Hunter Owner Reviews

Serving sailors online since 1997
Contact us
Hunter OEM Parts
General Marine Parts
 
 

Review of the Hunter 27_75-84 by Gary H. Lucas

Year built 1976  
Location of boat Toms River, NJ  
The boat is sailed on Bays, sounds, or protected salt water  
How the boat is used Weekends and longer  
Normal wind strength 10-15 knots  
Average size of crew 2-4  
Liveaboard?  
Owner bought the boat in 1983  
If the clock could be turned back, would owner buy again? No, because of some serious structural problems that others don't seem to be aware of.  
Gear that's been added List is too extensive to give in entirety but includes teak main sheet traveler on cabin roof, internal halyards, teak bowsprit with anchors, roller furling, completely gutted interior and rebuilt including all plumbing, wiring and cabinetry.  
Structural or complex improvements I filled in this review mainly to warn others about the serious structural problems I encountered. The 75 to 78? models have a very bad hull design in the keel area where the keel is installed in a indentation in the bottom of the hull. This substantially reduces the strength of the stringers and my keel nearly fell off when the boat was being lifted into the water for the season. Here's the worrisome part, every h27 I have ever seen has water in the bilge. After fixing the hull myself the only thing in the bilge after 7 years was dust bunnies, AND the boat points MUCH better! How many sagging keels are out there?My boat had excessive weather helm, the tiller was even cracked from the load. I got dimesions from hunter and measured that it was bent aft almost 4 1/2". I measured every other h27 I could find, none were better, some were bent as much as 11"! I straightened mine, I could easily sail for 1/2 hour with no hands on the tiller and just a little mainsheet trimming.  
The boat's best features I always liked the traditional look and the boat has nice lines, the new hunters are down right ugly. Interior room was very good for a 27.  
Problem areas in terms of design, materials, maintenance, etc. Besides the keel problem we nearly sunk the boat from a jib sheet that fell over the side in an anchorage and wrapped in the prop when we tried to leave at night. The prop strut nearly pulled out of the hull because the backing washers were so small. After that scare I beefed up the hull at the strut and around the rudder tube, and added SS backing plates. After straighting the shaft and realigning the strut the motor ran much smoother and quiter than it had before so I guess the shaft alignment had always bben poor.We had a problem with deck compression at the mast which we corrected when we built a new mast foot for internal halyards.  
Sailing characterisitcs Once the keel and rudder problems were resolved the boat sailed very well when there was enough wind. We were once accused of using our engine in an informal race against a larger newer boat with a taller mast because we made up a two mile difference in 15 miles when the wind came up a little.  
Motoring characterisitcs I did'nt really mind the small engine because I don't like engines and used it very little. Drained the 13 gal. tank after the third season because the fuelwas going bad.  
Liveability For a 27 the boat was very livable for period of a week or so with 2 people. We hung a 10lb aluminum propane tank under the horseshoe bouy on the stern rail and installed a gas stove inside and a gas grill on the stern rail, which made life much better.  
The owner's experience in dealing with Hunter (if any) I called Hunter when I had the trouble with the keel. They said put a layer of two of roving down on top of the delaminated hull to carry the keel bolts. The actual repair involoved cutting out nearly the entire floor, removing all the stringers to the bare hull and reinstalling twice as many strings with twice as thick layer of glass.  
The owner's experience with the boat dealer or broker, if any The dealer was a disaster and has since gone out of business.  
Other comments  

Contact
About
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
Limited Liability
Advertise Here
Copyright 1997-2024 SB Owners, LLC
All rights reserved.

Other Sailboat Owners web sites:
CatalinaOwners.com | HunterOwners.com | MacgregorOwners.com | OdayOwners.com | SailboatOwners.com | 10,000 Boat Names |