The Skinny on Hunters and Catalinas

[camaraderie]

Joe bob? who the heck is joe bob?

Intrepid Sailor and Trapper Joe Bob (g)

[Valiente]

Originally Posted by Gene T

Don't be silly. A 12 foot drop on asphalt will destroy almost every boat. I doubt any boat could be floated the next day. So I would guess the other boat was dropped from less than 12 feet or it hit the cradle first and that took the brunt of the energy. That is not to say one brand would fair better than another.

I check out all the pictures of hurricane damaged boats and Hunters seem to fair poorly. I should point out that there are a lot of Hunters out there, so they would have more damaged boats than other brands. But the hulls seem to be thin and the hull/deck joint looks weak based on the damage.

Yeah, I'm aware that 12 feet would cream most boats, but I did mention that the Alberg hit the cradle first and mashed that. What was more telling to me (and again, it happened to be a Hunter 28) was the fairly systematic nature of the failures on the nose-dived Hunter.

I saw a row of boats tipped in their cradles by an 80-knot plus gale here last winter, and I was surprised at how different the levels of damage were for superficially sized and typed boats. That's all I'm attempting to say, really: that there are some quantifiable engineering or construction differences between certain designs (or the way in which they are executed) that allows some boats, seemingly, to survive a beating that others manifestly cannot.

Whether this is relevant or important to the individual sailor is a matter of choice, but I would argue that terms like "blue water capable" and certain international classifications of seaworthiness may not be (no pun intended) all they are cracked up to be.

[dgarr75456]

I have 30 years sailing experience and have owned Catalinas and Hunters. Each have their advantages and disadvantages, but I have no serious qualms with either. The new Henderson Hunters are good values for the money, are designed well and perform well.

[davidpm]

Originally Posted by k1vsk

Over the past season, had occasion to help two people install thruhulls in the fwd section of their boats, one a Catalina and the second a Hunter of the same era, both late 1990s and both 40 ft LOA approx. We compared the hull layup in terms of thickness which is about the only realistic comparison without knowing the layup schedule and they were indistinguishable. ....

What exactly did you find? How thick was it? Any way to detemine the number of layers?

[k1vsk]

Originally Posted by davidpm

What exactly did you find? How thick was it? Any way to detemine the number of layers?

David
Bad timing - just returned from the boat where I keep the cores but have not looked at them in a while - as I recall, both were approx .5 to .75 inches thick but that's a guess. Couldn't differentiate the composition to count layers. One thing I'd be interesed in is what type and how thick the Kevlar is in the newer Hunter bows.

[Daedalus]

Wow, I left this thread for a couple of days. I had no idea I would be stirring up so much "stuff". I do thank each and every one of you for your impressions. This is all very helpful to me! As a first time buyer, I am so very glad to have a community of people who really know their business. Very reassuring. I can't wait to let you all know how this turns out!
Cheers,
Daedalus

[Valiente]

With any popular production boat, there are general things to observe within the model lines. Certain builders have "off" years, in which economic forces, a change in management, the inability to hold on to skilled workers, or a resistance to making necessary fixes pointed out by the customers, can yield "bad runs" (or rather, runs that could have been better).

For C&C, it's "don't buy the Mega 30" and "watch out for the damn wet balsa-cored decks", for instance. The current C&Cs are coming in for criticism related to construction robustness as well...whether it's justified I leave to those who drive them.

Hunter may be building great boats today, and has built decent boats in the past, but they aren't the first to have uncomplimentary things said about their products. Beneteau has gone through a couple of rough patches and arguably sub-par designs as well.

My point is that further investigation will frequently yield well-researched and well-supported reasons to favour one model over another, or one year over another, despite the fact that two boats from the same builder might be superficially alike.

If you want a Catalina or a Hunter, I would suggest joining on-line discussion groups to give you the greatest sampling of opinions from which to form your own.

[Sailormann]

Well Daedalus, the only thing to do is be safe and buy a CS. They're faster and as a bonus there's a tad more 'cachet' associated with owning one ...

[bestfriend]

I raise my snifter of Brandy to the gentleman in the CS30. You Sir, are obviously a man possessing great insight.

[sailingfool]

Originally Posted by Sequitur

Whenever I see such distorted opinions, I tend to search for the motivation behind them. Among the obvious reasons could be:

• There is a personal axe to grind
• The opinion isn't owned, but is simply adopted from the erroneous diatribes of others and redistributed without validation
• The person spewing the venom works for, or has an interest in a competing company
• The person slamming others is compensating for personal feelings of inadequacy

Fool, even after seven-and-a-half years posting on this board, you appear to be too insecure to provide any information at all on your own boat or on yourself in your profile. Is this insecurity, or is it because you really do work for a company in competition with Hunter, and you don't want to show your hand?

Sequitur,

This thread is about Hunters, not me, seems your post is 100% ad hominen, perhaps a predicable if desperate tactic when faced with the alternative of defending the indefensible.

As to my opinion being distorted, maybe you should expand your personal perspective. I suggest you read some of the following threads which happen to cover similar material and then assess whether my point of view is unusual:
http://www.sailinganarchy.com/forums...1476&hl=hunter
http://www.sailinganarchy.com/forums...1312&hl=hunter
http://www.sailinganarchy.com/forums...2928&hl=hunter
http://www.sailinganarchy.com/forums...2928&hl=hunter
http://www.sailinganarchy.com/forums...2042&hl=hunter
http://www.sailinganarchy.com/forums...9298&hl=hunter
http://www.sailinganarchy.com/forums...4845&hl=hunter

The above is just a sampling of dozens of similar threads. I'd suggest that such threads support my dim perspective of Hunter's history as at least common, if not mainstream, in the experienced sailing community.

As to my insecurity, members who have been around a while have had the fortunate (or not so fortunate, certainly opinions here may vary...) opportunity to read dozens of threads where I have shared my personal boating experiences, what I own and have owned, and I've even had my ugly mug posted (hard to hide if you associate with that Giu fellow)...Ditto for the Photo Gallery.

You might want to learn your way around...


PS - as I ended my first post in this tread "To Hunter owners who have found boats that work for them, well congratulations and enjoy, different strokes for different folks." and I sincerely mean it. I have no problem with people liking things I don't...makes the world go 'round..they can still be good people...except Yankee fans of course.