Hunter owners' association...worth £15 per annum?

maby said:
If you can find a servicable Delta that you can afford, I would suggest going for that...
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Thanks for that. I keep telling myself, "it's still smaller than a Centaur", but I saw a Delta berthed beside a Medina this year, and it looked like a whale beside a minnow.

I guess it all comes down to condition - replacing a Delta's standing rigging (or finding a substitute for an ailing Yanmar) is likely to make the outboard-powered Medina (or other smaller brethren) look a lot easier to live with.

:encouragement:
 
dancrane said:
Thanks for that. I keep telling myself, "it's still smaller than a Centaur", but I saw a Delta berthed beside a Medina this year, and it looked like a whale beside a minnow.

I guess it all comes down to condition - replacing a Delta's standing rigging (or finding a substitute for an ailing Yanmar) is likely to make the outboard-powered Medina (or other smaller brethren) look a lot easier to live with.

:encouragement:
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I think that some of the Deltas had an outboard well, didn't they?
 
Sure, although I don't know if I want a two-tonne yacht, nine feet in beam, driven by an outboard.

Then again, the 1GM inboard is only as powerful as a biggish outboard...but is an outboard in a well, as good as an inboard? :confused:

I ought to keep quiet. Don't want to start a run on Deltas, boosting their sellers' valuations. :rolleyes:
 
we had a lift keel delta - celox- powered by the outboard in the well which you could swing up into the cockpit locker and then seal the hole through which the leg went with a moulded panel complete with dinghy style self bailer - worked fine but must admit that with subsequent boats having all had diesel inboards the effectiveness and ease of an electric start inboard is great - delta sailed superbly and many many happy memories of it - mind you it did sink in the oct 87 storm and we were given the option by the insurers (who were excellent) to have it repaired or take the sum insured - we took the money but Celox was sold to a fellow club member and carried on sailing - hopefully still out there somewhere ?
 
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Thanks for that, Paul.

I guess the '87 storm damaged a lot of boats which normally dry out safely.

On reflection today, I reckon that while the Delta is more desirable than the little Medina, the cost of buying, insuring, delivering and berthing the smaller boat in a marina a short walk from home for 12 months, would be the same as just buying a rather tired Delta (not necessarily ready to go) in need of a 500-mile delivery trip...then add berthing plus any extras she needs.

I'll be glad to buy a Hunter, but it's probably best not to skip too many stages in the ascent from dinghy-sailing.
 
I did much of my early sailing in a Hunter 19 my father assembled in our driveway. He loved it but it was fundamentally too small for a family boat, he moved on to a Medina for a time but by that time I'd moved away. I do smile every time I see one of their products still afloat though as they bring back memories of him.
 
Having also owned a Hunter 19 over 30 years ago and loved it I've also recently looked at a Hunter Delta for sale. I however ended up buying a Duette, effectively a bilge keel Sonata and I'm very happy with it. Still very cheap drying mooring, outboard in a well, plenty of room inside and sails very well.

And I've joined the association, for £15 it's very cheap access to loads of information and it helps keep the association going.
 
It’s only £15. I joined a few years ago when I bought a Hunter Horizon 21. It was missing an anchor locker “lid”. One of the members (rudely I have forgotten his name!) measured his up and sent me an excellent dimensioned drawing of said lid.
I’d join my new yacht’s Association if they had one in the UK but they don’t.
Associations do have a deep wealth of practical knowledge to tap into.
 
Thanks Steve, but I'm abroad for the holiday so my internet is intermittent at best...I can't even open the Seamaster pics.

As I remember, the 24 isn't well suited to drying out upright. That's rather a priority for me - otherwise I'd be tempted by the Sonata or even an Impala.

I know there were a few centreboard Sonatas, but if I remember rightly, the performance fell well short of the standard fin, and their lifting keel format doesn't fully retract the plate, so the stub prevents drying out upright.

Hard to see why Hunter chose that format over the vertical daggerboard style.

I'm still undecided about 'Which Hunter?', but I'm glad to have joined the association.
 
Sure, but at significant cost to her cruising ability (in terms of drying out comfortably) and causing a crippling loss of competitive edge for racing. Not really one thing or the other.
 
Many, many years ago I chartered a lifting-keel Sonata.
I never tried drying it out, but it came equipped with little short stumpy legs (the boat, not me). The owner told me that charterers quite often dried out (the boat) and the keel slot quite often clogged up with mud making it difficult to drop the plate, though this did not seem a major problem. Seemed to sail quite well but I have never sailed a "normal" Sonata so can't make a comparison.
 
A bulb may be the best solution for pure righting power, but it definitely limits the cruising flexibility which was (presumably) the whole reason for fitting a lifting keel. For pure performance, the Sonata was already proven with her fin keel...

...judging by handicap ratings, the designer's readiness to seriously degrade the boat's racing strength just to improve cruising convenience, looks like a mistake - because as well as holding her back, it still doesn't permit upright drying-out on hard surfaces.

Maybe the fully-retracting board in the later Delta and Medina were a design initiative based on the problem of the bulb's draught.
 
Getting back to the Hunter Association: The annual fee of £15 is only payable for the first five years after which you are classed as a "longstanding member" and don't currently have to pay anything. I joined when I bought my first Hunter in 1999 and haven't been asked for any money for years, can't remember the last time.

An earlier poster mentioned that most Hunters were sold as kits for home completion, I don't think this is so, can't remember where I read it but I thought most were sold as finished boats. Hunters would check-out and commission the home-completed boats and issue them with CE certificates and plates, my Channel 31 is one such. A frequent give-away that a boat has been home completed is the neatness (lack of) with which the vinyl interior lining has been fitted.

There's an interesting article on lifting keel cruising yachts here, the Hunter Medina is the last of the five.
https://uk.boats.com/reviews/5-great-lifting-keel-cruising-yachts/
 
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