[Jeff_H]

I probably should have explained that the online discussion (from which was the quote in my prior post was taken) took place 6 months to a year before the EU finalized the Directive and actually began certifying boats. At that point in time the only boats that were certified were boats that were submitted during the pilot program, At that point in time Hunter beleived that they were the only US company that submitted a boat to the pilot program. I attached that quote to answer your question regarding why I thought that Island Packets claim that they were the first US company to obtain a CE Open Ocean rating was bogus.

So to answer you questions, "Was your spokesperson talking through his hat? Was he lying? Was he bluffing?" To begin with, this was not a salesman but one the top people within Hunter''s research and development department. He was not talking through his hat, he was not lying, he was not bluffing, He was stating the facts as they existed at the time, which were that he believed that all non-trailerable Hunters over 30 feet were capable of meeting the then current standards. They were not certified because you could not get a whole line of boats certified yet. The 306 is a very new model and did not exist at the time of this discussion. While this may be splitting hairs, Mr. Bohart said that all Hunters over 30 feet were qualitified and if you look at the literature, the 306 is actually under 30 feet in length.

I sincerely suggest that you look at the actual CE Directive for Recreational Water Craft for yourself instead of relying on hype from boat builder advertising. From your statements it would appear you clearly do not seem to understand what the EU certification process is intended to do.

I also think that you are mistaken when you characterize my comments as ''unkind''. I don''t think they were unkind at all, they simply reflected the reality of the design philosophy expounded by Catalina and the realities of the Catalinas relative to C&C''s.

Jeff