Hunter 19- good first boat?

[iantomlinson]

I've been gaining some experience crewing with friends and am now looking to buy a boat for myself. I have a rather limited budget and the Hunter 19 seems to be crop up often in my price range. I like the look of it, and the fact that it would be easily trailed. It also seems to suit my needs for day sails and possible overnights if I can drag the girlfriend along!

My main concern is that, living in Stornoway, I could be facing potentially quite serious sailing conditions. I certainly don't intend to seek out rough weather by any means, but on the other hand I can't discuont the possibility of being caught out.
The Hunter is obviously a very small boat- would I be crazy to leave harbour in one?
Thanks!

Rob

We had a SWIFT 18 as our first boat and realised on the first night that headroom and space inside was a major issue(she sailed lovely though). Plus hassle of trailing. I saw a leisure 23sl for 3.5k on ebay and you wouldn't believe the difference. We bought her there and then. Moral to story- look at others a fraction bigger. Not much price difference gets you room for a weeks holiday and the mooring cost makes is worthwhile

 

[Kelpie]

We had a SWIFT 18 as our first boat and realised on the first night that headroom and space inside was a major issue(she sailed lovely though). Plus hassle of trailing. I saw a leisure 23sl for 3.5k on ebay and you wouldn't believe the difference. We bought her there and then. Moral to story- look at others a fraction bigger. Not much price difference gets you room for a weeks holiday and the mooring cost makes is worthwhile

I never got as far as viewing a Hunter 19, but when a friend took me out on his Wayfarer I remember thinking it seemed impossible that you could really fit a cabin and berths in to a boat just three feet longer.
I know what you mean about the Leisure 23, huge boats for their size. But at that point you're in to 4x4 territory for towing.

 

[Kelpie]

And 15 years on from the Wayfarer, you are now in the Caribbean with your Moody, dodging potential hurricanes!

All far removed from Stornoway, but slightly warmer temps..... The irascible (and smug - he is currently far away from the Crabby Ian) @Stingo has started a thread about our hurricanes here
For the Crabby-Ian dwellers. Early hurricane season

It's been quite the journey. Don't regret any of the boat choices along the way, although we could possibly have skipped the Deb 33 that we had for four years.

Funnily enough we've found that the smaller boats tend to be owned by the more experienced sailors. It's surprisingly common for people to sell their house and buy a 40ft catamaran without even knowing whether they actually like sailing.

 

[Daydream believer]

The Hunter 19, and the marginally more civilised Hunter Europa, same hull different coachroof, are excellent boats. Very seaworthy and surprisingly quick. Obviously limited on accomodation but super wee boats. David Blagden sailed his across the Atlantic.

A couple of months ago I gave a lift to a bloke at Bradwell to Southminster train station, because the bus drivers were on strike. We got to talking about Squibs (I have one) & towards the end of the journey, Preludes. They are Squibs with lids. Just before he got out of the car, he said that he had raced a Prelude across the Atlantic.
I wonder if it was the David Blagden that you mention above. Seemed an interesting chap. He had just bought a Dufour 34 in Bradwell & intended to sail it to his home port around the South West somewhere.

Needless to say, the Anderson 22 came up in conversation. Always does when one talks about older small boats crossing the Atlantic

 

[JimC]

A couple of months ago I gave a lift to a bloke at Bradwell to Southminster train station, because the bus drivers were on strike. We got to talking about Squibs (I have one) & towards the end of the journey, Preludes. They are Squibs with lids. Just before he got out of the car, he said that he had raced a Prelude across the Atlantic.
I wonder if it was the David Blagden that you mention above. Seemed an interesting chap. He had just bought a Dufour 34 in Bradwell & intended to sail it to his home port around the South West somewhere.

A lot of misinformation here. The Prelude is not a Squib with a lid, it is a completely unrelated design by Ian Proctor. The Hunter 19 is the Squib with a lid and was designed by Oliver Lee for Hunter Boats in the late 1960s. The boat in which David Blagden raced across the Atlantic was a Hunter 19, she was called 'Willing Griffin'. She was the smallest boat ever to complete an OSTAR. David described his voyage in the book 'Very Willing Griffin'.

A bit more history here

 

[PeterV]

My first yacht was a Hunter 19, and JimC is correct. They are a great sea boat but very wet, they will go through waves offshore, not over them. I bought a very expensive safety harness after being completely buried underwater on several occasions off Start Point in a gale! However even in these conditions it will still be passing most 30’ cruisers. Quite outrageous performance for such a small boat! The worrying points are that it has a non self draining cockpit and no bridge deck, so the washboards need to be kept in and the hatch locked when offshore, so for long passages you’re relying on the sustenance you can stow in your pockets! A Europa is a vast improvement, with a bridge deck, self draining cockpit and a whole 4” more headroom. Otherwise same hull and rig.

 

[dac31]

A couple of months ago I gave a lift to a bloke at Bradwell to Southminster train station, because the bus drivers were on strike. We got to talking about Squibs (I have one) & towards the end of the journey, Preludes. They are Squibs with lids. Just before he got out of the car, he said that he had raced a Prelude across the Atlantic.
I wonder if it was the David Blagden that you mention above. Seemed an interesting chap. He had just bought a Dufour 34 in Bradwell & intended to sail it to his home port around the South West somewhere.

Needless to say, the Anderson 22 came up in conversation. Always does when one talks about older small boats crossing the Atlantic

I thought he went out into a storm in 2008 and was never seen again?

 

[Daydream believer]

A lot of misinformation here. The Prelude is not a Squib with a lid, it is a completely unrelated design by Ian Proctor. The Hunter 19 is a Squib with a lid and was designed by Oliver Lee for Hunter Boats in the late 1960s. The boat in which David Blagden raced across the Atlantic was a Hunter 19.

A bit more history here

Sorry. I was confused Certainly was a Squib with a lid that did the crossing though.

I thought he went out into a storm in 2008 and was never seen again?

Actually, the chap I met suggested that several of them had got Hunter 19s ready to race across. But as we had arrived at the drop off point I could not continue the conversation. Do you know if only one raced across , or there were others?

 

[dac31]

Sorry. I was confused Certainly was a Squib with a lid that did the crossing though.

Actually, the chap I met suggested that several of them had got Hunter 19s ready to race across. But as we had arrived at the drop off point I could not continue the conversation. Do you know if only one raced across , or there were others?

I read the book, it's not a literary masterpiece but I wouldn't be surprised if others wanted to recreate it. That being said, it was a heavily modified squib purpose built by the designer for the race. So it's not exactly a one man band despite what the author may want to convey.

 

[PeterV]

Yes, before David Blagdens race there were a few also modified for a race of their own. It gets a brief mention in David’s book but I know little more other than that Ive seen one of them for sale, in the late 70s and again on eBay in the 90s.

 

[JimC]

More on David Blagden: he was Sailing Director for the making of the 'Swallows and Amazons' films, also playing a minor role as a policeman. I copied the following from a website about the films:

"The huge sadness was that David Blagden, so vibrant and good looking with so much to live for, lost his life to the sea in the late 1970s. After Swallows and Amazons he presented an ITV series broadcast on Sundays called ‘Plain Sailing’. It featured Willing Griffin the 19′ Hunter in which he’d crossed the Atlantic despite horrific weather in 1972 and the survey of a 39′ wooden boat I think he intended to take on another crossing. Apparently he set off in this yawl from Alderney in a Force 11 gale and was never seen again. The harbour master had begged him not to go. They found his girlfriend’s body and parts of the boat but there was no trace David."

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