My guess? Because Hunter is one of those builders who makes sailing available to the masses, and some just don't appreciate that... Some would rather be the only ones out in their one hundred thousand foot yachts looking down at the mortals...

 

I actually don't really care for there looks. Post a pic of the one your looking at. I'm curious?

Edit:
Is this one? Actually quite nice looking.

 

Actually Hunters are nice boats. I had a hunter 23, I really love the old Cheribini hunter 33s too. I don't like the vision's non traditional mast.

 

I like some Hunters (at least to look at) but not all. I would take a few models offshore but a very few. That goes for most production coastal cruiser types though and there have been many discussions about why so I won't get into that here. For coastal, in the Sound type of cruising, yeah, they're nice, roomy boats. Those same things rule them out for offshore in my book.

 

This is why: Boat Review by David Pascoe - Hunter 28

Many (older) Hunters were just all show and no go. They utilized bad construction techniques that just didn't stand up to the rigors of on the water usage. Even when Hunter used sound construction theories in their construction, the execution during construction was also sub-par resulting in boats that had many maintenance issues.

Now, newer Hunters have fixed many of these concerns. But the brand took a big hit in the past and it takes time for the perception once establishd to fade away....especially in the market Hunter participates in, where Catalina has been building boring but reliable designs for years and Beneteau just kills everyone on pricing because of their volume.

 

Hunter has almost always danced to their own drummer with results that can be viewed as both good and not so good. An example of the good is that they were one of the first U.S. boat manufacturers to completely adhere to ABS and ABYC standards. Surveryors have commented that Hunter more than almost any large production manufacturer does an extremely concienscous job on their various systems installations.

One the other side of the coin, Hunter has experimented with "innovative rigs, structural systems and styling" which have been panned in the court of public opinion.

My sense is that Hunter is no worse than any other large scale builder. Their boats are clearly built to a price point and a specific market and as such contain some very real compromises, but these are the types of compromises that one might expect in a family oriented, budget oriented boat. The case can be made from a variety of perspectives that Hunter is not ideal for everyone, and from most standpoints it can be argued that Hunter has made some mistakes over the years. (I would argue that from my perspective their 'Goes the Distance' ad campaign, which was seen as suggesting that the average Hunter was intended for offshore use, was at eroneously misleading. Ialso am not a fan of glued in bulkheads or outward flange hull to deck joints on bigger boats.) Still, I think that Hunter generally offers a nice product, albeit iteosyncratic, for the dollar and it is those iteosyncracies that draw a lot of fire.

Respectfully,
Jeff

 

Aside from having to beach one when the hull/deck seam opened up, I have no issues with them.

 

Got any pics of it? There was one a few years ago that had the same thing happen but the pics were quickly removed from the net. Over all I find them decent boats at a decent price, for the purpose they were intended for..

 

If you love the boat, buy it.

My take on newer Hunters (based on a 45 cc and a 44 ds):

• The B and R rig appears to have been used to permit a high roach main by the elimination of the backstay, but the standard main is in-mast furling (another story)
• - The B and R rig makes broad reaching difficult and running nearly impossible.
• - The interior is clearly not designed for an overnight, let alone an offshore, sail.
  • There not enough grab handles below to move around under way.
  • There are no sea berths and the full mattress in the aft cabin makes a lee cloth difficult to install.
  • The floor boards are loose. (On a trip around Cape Scott, one came out, flew across the sole and nearly hit the owner sleeping on the floor - see earlier comment about aft cabin)
  • The stove is a nightmare:
    • The handle on the oven door prevents the stove from gimballing properly as it hits the grab rail.
    • The rails are too low for the pot handles
    • It is an RV stove

They are very roomy and have some nice touches, but ...

 

A lot of these criticisms above could equally be applied to many Catalinas and almost all Beneteaus with which I have had experience, i.e., lack of handholds, loose deck plates, no sea berths, RV styling, etc.. Perceptions vary.

Having owned a Hunter Legend series in the past, I've also wondered why some seem to criticize them and considered the reasons to typically be that some people simply criticize as a means to sound more knowledgeable than they actually are.

More importantly, I've seen and been on Hunters which have circumnavigated and among fulltime cruisers, none have ever even thought to criticize a specific boat brand generically as some so frequently do here.

All boats, regardless of the nameplate on them, have system problems, structural issues, etc... which Hunter shares with their market competitors.
They all use similar fiberglass build schedules, tabbing methods, hull liners, etc... Criticizing one specific brand as a general statement is telling only of the author's mindset.

 

Hunters are great bang for the buck and I have sailed 6 of them and every one amazed me with some irrational piece of design...They are the best 'Winnebagos' and about the worst off-shore sailboats out there.

Great marina queens and coastal cruisers..

 

If you are concerned about what others think of your boat, if you feel that a boat you like is "bashed," maybe the problem isn't the boat.

