinghies. I would love it if ANY of you can objectively tell me why a Hunter built between 2003 and 2007 or a Catalina of any vintage is a bad boat and I'd really love it if ANY of you can tell me why ANY Group Benneteau boat from ANY vintage is a good boat. I wish you luck, let the "discussion" begin