Hunton Powerboats expanding into USA

Surprised its taken them so long, should have done it striaght after the release of the film Sahara and the Huntons starring role.
 
Mmm... If I should buy a luxury performance boat in the US, with all due respect, Hunton wouldn't even make it to my short list.
There are many awesome boats available over the Pond, in this segment of the pleasure boat market, which can't even be sold in the EU...
All the very best to them anyhow.
 
MapisM said:
Mmm... If I should buy a luxury performance boat in the US, with all due respect, Hunton wouldn't even make it to my short list.
There are many awesome boats available over the Pond, in this segment of the pleasure boat market, which can't even be sold in the EU...
All the very best to them anyhow.
Click to expand...

So what would be on your list?
Think there is a difference in out and out power with vivid graphics to a boat with a good turn of speed and some luxury to add.
 
Well, just have a look at this list:
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/forum.php#owners-forum
I'd rather consider at least half of those names (and as you can see most of them aren't even known, let alone available, this side of the Pond), before even thinking of a Hunton.
Besides, make no mistakes: they are all very capable of building luxurious, elegant and accurately finished boats, if you just ask them to.
The fact that most buyers in that market demand vivid graphic simply means that also Hunton will have to offer that sort of style, rather than hope to convert the Americans to British style...
But as I said, best of luck to them. :)
 
As a former hunton owner I'm with M on this. I love the hunton brand but think at their pricing they are going to struggle over there.

There are brash paint schemes over there but that's an option and more a reflection on the buyers than the builders?
 
z1ppy said:
As a former hunton owner I'm with M on this. I love the hunton brand but think at their pricing they are going to struggle over there.

There are brash paint schemes over there but that's an option and more a reflection on the buyers than the builders?
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z1ppy totally agree with you on the pricing. I think over here they are much too expensive . I remember in 2006 a 37XRS was £180,000 now look at the price. It's gone up much faster than inflation. That's virtually double the price in 6 years
Working for whom I do , I know there is a price for a premium product but it still has to be realistic.
 
MapisM said:
Mmm... If I should buy a luxury performance boat in the US, with all due respect, Hunton wouldn't even make it to my short list.
There are many awesome boats available over the Pond, in this segment of the pleasure boat market, which can't even be sold in the EU...
All the very best to them anyhow.
Click to expand...

I,am with MapishM on this -they have all this muscle boat come poker run thingy all sown up
Where are the Huntons on this vid?
How will they fit in ? Who,s gonna pay upwards of £550K sterling ( or USD equivent ) for a XRS 43 - with arnesons


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81_6MPWdU-s&feature=youtube_gdata_player
 
Different price point and league!!

Given any kind of sea I would happily pay £££ to be in a hunton over a US build and designed boat but that's my choice and that's the difference. People want different things.

I'm sure that if you put some big hp petrols in a 37 it would compete like for like with anything out there, hunton have only been European based where the requirement are different.

As said tho, given the choice and at huntons current price levels, there's a whole lot more boat available over that side for less $$
 
Think the same applies coming to the UK . There is a cigarette boat dealer in the UK but how many boats has he sold? I honestly do not know. But have not heard of any being sold here.
Sure there is a cultural thing with boats too.

Wish the Solent was always as calm as in that video!
 
z1ppy said:
Different price point and league!!

Given any kind of sea I would happily pay £££ to be in a hunton over a US build and designed boat but that's my choice and that's the difference. People want different things.

I'm sure that if you put some big hp petrols in a 37 it would compete like for like with anything out there, hunton have only been European based where the requirement are different.
$$
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There are a couple of custom Huntons in build. Both by the same person. 1 has twin 425hp diesels and the other is twin625hp ilmores that I believe is hoping to achieve over 100mph
 
rbcoomer said:
The same arguments could be applied to Land Rover vs US SUVs (or Aston Martin, Jaguar or RR) but they seem to have something going for them... Sometimes different/imported expensive is good! (Thankfully for UK exports.) :)
Click to expand...

Can't argue with that! Maybe if they built in a speaker with an English accent playing all the time?
 
rbcoomer said:
The same arguments could be applied to Land Rover vs US SUVs (or Aston Martin, Jaguar or RR) but they seem to have something going for them... Sometimes different/imported expensive is good! (Thankfully for UK exports.) :)
Click to expand...
Yes I would tend to agree with that ,think about it they,d die if the Yanks ordered 2 a month ie an extra 24 boats/ year
How will they cope with 1 new order/ week? .
But in the " Western Med" there are plenty of peeps with this kinda stuff -SoF is littered with em
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDxq8GEva7o&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Hope it goes well -even a few orders?
 
z1ppy said:
Given any kind of sea I would happily pay £££ to be in a hunton over a US build and designed boat but that's my choice and that's the difference. People want different things.

I'm sure that if you put some big hp petrols in a 37 it would compete like for like with anything out there, hunton have only been European based where the requirement are different.
Click to expand...
Two common misconceptions here.

First of all, among US performance boats builders, surely there are some who mainly design hulls for sheer top speed. But some others build boats capable to withstand anything you can throw at them - like Magnum, just to name a builder somewhat known also around here (but there are others).
Anyway, with most of these boats (including Hunton, mind), I'm pretty sure that the crew would give up in "any kind of sea" well before the boat would.

Secondly, nope, power alone is not sufficient to achieve REALLY high speeds.
A hull must be designed for that from the ground up, to avoid chine walking, porpoising and other problems which can become critical when going real fast.
And Hunton hulls aren't - not anymore by modern standards/speeds, at least.
In fact, they neither use steps nor staggered engines, just to name a couple of very basic things which are nowadays essential for high speed AND stability in a monohull.
Not AFAIK, anyway. Glad to stand corrected if I missed some of their latest developments, though.
 
MapisM said:
Two common misconceptions here.

First of all, among US performance boats builders, surely there are some who mainly design hulls for sheer top speed. But some others build boats capable to withstand anything you can throw at them - like Magnum, just to name a builder somewhat known also around here (but there are others).
Anyway, with most of these boats (including Hunton, mind), I'm pretty sure that the crew would give up in "any kind of sea" well before the boat would.
Click to expand...

Not disagreeing there! Look at the likes of apache or outerlimits, amazing sea boats with the power to! Will dig out some videos of them running in BIG seas.



MapisM said:
Secondly, nope, power alone is not sufficient to achieve REALLY high speeds.
A hull must be designed for that from the ground up, to avoid chine walking, porpoising and other problems which can become critical when going real fast.
And Hunton hulls aren't - not anymore by modern standards/speeds, at least.
In fact, they neither use steps nor staggered engines, just to name a couple of very basic things which are nowadays essential for high speed AND stability in a monohull.
Not AFAIK, anyway. Glad to stand corrected if I missed some of their latest developments, though.
Click to expand...

Hunton have always used stepped hulls on their 43s and have also staggered engines as well. Not to the same volume granted but the. Production numbers are lower in comparison!

It also comes back to their current customer base. Over the last 10 years there has been no incentive for people to build big hp petrol boats with fuel prices as they are here and diesel being cheaper. Hunton build to order and their orders from European markets we assume have been for (in comparative terms to the US market) more subdued in the hp and style.

I don't doubt that given the order, hunton could produce a boat that would compete like for like with the very best US boats In terms of speed, handling and colours on a like for like basis.

The boats referred to by Ian earlier are examples of how one persons engineering skills are making a great boat even better, it is not however something that comes cheap! And there lies my original fear. Huntons are expensive and for the same money you can get A LOT more boat on the us markets.

For me it's personal choice, from a commercial view I would love to see it a success for them but will be interesting to watch!
 
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