Like all boats, the H36 is full of various designer compromises. Thats how Hunter provides so much boat for the money. Shes my first new boat, and I put previous used-boat experience into fitting her out for offshore duty. For other new (or prospective) H36 owners, I offer a summary of what this one sailor considers useful enhancements. They are organized in sections as follows: 1. CONTEXT 2. SAILS 3. DECK GEAR 4. SAFETY GEAR 5. ANTENNAS 6. BELOW DECKS 1. CONTEXT

In 2005, Persephones first season after commisioning, I put 1,449.4nm on the log - sailing her in the Gulf of Maine, in fair weather and foul - and enjoyed every mile. Most of this was under sail but I did put 182hrs on the engine, using approximately 93gal of diesel - a very economical 0.5gal/hr by the Yanmar 3YM30 driving a fixed, 3-bladed prop. (Ive motored-in against 5kts of full ebb over the Merrimac River entrance bar with 6-8ft following breakers, and the 3-blade gives me more much-needed acceleration than my last boats 2-blade on a similar HP-per-ton boat.) In 2006, I added another 1,775.5nm sailing along the coast between and in Massachusetts Bay and Casco Bay, generally no farther offshore than the Isles of Shoals and often single-handed. Since the H36 is just a modest evolution on the H356, I felt that the combined production histories of this hull would give me some confidence that Hunter had ironed any major bugs out of its production. Persephone is hull number 234, the 134th H36 built. The H36 qualifies as CE Category A, and the hull and standing rigging seem reasonably sturdy. Persephones bottom thickness ahead of the keel measures a touch under 5/8in. As supposedly only the gelcoat backing is non-directional fiber, that seems a fair amount of vacuum-bagged, directional e-glass and Kevlar. The Plexus-bonded reinforcing grid looks pretty good, as do the easily-inspected chainplates and keel bolts. Ive experienced no obvious hull-flexing. (The lack of a bridge deck is an issue, but I sail with the dropboards in. Once pooped twice shy, I guess. Persephone has been knocked-down and pinned by a summer thunderstorm, but the hullshapes high freeboard and broad beam held most of the deck above water, and none entered the cockpit.) The H36s 114 degree angle-of-vanishing-stability is about as low as Id accept, but Ive no intention of trying to lie a-hull with her. The 1,172 lbs/in sinkage rate is adequate for my needs, as I dont intend carrying supplies sufficient for a circumnavigation. The moderate displacement-to-length ratio does, indeed, give her a reasonably sea-kindly motion. The H36 is obviously not a fine furniture store kind of boat, but it seems to be basically well-found for my purposes. I only felt the need for some simple safety modifications. I ordered Persephone without sails, and equipped her with a custom suit from Doyle. I wanted sails that would do a better job over the full range of conditions that I wanted the boat rigged to handle, as I believe that thats the first order of business for any sailboats seaworthiness. I told the sailmaker that I wanted a suit of sails that would perform well from light airs up to gale force winds. The sails he delivered have, thus far, worked very well for me in winds from as low as 3kts in flat seas, to as high as 30kts in 6-8ft seas. (Ive had her in winds over 48kts, but didnt go looking for it.) 2. SAILS I have an extra-large-roach mainsail, made from 8.8oz, type 52 dacron (Challenge Sailcloths marblehead weave). Though its roach is greater than the standard mainsail, its luff curve is designed for the same 2% mast prebend. Its 490sq-ft - 15% larger than the 426sq-ft standard mainsail, and 28% larger than the 384sq-ft roller-furling mainsail. When fully hoisted, it gives me a sail area-to-displacement ratio of 21. It has 4 full-length battens and 3 sets of reef cringles (vs the standard mainsails 2 full battens and 2 leach battens, with only 2 sets of reef cringles). When triple-reefed, its area is slightly less than the 2-reefed area of the standard mainsail, and it still has a lovely shape. The mainsail is loose-footed, with SS luff-slides that run in a Strong sail track from Tides Marine. The Strong track is made of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene and fits inside the Selden masts sailtrack slot. Its extremely low friction lets the small SS slides substitute for greater-stacking-height batten cars. I often reef without turning upwind. My jib measures 305sq-ft, practically the same as the 