Trustworthy Builders

[sailingfool]

Originally Posted by camaraderie

I was just reading about a recent Hunter which was lost en route to Hawaii due primarily to its loss of a rudder in heavy conditions. Another poster, provided the following link about COMPOSITE rudder posts used on larger Hunters which Hunter issued in 2005. They offered a replacement option at reduced cost. Hunter said that it was aware of 16 such rudder post failures. See page 12 in the attached document for full details.
Since Hunter dealers and other brokers are still selling some of these older boats WITHOUT the fix I thought it would be appropriate to repeat this old news here where propective buyers might access it.

http://www.huntermarine.com/Images/P...2005TuneUp.pdf

I personally find it distressing that Hunter would not supply replacement rudders in the above situation. The company's announcement seems like a lot of gobblygok. It avoids admitting any repsonsibilty, and like the infamous Bavaria notice regarding keeling falling off their Match series, implies the problem really is due to owner abuse, such as running aground. (Some might think the builder should design the boat so it CAN run aground without damage).
Anyway, my question is, do owners of new boats from other builders find this type of support typical, or is Hunter once again the ugly duckling?

[camaraderie]

Well...they did say that in their opinion ONLY 3 of the 16 were due to their construction faults!
We're being told by others that this is a new era at Hunter and the boats are better. Yet this problem was addressed by their CURRENT management and they chose NOT to recall the boats for repair and NOT to do anything beyond providing a discounted repair process to owners.
I am not that suprised that such a problem exists with some boats but I am surprised at how it has been handled as I also have always been MOST impressed by their owner support organization and dedication to owner satisfaction when warranty issues arise. Now it seems we must question the current management's dedication customer safety issues when they might impact the bottom line.
It would be interesting to hear from someone at Hunter about why they did not formally notify all owners of this problem an offer to fix it for free or at least inspect it for free and fix any problems.
....and no...Hunter is not unique in this regard which is why I always recommend even new boat buyers get a survey before accepting delivery on new boats.

[T34C]

I found it interesting that even on the owners site that was linked on the other thread they were convinced that the issue HAD to be from user error and couldn't be a design defect. Must be that cool-aid they give you when you buy one.

If 16 out of the thousands of Chevy tahoes had the front wheels fall off while driving down a rough road I don't think they would call that driver error.

[sailingdog]

Unfortunately the laws the protect boaters from shoddy manufacturing seem to have fewer, if any, teeth than those protecting drivers from automakers' mistakes.