hunter legend 38 / 39

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cloud7

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any members have any experience of these yachts , built quality , sailing ability, and how they compare against beneteau , jeanneau etc.any opinions appreciated, thks
 
A couple I know put a deposit on a new one at LIBS. Be about 6 years ago. Don't know the exact model, but it was a deck saloon. During the test sail in the Solent, the rudder fell off. Very nerve-racking. They didn't buy it!
 
earlybird said:
A couple I know put a deposit on a new one at LIBS. Be about 6 years ago. Don't know the exact model, but it was a deck saloon. During the test sail in the Solent, the rudder fell off. Very nerve-racking. They didn't buy it!
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i can fully understand why they would not , thanks for the info.
 
As you're not getting much here, I'll add what little - very little - I can. I've never sailed a Legend 38/39, but I recall a recent test of the 39 in the yachting press, in the May 2010 YM I think. I don't have it to hand, but my recollection was of a luke warm assessment of the sailing performance and difficult to get 'in the groove'. I have sailed in company with friends in a Legend 38 and they report that it doesn't sail deep angles very well as the spreader sweep associated with the B&R rig prevents the main being eased well out and the small headsail loses effectiveness quite quickly meaning that for decent downwind progress, a spinnaker or even cruising chute is highly desirable. To windward, the boat seems a little tender and needs deep reefing quite early. In a decent breeze to windward (of about 22-23kts over the deck) they're reefed to the equivalent of a second slab reef (theirs has the in-mast reefing main) and only a small amount of genoa as (and I quote) "that's all she'll take". On that particular open water passage, the likes of Rustler 36 and a Biscay 36 were considerably faster and footed higher. Unfortunately, I didn't notice any Beneteaus or Jeanneaus to compare. The plus side is the interior, but you asked for sailing ability and I'm not in a position to comment on build quality. Like everything else, it depends what you want out of a boat but if performance under sail was a major part of my decision making process, then I'd want a really representative test sail. I hope an owner or owners can come along a provide your with more first hand experience - hopefully without rose tinted specs on!
 
Goldie said:
As you're not getting much here, I'll add what little - very little - I can. I've never sailed a Legend 38/39, but I recall a recent test of the 39 in the yachting press, in the May 2010 YM I think. I don't have it to hand, but my recollection was of a luke warm assessment of the sailing performance and difficult to get 'in the groove'. I have sailed in company with friends in a Legend 38 and they report that it doesn't sail deep angles very well as the spreader sweep associated with the B&R rig prevents the main being eased well out and the small headsail loses effectiveness quite quickly meaning that for decent downwind progress, a spinnaker or even cruising chute is highly desirable. To windward, the boat seems a little tender and needs deep reefing quite early. In a decent breeze to windward (of about 22-23kts over the deck) they're reefed to the equivalent of a second slab reef (theirs has the in-mast reefing main) and only a small amount of genoa as (and I quote) "that's all she'll take". On that particular open water passage, the likes of Rustler 36 and a Biscay 36 were considerably faster and footed higher. Unfortunately, I didn't notice any Beneteaus or Jeanneaus to compare. The plus side is the interior, but you asked for sailing ability and I'm not in a position to comment on build quality. Like everything else, it depends what you want out of a boat but if performance under sail was a major part of my decision making process, then I'd want a really representative test sail. I hope an owner or owners can come along a provide your with more first hand experience - hopefully without rose tinted specs on!
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Thanks for that, i have a copy of the YM test on the 39 , early reefing was highlighted
but as in so many of these reports they seem to sit on the fence , our use for this yacht would be lagos portugal summer , and sail to canaries ( 600 mile ) winter , all leasure
sailing no racing, the accomodation is excellent as you point out , and as this would be
for holiday long weekends , and couple weeks each year it fits the bill , the only bit is
how is it screwed to -gether, hence my post , had a look at their owners site which as you
can appreciate underlines these yachts as excellent , which they maybe, but would be nice to get an independent view, thks for your time.
 
Given the potential usage, the boat should be on your short list. They emphasise living space and equipment together with easy handling. They are however, "budget" boats so quality of construction and equipment will reflect that - does not mean it will be "bad" as in many ways a simple boat is easier to build well. Be careful though of the rudder stock. this is a well known weakness. Hunter used to use composite stocks and there have been well publicised failures, but they changed to metal stocks because of the problems.

Despite being very popular boats in the US and heavy promotion in Europe when they were built in the UK they never sold in large volumes, which might explain why there are few people who have direct experience. Perhaps they did not have sufficient distinctive features to lure people away from the more popularr Ben/Bav/Jens which are their competitors - or the distinctitive was not what people wanted!
 
