|
I'm new to sailing and recently bought my first boat. We looked at a lot of Hunters and Catalina's during our search. I'm no expert, but it seems to me Hunters have a lot of features to attract folks like me that are new to sailing, while Catalina's strengths are targeted towards a more experienced consumer. As a sailboat neophyte, the cabin of a Hunter 31 looks great compared to a Catalina 30's fiberglass tub. However, both boats are similar in construction, Hunter just dresses the interior in wood laminate so it looks nicer. As I read and looked at a lot of boats, I came to feel that Catalina was a somewhat better built boat where it matters at the expense of some of the comfort/style features of the Hunter. I think the prices of used Catalina's indicate a lot of folks feel the same.
We ended up buying an O'day that, to us had some of the best features of the both the Catalinas and the Hunters. As others have said, owning a sailboat is about having fun and people define that very differently, so you have to pick a boat you think fits your situation. For my current situation (Learning, sailing in the Chesapeake) a Cat or Hunter would suit just as well as the boat I bought, just the O'day we found offerd the best value for us.
|