 

Dude, we're talking Hunter here. Wake up man! Heh-heh.

However, I think you could turn the above into a lovely haiku.

 

I've sailed a couple Hunters and been very happy with their performance. These were post '95 models, so I can't make a judgment about the earlier builds that may have had structural problems. I have a friend with a 3 year old Catalina that's been plagued with a laundry list of issues. So per the previous posts - any company will have it's detractors. I think that sailors making negative comments about Hunters just haven't been aboard any recent models or sailed the boats themselves.

 

If you think the Hunter hate is bad...

Get a load of the MacGregor hate!!

 

"I think that sailors making negative comments about Hunters just haven't been aboard any recent models or sailed the boats themselves."

IMHO - Such hunters are a 'class unto themselves' .... designed and set up for 'strictly non-performance' / more elderly sailors.

Rig is non-adjustable for changing wind/weather conditions, usually in mast furling .... VERY bad if one needs to SHAPE a sail for the conditions (remembering that a sail on a furler can only be reduced by 30% sail area without inducing god-awful shape), HUGE cockpits but with little to NO line controls convenient for the helmsman to single hand without leaving the cockpit/helm - therefore requiring TWO to sail one. Few ergonometric and easily reached hand holds in the interior - OK for quiet 'inshore' sailing but a potential body injury disaster when 'outside'.

Theyre good for what they are designed for .... dockside entertaining, sailing in moderate fair-weather coastal or inshore conditions. There is BIG market for such and Hunter really fills such a need/niche .... as the demographics of sailing are quickly moving to 'sailors of retirement age'.

 

As a hunter owner, I'd say it's two things:

1) Everybody likes to criticize, as it makes us sound more intelligent. Nobody gets on TV by being nice, after all...

2) When you own a hunter, you notice more of the dissuading comments regarding hunters. If you own a mini-van, you notice the disparaging comments about mini-vans. If you own a gun, you notice the gun comments. If you own a ... anyway, that's my bet.

There's no more 'hunter hate' than there is 'catalina hate' or 'mac hate' or 'burger king' hate. But if you own a hunter and don't eat at burger king.. well.. guess which part sticks out in your memory when you think back ...

In other news.. a lot of those hunter-haters raise good points. No boat is perfect. There's a gem of wisdom in most steaming piles of verbal diarrhea.

But I still bought - and am quite happy with - my hunter. Sure, it's a pig, tender as all get out, and can't carry a jib much larger than a handkerchief, but it's a great little daysailor with a ton of room and simple enough to sail that 8-year-olds can walk away from an afternoon of fun and feel like they learned something enjoyable. It's not an offshore cutter with 18 control lines for each sail, but it does what I need it to.

So I'm not terribly concerned with the critiques of things I know to be true, but consider necessary evils in order to have the things I want.

Least I don't own one of those cheap-arse mac's, huh?

 

As a hunter owner, I'd say ...:

.. I'm not terribly concerned with the critiques of things I know to be true, but consider necessary evils in order to have the things I want.
....

That's the point. Different boat owners want diferent things from their boats, so there are a lot of diferent cruiser boat types. Hunter fits on the mainstream with Oceanis, Bavarias and Jeanneaus. I believe that choosing among them is more a question of personal taste and about the options each boat offers to make the boat the one you really need or want.

Personally I find that the European boats have a better design...but I am an European, with an European taste .

I believe that Hunters almost don't sell in Europe on account of that: aesthetics, and I mean the outside look of the boat.

Regards

Paulo

 

HUGE cockpits but with little to NO line controls convenient for the helmsman to single hand without leaving the cockpit/helm - therefore requiring TWO to sail one. Few ergonometric and easily reached hand holds in the interior - OK for quiet 'inshore' sailing but a potential body injury disaster when 'outside'.

Theyre good for what they are designed for .... dockside entertaining, sailing in moderate fair-weather coastal or inshore conditions. There is BIG market for such and Hunter really fills such a need/niche .... as the demographics of sailing are quickly moving to 'sailors of retirement age'.

Really ???? One of my complaints on my '05 Hunter 33 is the SMALL cockpit that if I have any more than 2 guests on board it's too crowded to really sail.

I also tend to sail "single-handed" with jib sheets & traveller lines from the arch right at hand and out of the way.

Of all the boats in all the marinas, all across North America, there are a very small percentage that actually go "off shore" and cross the oceans. Even in my area of thousands of boats, I seldom see many boats out in the main Bay.

