Tell me about the Hunter 410

[rwidman]

Friends of our own one and they love it. We spent a week on it with them travelling from Charleston, SC to Daytona Beach, FL on the ICW. There was never a problem and it was comfortable.

[Wckoek]

Originally Posted by Dooglas

No, not particularly strong compared to a Valiant. I'd compare a Hunter to a Catalina.

There is one very nice Valiant asking for slightly cheaper price than 410, the 410 is faster and roomier of course.

Originally Posted by VanIslandGuy

No concerns at all with the strength of the boat. However for Vancouver to Hawaii, one of the longest point to point routes on the globe with zero places to stop along the way, I would prefer more waterline, and ideally would like to be in a catamaran designed for long distance cruising. The boat could do it, its just not my preferred vessel for going 30 continuous days at sea.

The biggest strike against the boat for what you are planning is that with the B&R rig, the gains made upwind are lost going dead downwind. I generally find sailing 20 degrees off dead downwind and gybing to course provides a better VMG and less rolling. I like the B&R rigs advantages enough that I can live with less performance on a dead run.

I see, I am thinking if it is good enough I can enter the Melbourne Osaka race.
Probably not suited to my local condition and use.
I am not too much a multihull person and mooring cost is more expensive in my region.

[C420sailor]

Originally Posted by onestepcsy37

The rudders fall off.

At least the front doesn’t fall off.

[Windpilot]

I've owned my 99 410 for 9 years, my 2nd Hunter after an H34.
Your own sailing skill and the actual boat condition and boat set up are what are most important I believe.
Lighter, faster, roomier or heavier, slower, a cave, compromising one way or another. But, the 410 is a very fine boat for the funds I had available, I also don't like the long heavy boom and zipping the stake pack, you need to be tall but I'm still on the original rudder, it hasn't fallen off yet lol.

[Eder]

Originally Posted by Wckoek

I am looking for one capable of crossing South China Sea or Philippines sea; if it wasn't strong enough to to trans-pac (California to Hawaii) probably it didn't meet my criteria even if it tick other boxes.

When I crossed to Polynesia 3 guys from Cali did it on their Hunter 31...they eventually continued on to New Zealand .
Plenty strong enough.

[Chris Cringle]

Well....if it was marketed as a "blue-water" boat, it must be a blue-water boat. Marketers wouldn't exagerate.

[S/V Illusion]

Originally Posted by Chris Cringle

Well....if it was marketed as a "blue-water" boat, it must be a blue-water boat. Marketers wouldn't exagerate.

The real issue here is that anyone with knowledge and/or experience sailing offshore doesn't ask if a boat is a "blue water" boat. The limiting factor isn't the boat.

[allegory]

People cross oceans on a row boat, boat is not the issue…

[Wckoek]

Originally Posted by S/V Illusion

The real issue here is that anyone with knowledge and/or experience sailing offshore doesn't ask if a boat is a "blue water" boat. The limiting factor isn't the boat.

I mean blue water boat to what degree, for many racers 300 miles offshore is considered bluewater, and lightweight Beneteau First etc would be seaworthy for that.
I am looking for something seaworthy to cross the ocean due to the location and destination I sail in.

Originally Posted by allegory

People cross oceans on a row boat, boat is not the issue…

An Ocean Crossing rowboat cost more than a used 410, last I ask is around 80k Euro for a 2 person boat.

[Wckoek]

Originally Posted by Windpilot

I've owned my 99 410 for 9 years, my 2nd Hunter after an H34.
Your own sailing skill and the actual boat condition and boat set up are what are most important I believe.
Lighter, faster, roomier or heavier, slower, a cave, compromising one way or another. But, the 410 is a very fine boat for the funds I had available, I also don't like the long heavy boom and zipping the stake pack, you need to be tall but I'm still on the original rudder, it hasn't fallen off yet lol.

Thanks, I hope I can talk to the owner if I can.

[feudalkaos]

We have lived aboard our Hunter 410 for 3 years now and have been happy. We are only doing costal cruising now so we cannot speak from experience on cross ocean travel.

The 410 is very comfortable and easy to sail in our experience. We find that we can get pointed and trimmed quickly then just relax.

I saw someone had suggested they are not CE rated but that is not correct. The 410 is CE class A rated and we have the placard indicating so.

She is very light weight which has upsides and downsides. She is pretty quick and very nimble but also can get pushed around a little bit in rougher seas.

The hull below the waterline is solid and is Kevlar reinforced to add strength and stability without a lot of weight. Above the waterline is cored with balsa which I'm not a fan of.

The deck is also cored with balsa. All deck hardware has backing plates embedded in the fiberglass.

All of the 410s were built in Florida but many were solid out of South Africa. All of those hulls were sailed to South Africa and not shipped so they can handle ocean crossing.

I also read a story about someone who took his 410 around Cape Horn in poor conditions with no noticeable issues.

