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Review of the Hunter 90 by Chris Miller

Year built 2002  
Location of boat New Bern, NC  
The boat is sailed on Rivers  
How the boat is used Weekends and longer  
Normal wind strength 10-15 knots  
Average size of crew 2-4  
Liveaboard? No  
Owner bought the boat in 2002  
If the clock could be turned back, would owner buy again? Yes, generally I believe it is a good boat and well constructed. It is, at the end of the day, a production boat and you have to "look under the covers" to find and see the problems associated with shoody workmanship. There are just dumb things that hunter does (ever tried to remove one of the plastic water, fuel or black water tanks? You can't unless you have a jig saw handy with lots of after repair. How dumb is that. It is the best and biggest boat, however, for the money (Passage 420). Oh, the genset (Northern Lights) has to be replaced as it sucked water due to improper running of exhaust at factory.  
Gear that's been added Davits, engine hoist, and associate dingy and engine (why wouldn't Hunter make the rear safety rails stronger ... I had to add an additional support as the rails were just way to weak). Added TV in aft (flat screen) but the boat was extremely well equiped (show boat) with all electronics including radar. Added other typical gear (helm radio, hand held, and lots of spares). Also added additional anchor with 100' of chain.  
Structural or complex improvements No, with the exception of rail supports due to weight of engine. Boat seems to be quite good structurally even in blue water with 10 footers.  
The boat's best features Liveability to the max. Great master state room and plenty of room both in the interior and in the cockpit.  
Problem areas in terms of design, materials, maintenance, etc. Refrigeration sucks both in terms of sealing and those totally idiotic latches. Boat transom sits way to low in water!!!! Plywood in between the aft lockers and the aft stateroom ... what kind of moron thought of that (it will rot!). Leaks in the trunk compartments (needs much better sealing system! Pain in the A-- to get to fresh water manifolds and needs holding tank so you're not constantly running the pump. Lack of storage for sails, etc. Need to have a back stay for security and SSB. Rudder seems to sit below keel as when we've run aground (okay, I've heard it happens to everyone) it seems to hit at the rudder, not the keel. Too many through hulls .. that should have been more well thought out. Need a purge fitting on AC filter (avoids vacuum locks). Need remote oil change system as well as remote oil filter. Need clear bowl for fuel racor. Chart plotter/radar Ratheon unit has had intermittency problems. Very poor design on the autohelm (broke first day out at scary moment as it locked steering in starboard turn). Genset problem and NEEDS a sound containment as it is LOUD! Grating on the Force 10 sagged when boiling water (Delta sent a heavy duty replacement) But the refrigeration has been the nemesis and Hunter knows it (sealing and latching mechanisms absolutely SUCK).  
Sailing characterisitcs As long as you have 15 knot (not directly astern), she perform quite well. Sailing down wind, forget it! Really need a spinnaker (genneker sp?) for down wind. Just takes wind as she's a heavy boat with a small job and you really can't put a 140 on it unless you like seeing your mast on your house.  
Motoring characterisitcs Good motoring boat ... no complaints but if I wanted a motor boat, I'd have ordered one. No problems or complaints about the Yanmar engine. Could use a larger prop though.  
Liveability The best and most comfortable. Love it. Would be nice to be able to get rid of the salon table though (raise it, fold it up, etc just to give more seating room.  
The owner's experience in dealing with Hunter (if any) We'll see, my boat just went in for servicing under warranty with a 31 point hit list. Stay tuned on this one. On the phone though, they were quite responsive. Some dealers, by the way, won't do the service on your hunter unless you bought it from them. This could be a real problem in the future so beware. Hunter underestimates time to repair and only reimburses $44/hour. This motivates some dealer's yards to not work on Hunter prouducts under warranty.  
The owner's experience with the boat dealer or broker, if any I was very disatisfied with the Sales but the Service folks have been terrific.  
Other comments Overall, I really like the boat and these are just problems pretty common to production boats. They spend money on the places and things you can see and totally cheap out on other things (like the locks on the transom compartments). Time will tell. I will say that liveaboards will tell you the boats have problems weekend warriors would never experience. Their Force 10 had to be replaced 3 times, improper insulation (large voids) in the frig. doors, etc. Their Hunter documentation on the 420 is for the 42 and has presented some challenges. Missing docs on some of the systems (i.e., AIRrrrrr, windlass, some of the Ratheon instruments, etc). But it is, at the end of the day, one of the best boats out there for the money.  

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