295sq-ft standard 110% Genoa. However, its made from 8.8oz type 52 dacron, with a foam luff pad to keep it flat with up to 10-15% roller-reefing (20-30% area reduction). Its sized and shaped to balance the large-roach main, and with either full-hoist mainsail, or with single-, double- or triple--reefed mainsail, I can balance Persephone to within 5 degrees of weather helm over a wide range of winds. I also have an 850sq-ft assymmetric spinnaker (Doyles APC design), made from 0.75oz nylon. This rig has easily given me 3.5-4.0 kts on a beam reach in 5kts of wind (using the roller-furling jib, no spinnaker), due to the extra horsepower of the full-hoist main. Yet with triple-reefed main and partially reefed Genoa, it has allowed me to beat at hull speed into 25kts gusting to 30, at 35degrees off using the lazy sheet as a Barber-hauler. (She will point as high as 28degrees with full jib and - obviously - no lazysheet tension.) This allows me to sail Persephone fairly flat in most conditions (15 degree heel), combining speed and acceleration with the lady-like behavior that seems characteristic of the hull design. 3. DECK GEAR To handle these sails, I have quad Spinlocks on the starboard side of the cabintop, and 6 on the port. Since I often singlehand, I bring all 3 single-line reefing lines and the vang line (as well as the mainsheet, the topping lift and the jib, spinnaker and mainsail halyards) aft to the cockpit. I also run a mainsail downhaul aft. With the 4 full battens and the 3-line lazy jacks, the downhaul makes reefing or dropping the mainsail neatly (and securely in high winds) easy, without my having to leave the cockpit. The cabintop halyard/reefing winches are not the standard Lewmar ST30s, but ST40s - just like the coaming-mounted jibsheet winches. This obviously provides more purchase on the last portion of hoisting the oversized mainsail. It will also allow me to only need a single set of spare winch parts when I (hopefully) graduate to longer open water passages with her. (The jibsheet winches are adequate, but I think ST44s would be better. Just-barely-big-enough sizing is how Hunter provides top-quality hardware while meeting cost targets.) Ive mounted the smallest-sized Blue Performance sheet bags on the after walls of the cockpits built-in halyard boxes (which are one of Hunters nice design features). The port bag is dedicated to the long 3rd reefing line, and the starboard bag holds the mainsheet for quick access (and free running) in case of a knockdown. (Been there - done that.) All other line tails go in the boxes. Ive also added West Marines mesh sheetbags under the pushpit seats for the jib sheets (lack of jibsheet tail stowage is one of Hunters not-so-nice design features), and Blue Performance winch handle pockets on the bulkhead and near the helmsmans seat. At the helm, I have a Ritchie Navigator compass, instead of the little standard H36 compass. Clustered around it are an ST4000-plus (mark II) wheel-pilot, and Raymarine ST60 instruments (speed/log, depth and wind). All these are networked to a C80 radar/chart-plotter, and to an ST60 graphic repeater that is below at the nav station. In the helm grab-bar pod holding the C80, to the left of the display I have LEDs for bilge pump activity (yellow) and flooding alarm (red). The only instrument on the seahood panel over the companionway is a dual clinometer (with 6- and 60-degree scales). Id like to add a coolant temperature gauge to the Yanmar engine control panel. 4. SAFETY GEAR I have a second pair of coachroof grab rails, identical to and mounted forward of the standard H36 grab rails. (The forward pair of rails on the H356 disappeared in the cost-cutting.) I also have a pair of the short grab rails that Hunter uses on the H33 which are mounted aft of the standard grab rails, to grab onto while exiting the cockpit. (However, when Ive rigged jacklines and am wearing my harness/inflatable, I take advantage of the H36s wonderfully low cabin height to just step onto the coachroof and go forward near the boom. This allows me to avoid the narrow sidedecks.) I added a 7x7 SS permanent jackline to the mast base from an eye-nut on a 2 long 1/4-20 bolt replacing the center bolt holding the Harken traveler track to the arch. In addition, I added triangular-truss reinforcement to the forward portions of the lifelines (from the shrouds to the pullpit), by mounting small SS strap-eyes to the toe rail and diamond-lacing around the lifelines and through the strap-eyes with