Hunter, Catalina, and Beneteau''s 28-30'' or what?

[slimqs]

I am planning to cruise the florida bahamas area for a couple years it will be the first sailboat that I own and I am not sure of the seaworthiness of Hunter, Catalina, or Beneteau for that type of sailing. I need to buy something that is appprox. 35k total boat budget. I was hopping to get the boat for about 30k and plan about 5k in repairs and fixer up''s. I have heard that these boats may not be of high quality as some boats for sailing that area. Can you tell me what your opinion is on 28-30'' boats of those manufacturers or possibly other manufacturers that make a 28-30'' boat that might be more for the type of sailing I want to do. Only two people on board and plan to island hop mostly... Thank you.

[Mclion71]

Look for a Pearson 28 or 30.

[isail]

You might want to look at an allied seawind, a strong capable boat. The older pearson triton another solid boat.

[KenD]

I think hunter is claiming that thier 35 and up boats are offshore certified

[sailingfool]

My advice would be to first buy a good quality 23''-25'' and sail it for a year or two - you will learn a lot about what features are important and be better positioned for making and managing a bigger purchase.

In my opinion, Catalina is the Toyota of sailboats, and if that style fits for you, you won''t go wrong if you pay a premium price for a mint-condition boat. Keep away from "price" boats or fixer-uppers, as you haven''t yet the foggiest idea of how incredibly expensive repairs/replacements can be - understand that a "needs work" boat can easily be too expensive even if it were free...
Beneteau is a good quality boat, most models seem to lean towards performance at the cost of comfort - my 1986 First 305E had seven bunks but not one big enough for me (5''10"!) - nice performance but a lousy cruiser.
Many folks see Hunter as an entry level price boat with widely varying quality (between terrible and OK), you might look at:
http://www.yachtsurvey.com/boatreviews/hunter28.htm
to see how many mistakes can get packaged into only 28''. While this article slams this particular model, I think many of the issues that it raises are not unusual in other boats, and take experience for the buyer to recognize.

Good luck and happy sailing.

[kmeeks]

Hello,

Last year I was looking at many of the same types of boats that you have expressed an interest in considering.

Here are a few of my observations:

- Some of the Catalina''s had the worst layouts / installation of water and fuel tanks. As you look at different boats - ask yourself, how hard would it be to replace the tanks.

- I did not look at older Hunter''s - my experience looking at newer Hunter''s lead me to believe that there might be better quality boats from other vendors...for less money.

- Compared to Catalina''s - I really liked the Ericson''s that I looked at.

- The older Columbia''s I looked at gave me a sense of "solid" hull construction. Nothing too terribly scientific in that analysis - just the feeling of moving about on the boat - and tapping the hulls.

- I have been reading many reviews, ship logs, and books of voyage accounts - also many accounts of retrofits of typical coastal cruisers for doing off-shore work...in that vein, I have been lead to believe that the Cal-25, Cape Dory, Tartan, and Pearson Triton are worth considering.

For an interesting read, visit

http://www.yachtatom.com/