 

GO for it

Let them criticize all they want if they think they really know all about all boats.
I am one of the many very happy Hunter owners who really loves his boat,I now live in Florida and did live in NY and did sail my Hunter 36 from Montauk,NY all off shore to east coast of Florida and than around the keys to Punta Gorda.
And I do plan to sail over to Bahama's and also back down to Key West and Dry Tortugas also.
I do have selden inmast and love and all the room and storage down below I also love the arch with the travlar mounted on it and all the lines led back to cockpit allows me to singel hand many times.
This my second Hunter and would buy another Hunter.
Nick

 

I am glad I didn't listen to the blogs

Just bought a 1996 280 after looking at all the others in the same division. I am not intending to race but have a stable comfortable platform for weekends.

We have been out several times and the boat gets a lot of looks even though it is not brand new.

All lines to the cockpit are great. We have owned power boats but new to sailing and think it is a great boat.

I can seee the issues that some purists have with the boat as it is too easy to operate and lacks some of the classic styling. Different was good to us.

I think it just depends on what you use it for as people always say here. Fits our needs perfectly for now and probably for quite a few years. I have seen some that really look like dogs though in fairness.

When buying after you check rigging, electronics above all she has to be pretty and we all have different tastes on what is pretty.

 

there are three Hunters on my dock, was 4 until one moved to the dock to the south, plus 3 others in YC I belong to. I can unequivocally say one thing about the 7 owners I know with Hunters. ALL, that is right ALL of them like there boats! Now that I am typing, I know of another couple from another YC too, that one has been to mexico and back once from Puget sound. The older Cherbuni 37 cutter and been down and back 4 times, twice on its own hull, twice on truck. Main reason for trucking, owners in there words, getting older, and while the sail down the coast is nice, been there done that, do not need to do that again!

If you like it, buy it!

marty

 

Why is there so many Hunter haters?

Because they are near or at the bottom end of the new boat market price wise and people are still ticked they cant afford one........

Just a theory...

 

Not the first time I've read this which peeked my curiosity. Certainly not a statistically valid sampling but a quick search of ACTUAL SOLD prices in the last year reveals the following:

Catalina 35 - 40 ft Hunter 35 - 40
2002 - 2009 model years same vintages
sold price range from $138,000 - $170,000 $110,000 - $199,000

tried to exclude charter boats and those out of the U.S.

a hypothesis or a theory

 

My wife and I are planning to go on an extended cruise within the next 3-5 years. So far, sailing up and down the US east coast and island hopping around the Bahamas and Caribbean are on the itinerary but no ocean crossings (for now). We've seen some Hunter Legend 35.5's and 37.5's from the early to mid 90's that would be in our price range and I have to say appear to be very appealing contenders for the type of cruising we're thinking of doing. I think the tiny cockpits and cramped interiors of the average bluewater boat would drive us nuts and would be overkill. While there are certainly other boats we'll consider, I'm determined to judge the Hunters on their own merits before dismissing them based on opinions of the brand that are not necessarily based on reality.

 

The Legend series (35.5, 37.5, 40.5) are among the best coastal cruisers made and would serve you well for your stated purpose. For what it's worth, I agree with you about some of these "cruising" type boats - they sacrifice too much comfort for the typical boater.

 

I've seen Hunter, Catalina and Beneteau combined into a portmanteau.
Cheap, production boats for the masses.

I do know this about Hunters, the Cherebuni designs are good solidly designed boats. Maybe not factory ready for offshore, but it could be 'modified' to do the job. For having a fin keel and spade rudder (at least tillers are common on the shorter boats).
Then the company went through some times trading quality for design and innovation.
*shrugs*
While i would not hesitate taking 'Ripple' anywhere on the great lakes (in season, fully charted and electronically equiped), she is nowhere near what i would want facing a serious ocean passage.
But then again, almost any car can be prepared for endurance racing .... YMMV.

It's a used boat, if the build/design is up to your requirements, don't let the 'stigma' stop you.
It's all about the upkeep.

 

I have a 1999 Hunter 380. Yes it is quite different than my previous vessel (Catalina 30 with Tall Rig and Bow Sprit).
However, we acquired it to ensure we could stay in the sailing game vice switching to the "dark side." The roller furling main does that (and yes, I am aware of the downsides to this convenience). The PO was a very well-travelled sailor (CT41 around the world) who took this particular Hunter to Alaska twice and around Vancouver Island twice, the last time going well offshore. It is rated as an "A" vessel for offshore -- but I have the same concerns others do about that (lee cloths, loose floor boards, lack of handholds, the B/R rig -- am not too sure if the latter is a real problem or it just looks like one...).
However, we are not going to Fiji or even San Diego. We will be coastal cruising and, maybe this or next year, now that I am (sort of) retired, we will get to Desolation Sound. The boat was described by my sister-in-law as a "sea condo." It is extremely comfortable to say the least and a pleasure to view and to sail. So far so good.
Paul

 

The bottom of the price thing isn't correct. Most production boats are close to each others price for the various sizes.

And they aren't crap except to people who need to say this order to justify having spendt more money on their boat so they can feel better about themselves.