Tranona said:
Given the potential usage, the boat should be on your short list. They emphasise living space and equipment together with easy handling. They are however, "budget" boats so quality of construction and equipment will reflect that - does not mean it will be "bad" as in many ways a simple boat is easier to build well. Be careful though of the rudder stock. this is a well known weakness. Hunter used to use composite stocks and there have been well publicised failures, but they changed to metal stocks because of the problems.

Despite being very popular boats in the US and heavy promotion in Europe when they were built in the UK they never sold in large volumes, which might explain why there are few people who have direct experience. Perhaps they did not have sufficient distinctive features to lure people away from the more popularr Ben/Bav/Jens which are their competitors - or the distinctitive was not what people wanted!
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In consideration of points raised would it be a better bet to stick to the beneteau 393

which is also on my short list.
 
The Benny is likely to sail better and arguably it has more "style". Making a choice in this category of boat is like trying to decide whether you are going for a Ford, a VW, a Toyota etc. They are all developed to a similar level and none of them are "bad". I think it is down to how you feel about the overall "package". I happen to have a Bavaria because that was what seemed at the time to offer the best package for me, but it could just as easily have been a Beneteau and I a sure i would have been just as satisfied ith my choice.

I am sure if you do find owners to talk to they will be enthusiastic about their choice, and of course once you make your choice you learn to live with it!
 
We are living aboard a 42 ft Legend in the Med and they are fantastic value for money boats as they are well designed and very well equipped. As they are production boats the structural build quality is not good but all the faults are repairable. Joinery is very good and they are very spacious. It all depends what you want in a boat.
 
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Can't help with the 38 i'm afraid but for what it's worth I have a 323 and have enjoyed the last six years of sailing in her. She is not the fastest and has downwind limitations with the Rig but it is easy to manage and you learn to adjust to the rig, single handed is easy and is fast enough for cruising with family. Build quality is as expected for any production vessels, it's all about personal expectations I guess.... you get what you pay for, in our case the wiring needed some tidying up when we got her, a few topside blemishes to sort out and we fitted tech deck in the cockpit but aside from that space and the accomodation make up for limitations. I have been out in a force 8 gusting 9 and felt as safe as houses and she is a safe and dry boat in all conditions she's a bit beamy and slams a bit when beating but comfortably gets into the groove.
The only major irritation for me was the yanmar gasket blew with about 125 hrs on the clock which should have been replaced FOC under yanmar warrantee as it was a design fault with the original part - but they resisted to take responsibility. B stewards. wasnt expensive but it was the principal.
The design of the new 39 which I looked at in S'ton boat show doesnt meet our requirements now so if I can stack up the figures next season I will be looking for a Jeanneau which I thought has more quality issues with poor manufacture and underspecified materials in some areas of the accomodation than our existing vessel ticks more boxes overall for us now.
Good luck.
 
The B&R backstayless rig has a disadvantage if you sail downwind, because the spreaders are swept back about 30 degrees, which is more than most swept spreader rigs and severely restricts the ability to put the mainsail far enough out. This appears to be compounded by the fact that all the Legends appear to have a sailplan biased towards a large mainsail and a small genoa.

Whilst I have no direct experience of them, I see a few of them when I am sailing and they never seem to be going very fast, and I suspect they appeal mostly to people (or probably to their wives) who want interior accommodation and are prepared to sacrifice performance for it. In that way all boats other than out and out racers are a compromise, but I think that the Jeanneau, Beneteau and Bavaria boats generally have a better performance to accomodation balance.
 
TeamSpirit said:
...The design of the new 39 which I looked at in S'ton boat show doesnt meet our requirements now so if I can stack up the figures next season I will be looking for a Jeanneau which I thought has more quality issues with poor manufacture and underspecified materials in some areas of the accomodation than our existing vessel ticks more boxes overall for us now.
Good luck.
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Interesting comment on the Jeanneau. If you look to buy one take a good look at the interior "woodwork". On my 1998 boat all the interior joinery has quality solid hardwood cappings and fiddles, and panels made from marine ply with nicely matched facing veneers. It has stood the test of time and hard use in charter very well. There is a big but however. A few years ago the bean counters got to work, and I met a very unhappy owner of a 50 footer which had what looked like veneered panels but they were in fact some kind of printed foil. In places it had been damaged, and unlike veneer which can be sanded and refinished if scratched, there was absolutely nothing he could do to repair scratches and scrapes on the foil. I do not know what the latest boats have inside them, and I just hope they have abandoned the cheap foil finishes.
 