The design seems to have a lot of thought put into it. Yes they went cheap in some areas but they all seem like areas that aren't such and issue. They made some more expensive choices that are surprising for a production boat.

Ultimately, the 410 is pretty comfortable and for a decent sailor van easily be taken across oceans. I wouldn't sail her into a hurricane but I wouldn't sail anything into one.

Also, if you want to ask any specific questions let me know. I am on-board ours pretty much every day!

[Goodboatguy]

I owned a hunter 40.5 legend. It had a large rudder, which made steering in reverse the easiest of any boat I’ve ever been on. The interior is decent and comfortable but the V birth is very small.

It had a very heavy shoal draft keel to compensate for the oversized rig. It’s sailed OK, nothing to write home about. I found the cockpit to be challenging to move around in. The wheel was in the way and the aft lockers that opened from inboard to outboard were very heavy and cumbersome. The open swim step was great, but surprisingly hard to access from a dinghy. Stepping out of the cockpit to go forward meant stepping on an outward sloping combing risking falling. The boom is very high and challenging to access for putting on the sail cover.

Mine was originally set up with CNG and was challenging to retrofit with propane because there was no place for a dedicated propane locker. CNG is very hard to find these days.

Working on the boat was a real challenge due to all the pan liners. Many parts of the plumbing and electrical system were completely inaccessible. Other parts were accessible but only by removing an insane amount of the interior. For example to access the holding tank under the floor required removing the settee and nav station furniture that were built over the top of the floorboards. The hoses from the forward head ran over 20 feet to this holding tank. We replaced the forward head with the composting head to eliminate the stink. The original holding tank was galvanized steel! Water tanks in the bilge were constructed by putting lids on the pan liner structural grid, but they flexed ever so slightly and the seals would loosen and leak and damage the floor boards because there was no clearance between the top of the tank and the floorboards. And to get to the tanks you have to remove the settee furniture. It was virtually impossible to run any new wiring from the helm to the electrical panel due lack of access.

Of course a lot of production boats have these problems. I think for long-term cruising you’d be better off getting a higher quality boat that minimizes use a pan liners so you have access to all the systems.

[Hamish_ct]

Hunters are known to b comfortable cruising boats, Fast? I wouldn't say they are fast. Winches tend to be undersized, like many cruising boats. Rigging tends to be undersized also. You can and many have sailed them around the world, but from my experience, a Hunter would not be on my list to buy. The build quality is ok, there are many other boats on the market that have stronger hulls, better rigging, bulkier steering systems, more balanced, and can actually perform.

I tend to laugh a little when people here say they are fast, they are not, short keel, smaller mast, can't point well, simple controls. If you like the boat and it fits your wishlist, you will be happy with your purchase, if you are going to do extended traveling on a boat, look around and compare.

Fair winds.

[sailorboy1]

Unlike those making guesses with no experience or knowledge of a Hunter 410:

I have had my 410 for 10 years, the last 5 years as full time cruiser. It has had ZERO problems with hull, deck, rudder, rigging. It is an easy to sail fast cruiser. Sails upright mostly with low weather helm. I once spend 3 days in gale conditions and the boat was way better with it than I was. You know what the biggest owner complain is about Hunter 410s? It is the refrigeration system before they changed from the water cooled ones to the AB air cooled one in 2001.

Hunter bashers like to feel they know all about each model because they heard a story at the bar, being said by a drunk who heard it in the marina parking lot, by a guy who part of a story while in the head. Or ................. read it on the internet.

[feudalkaos]

Originally Posted by Hamish_ct

Hunters are known to b comfortable cruising boats, Fast? I wouldn't say they are fast. Winches tend to be undersized, like many cruising boats. Rigging tends to be undersized also. You can and many have sailed them around the world, but from my experience, a Hunter would not be on my list to buy. The build quality is ok, there are many other boats on the market that have stronger hulls, better rigging, bulkier steering systems, more balanced, and can actually perform.

I tend to laugh a little when people here say they are fast, they are not, short keel, smaller mast, can't point well, simple controls. If you like the boat and it fits your wishlist, you will be happy with your purchase, if you are going to do extended traveling on a boat, look around and compare.

Fair winds.

Fast is a frame of reference. Compared to just about any other boat I have sailed on in the same size range, our 410 is fast. It out paces pretty much anything we sail near but we do not specifically race. Fast to me means faster than most other boats we run into, not fast compared to something built specifically to race.

Ours points extremely well also. In fact it points much better than most other boats I have been on. Also, the steering on ours is probably the most solid I have seen. It uses the Edson CDi steering system which uses very robust gears, a solid aluminum shaft on ball joints, and is a solid connection between the wheel and the rudder. It has no cables and so has virtually no play in the system and has very few failure points.

I agree that some older Hunters as well as some newer ones my fit some of what you have described but it does not reflect the 410 well. This series of boat made up for a lot of the previous short comings of the Passage and Legend series they produced.

Have you sailed on or experienced a 410 or are your thoughts from other Hunters?