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Review of the Hunter 450 by Chris Oldham

Year built 1997  
Location of boat Fiddler's Cove, MA  
The boat is sailed on Open ocean  
How the boat is used Blue water, extended passages  
Normal wind strength 16-22 knots  
Average size of crew 2-4  
Liveaboard?  
Owner bought the boat in 1997  
If the clock could be turned back, would owner buy again? Oh Yes! But this is an update on our review of earlier this year. We now have over 1300 nm of ocean passagemaking in our 450 and our pretty familiar with how she sails! So this review may be a little more informed, as we have ironed out most of the quirks and made the changes we wanted.  
Gear that's been added ST-80 instrumentation at helm,sea hood, nav station and aft cabin:ST-80 autopilot control: Dual station Raytheon R40/R20XX Radar at Nav station and cockpit:Kohler Generator: Universal Aqua Technologies 500 gpd Watermaker: Airconditioning: Bimini  
Structural or complex improvements We have re-wired the electrical system to avoid a dangerous overvoltage condition which could have occurred (and did) after installing an externally regulated Balmar high output alternator. We added Diodes to the battery selector switch and increased diode protection on the house batteries.The traveller set up is not effective and is difficult to release under load. We have removed the jammer cleats, relead the lines through a donut where the janmmers where, down over the chafe plate on the arch to the newly poitioned jammers on the forward edge of a small stainless bracket mounted on the chafe plate. This enbles the line to be pulled foward out of the jammers easily, and adds no friction either.We did not think the size of the Racors was sufficient, so upgraded them. Also moved the engine anti-syphon loop away from on top of the engine and mounted it higher on the stbd engine bulkhead.Had Hunter glass in 150 sg.ft of copper mesh into our hull to give a good ground for the SSB.The bimini struts cram the primary winches. We lead the jib sheets to our spinnaker winches, aft.  
The boat's best features Incredible space below! Surpringly nimble light air performance. Good acceleration in lifts. Frighteningly quiet engine from topside! Really solid in seas and blows. Lies a-hull beautifully. Very positive steering. Backs up a treat. The best balanced boat we have ever sailed - the perfect sail plan (fully battened main). Good fluids capacities. Good storage below, provided you open up some bilge space/under bunk space etc, that is sealed up at the factory!  
Problem areas in terms of design, materials, maintenance, etc. Poor Traveller design (see above). Single line reefing system traps lines of the remaining reef, making the lines difficult to pull the slack out of. The arch moves a lot. Is this this a potential area for failure? Don't know yet. We just chartered a 450 in the Virgins, and the arch had numerous stress cracks in it - but then it was Hull #1, the prototype.The electrical system was a problem (see above).Had some problems with the head plumbning forward which constantly airlocked. Unkinked some lines and improved the seal on the deck pump out fitting and all appears to be OK now.The charter boat had a furling mast. We noticed a very noticeable lack of pointing ability in this rig, to our boat (which has a fully battened main). We are glad we specified the standeard rig - very glad!We bent the Vang. Think it is too light for ocean sailing.  
Sailing characterisitcs We have done 1,200 nm of ocean sailing to Bermuda and Back, where we experienced seas to 15 feet, wind gusts to 40 knots, the averages being 6-8 ft seas and 17-25 knot winds. We were hit by several squalls and lay a hull. None of these conditions gave the 450 any problems whatsoever. The boat likes the wind, provided you have the appropriate sail up for it. It can overpower very quickly and bite. We 1st reefed at 17kts, with full jib. At 20 kts we were prepared for the heavy waether jib and at 22-25kts threw in the second reef and flew the No3 jib. 25Kts and above we usually put up the storm jib. This is conservative, but the boat was never overpowered, we maintained our speed, quietened it down and had acceptable heel with virtually no weather helm. Most impressive is the way the boat lies a hull. In 38 knots of wind, the 450 lay quietly still while I fixed a bust sail slide on the mast. That's a really nice characteristic!  
Motoring characterisitcs Excellent and quiet! For long distance passagemaking we use about 2,300 RPM which seemed to give us around 6 knots. Powered up to 3,000 or more 7.5 - 8.0 seems possible. We calculate we use 1.1 gallons per hour of fuel at 2,500 RPM - but this is a new engine - and for trip planning purposes we use a figure of 1.3 gph for motoring time, which includes a fudge factor for generator use and is pretty conservative we think.  
Liveability Excellent, although trying to find a spot to store the dinette fill-in cushion is a problem when sailing with a 24 hour watch system. Crew states the forward berth is small for two people. We added lee-clothes to all berths and the port setee makes a good sea-berth.Storage is good, but some space needs to opened up to take full advantage of it (under the aft berth, outboard of the fuel tank for example).We also divided the aft berth with a centre line lee cloth and put paid to all criticism that queen size centreline "beds" are useless at sea - they're great!We moved the house batteries to the bilge and so freed up the space under the port setee for food storage. We also opened uip bilge space under that for long term storage (parts etc).The entrance to aft cabin is narrow, but an advantage in a seaway. The door arrangement to the aft head is awkward, and space is very tight. It becomes an art for guys to use the head when heeled on the stabd tack. Time to sit, boys!  
The owner's experience in dealing with Hunter (if any) Excellent. The factory have been very cooperative and helpful. They really seem to try to reach out to help the customer. We are still waiting for our replacement mast (4 months now), but that's a Z-Spar problem, not the factory's.  
The owner's experience with the boat dealer or broker, if any Wouldn't use our Dealer again. He was new to the Hunter family and not knowledgeable at all. Due to the pull (or lack of it) he had with the commissioning yard, our boat took three months to commission! It seems he is also a big Beneteau dealer, and clearly had a biass to this make - Hunters were an add on and I didn't think had his full commitment yet!The yard did great work - just very slowly!  
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