Norman_E said:
Interesting comment on the Jeanneau. If you look to buy one take a good look at the interior "woodwork". On my 1998 boat all the interior joinery has quality solid hardwood cappings and fiddles, and panels made from marine ply with nicely matched facing veneers. It has stood the test of time and hard use in charter very well. There is a big but however. A few years ago the bean counters got to work, and I met a very unhappy owner of a 50 footer which had what looked like veneered panels but they were in fact some kind of printed foil. In places it had been damaged, and unlike veneer which can be sanded and refinished if scratched, there was absolutely nothing he could do to repair scratches and scrapes on the foil. I do not know what the latest boats have inside them, and I just hope they have abandoned the cheap foil finishes.
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Yep, the ones I have looked at so far are fairly recently built 42 DS's and a 45 was surprised with the quality of the cabinets and the standard of timber for/in lockers and their finishes none of which look like they would take much w & t. Want to check out the 409 anyone any knowledge?
 
Done a couple of deliveries in a 36 and a 38/9? One was abandoned by a charter crew in France and I crewed it back. Both suffered the same traits, from memory it was either over or under canvassed with a big main and tended to slam too much for my liking. Off the wind the swept back spreaders stopped the main being set properly.

Didn't really work down below offshore, too much space and not enough handholds, lockers hinged from the top! Depending on the tack the contents came out as soon as you tried to open them!

Each too his own!
 
Tricky.....

I sailed a 36 bilge keeler last year and was very impressed with the boat overall. I'm used to a fin & bulb keel Jeanneau & do a little bit of racing but thought the Legend was perfectly fine. It made more leeway as expected and slammed a little in a choppy F6 (as a lot of boats do) but you get a lot of boat for the money. I thought it was nicely finished down below - everything you need for general cruising. I sailed a new generation Jeanneau 39i this year and wasn't so impressed overall. Not so much with its technical ability but the twin wheels were so lacking in "feel" it took the shine off the performance & I don't think I could live with such a cheap feeling plasticky interior on that sort of boat.

However it sounds like you want to do some decent offshore work so maybe the Jen/Ben/Bav would suit better.


.
 
Goldie said:
I recall a recent test of the 39 in the yachting press, in the May 2010 YM I think. I don't have it to hand, but my recollection was of a luke warm assessment of the sailing performance and difficult to get 'in the groove'.
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Every Legend test I have read has been lukewarm, which is about as far as the in house lawyers will allow the writers to go in saying " avoid". I have not been impressed by the build quality I have seen at the boat shows and certainly in my mind they are a level lower than BeJeannBav. Much the same as Cataliina
 
My Dad had a 336 for many years. It may suprise some on here, but I really liked it.
It was fast (we regularly passed Fulmars upwind and down) and the issue with the spreaders was really a bit of a non issue. You just had to replace the spreader patches on the main periodically. It was actually really rewarding to sail too. Recently I sailed a Benetau of the same period, and was really suprised that the feel on the helm was so bad, when the Legend's had been distinctly acceptable. (Even by my now rather high standards in this regard)
Interior was great for it's main purpose - coastal cruising - but when we started ranging further the shortcomings were apparent and it's no accident that the boat that replaced it has a more "traditional" interior. Exposed GRP isn't everyone's cup of tea - but it was really easy to clean!
I can attest to the build quality too, not exactly X yachts worthy but..... Some of the stuff we put that boat through.... If half of the **** you read on these forums about AWBs was true I'd have drowned many times over, waves breaking basically right over the boat for several hours on a channel crossing that turned out to be a "bad idea". But in reality we never had any issues with the boat that weren't our fault. Well, I say "our", but I wasn't on board - honest!

However since that boat (1996) I think the brand has really changed. My Dad always made a point of visiting the Legend stand at the Boat Shows and has often said that he wouldn't have bought any of the boats since. But then, I bet that people who wouldn't have bought the 336 are now loving the current line up.

Mainly the mainsail area seems to have shrunk dramatically, the fittings have got even smaller (upgrading the standard winches was an early mod) and the wheel has shrunk to look like an afterthought. I had the chance to sail that boat's replacement in the current line up recently. It was like meeting up with your 1st girlfriend years later, you can recognise her, and see why you liked her in the 1st place, but she's just not quite as pretty, and has aquired a bad habit or two. And you realise why you moved on....
 
Hunter/Legend

I cannot comment about the Hunter 38/39, but I have traded my Beneteau in for a Hunter 41DS which I have found; despite all the naysayers, to be a delight to sail, responsive and easy to handle.

I keep hearing about rudders falling off, but have only come across one definitive incident of this and all the rudders were strengthened because of it. By the bye, it was not the incident in this thread for which I can find no verification.

It is true to say that you would have a better downwind performance with a gennakar or spinnaker but that is true of all boats to a degree. however the comfort and overall experience of a Hunter is worth this lack of downwind performance.

Last weekend I was caught in a 9 gusting 11 in the Golfe de Lion and she, albeit heavily reefed gave my wife, and more importantly my dog Sam, no alarms and excursions, more than could be said for my Bennie in a lot less wind.

The yacht has no backstays and this is the nub of the debate. It's time for the old school to accept the mast stays up!!!

A Bavaria? Wouldn't have one as agift.
 
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