covered, stranded wire. (I always tell crew that lifelines are to be assumed to be for decoration, only. However, I believe the lacing does enhance the probabliity of stopping a rolling body from going overboard, without the reduced cleat-access of store-bought netting.) I also have a foredeck light mounted above the lower spreaders, just under my Radar and fog-horn/loud-hailer, for nighttime foredeck adventures. I have a waterproof 12vdc socket installed at the helm for my rechargable spotlight. On the after rails, just behind the helmsmans position, I have a fog bell mounted on the starboard side and a plastic LifeSling container mounted on the port side. 5. ANTENNAS A pseudo-backstay SSB antenna could foul my mainsails oversized positive roach. To avoid this, I rigged a vertical antenna from the midpoint of the port upper spreader to the base of the port lower shroud, where it enters the cabin for a short, shielded run to the Icom AT140 antenna tuner mounted behind the port settees after seat back cushion. (Only the center conductor of a short run of coax is connected to the BNC connector below the shroud anchor, but its shield is grounded. This coaxs length is a lumped circuit at HF, and the tuner easily handles the additional 30pf.) The antenna is made from RG8 marine coax. Its shield is shorted to its center conductor through a BNC connector that runs belowdecks, in order to make an insulated, larger diameter radiator than the usual wire, for slightly wider bandwidth. The coax is wrapped at each end around nylon thimbles that have SS springs through them to deal with mast flexing. Its length is close to that of the whips used on many USN ship bridges, and is easily resonated against my keel ground by my tuner over the 2-to-30MHz range. For receive-only, it functions well as an E-Field probe on the 518kHz NAVTEX frequensy. My mast-top VHF antenna is the same Shakespeare half-wave sleeve dipole that the USCG uses. Its balanced design avoids the exactly-where-is-ground issues of base-loaded whips, and the 3dB radiation pattern avoids pointing most of the signal down into the ocean when heeled significantly. 6. BELOW DECKS At the navigators station, I have MF/HF-SSB/RTTY and VHF-FM radios (Icom M802 and M602, respectively). The VHF radio is equipped with a remote microphone at the helm, which also gives me an intercom between the helm and the nav station, as well as a loud-hailer and a programmable fog-horn through the mast-mounted speaker. Mounted next to the radios are an ST60 graphic display thats a selectable SeaTalk bus-data repeater; a tide clock (set to UTC for NAVTEX and weather-fax schedules); a high-sensitivity barometer; a digital 24hr barograph; and a Link 20 dual battery monitor. I also added a 12vdc socket under the port edge of the dinette table, for neater laptop use. There is a Dickinson Radex heater plumbed into the engine cooling circuit and mounted behind the vent slots facing to port under the dinettes after-most seat. The heaters blower is switched from the DC breaker panel. (I use a Caframo 110v heater when tied to shorepower.) A small, brass, gimbled kerosene lamp is mounted on the forward bulkhead above the port settee, for no-DC-power emergency lighting. (I like this Weems and Plath designs accompanying brass smoke hood, mounted just above it.) After my picture-everything-upside-down analysis of the saloon, I added hold-down latches to the bottom of the companionway steps (using the same rubber draw-latches as secure the top of the steps to the engine bulkhead). I thought I might do something of the sort with the seat locker lids, but havent figured out what, yet. (I have experienced a squall knockdown which pinned Persephone on her port side. Not only did she remain gratifyingly stable in that position until I released her mainsheet, but none of the contents of the above-mentioned seat lockers came out. Nor did the bilge boards, but I dont store things in the all-too-shallow bilge.) I do, however, plan to add the additional high-capacity, high-water bilge pump, that I neglected to order from Hunter as an option. Since the port settee is well-sized for use as a sea berth, I plan to have our local canvas guy make a lee cloth with cringles at and between all four corners, so it can double as a collision mat for hull breeches. In normal use, one edges cringles will have lines tied up to the H36s well-placed wooden grab rail over the settee, with the opposite edge of the cloth tucked under the settees seat cushions.