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Review of the Hunter 240 by raymond scott

Year built 1998  
Location of boat Lake Hartwell, Georgia  
The boat is sailed on Lakes  
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 1998  
If the clock could be turned back, would owner buy again? yes, at the time we bought it we did not have a lake lot and had to either pay for a slip or trailer it. The ease of trailering with boat allowed us to try all the local lakes and see which we liked best. We also pulled it down to mississippi and spent many holidays and weekends cruising the coastal islands including riding out force 10 at anchor off Cat Island new years morning 1999. We just got back from a 900 mile trip that took 3 weeks going from Savannah, Ga to St. Marks Fla thru the cross florida canal and lake okeechobee. Without its ability to easily trailer these trips would have been much harder.  
Gear that's been added Marine radio and antenna, stereo, compass, depth finder, small fan for the cabin, mosquito screens for the hatches, sail cover, changed cabin lights to led, installed 3 fireextinguishers, extra anchor and line carried on board, alcohol stove,  
Structural or complex improvements added extra halyard and standups and spinnaker pole attachments for assymmetrical spinnaker, added pulley system to raise the rudder, had to rebuild the pulley system on the centerboard the ones that came with it were too small and broke twice, added extra layer of boards to trailer bunks to keep from cracking hull at the waterballast-hull junction again.  
The boat's best features by far the waterballast and the way the mast raises.  
Problem areas in terms of design, materials, maintenance, etc. rudder hard to raise, trailer bunks too flexible cracked gel coat at junction of waterballast tank to hull, pulley system to centerboard, centerboard itself was fabricated wrong. Don't take this wrong this was hull number 3 of this design and they were still working out the problems.  
Sailing characterisitcs due to waterballast it is tender initially but stiffens up nicely as the heel angle increases. it points very well into the wind routinely going closer than any fixed keel boat on the lake. tiller force is quite high, I wish they had made it more balanced. The centerboard and rudder can swing back and forth causing a pounding to the systems in rough enough weather. ( we were motoring in 8-10 ft seas quartering into the waves with only 7mph winds. If the winds had been higher where we could have sailed into them this normally doesn't happen.) when seas get to 6-8 or larger some oil canning is noticed. The boat handles nicely with almost any sail combination.  
Motoring characterisitcs boat pounds much more motoring than sailing. with the 9.9 honda we get 8 to 12 mpg. between the motor being steerable and the large rudder it is a dream to pull into a dock or manuever in close quarters. speed is 6.4mph at half throttle topping out at 7.2 at full throttle on calm still waters. we have seen much higher numbers but were due to current or surfing on larger waves.  
Liveability my wife and I usually sleep in the v berth just to be able to get out quicker if anything were to happen and having the porta potty under the v berth means we usually move it to the cabin at night.( the other reason we sleep up front is our dog has appropriated the rear berth and we let her stay there and use it for storage). water is usually enough for 3 to 4 days. headroom is a little low but that is the tradeoff for its size. the cushions slide off the seats very easily some day I will add more velcro. berth cushions could be a little thicker.  
The owner's experience in dealing with Hunter (if any) They took care of the centerboard problem no problem once the dealer took it off and showed them the fabrication error. They split the cost of the hull repair, they said it was caused by the trailer and it was only warranteed for one year. when I ordered a new window they were very helpful. I think they were fair in every circumstance.  
The owner's experience with the boat dealer or broker, if any dealer, they were quite helpful picking out the boat, came back after the sale and claimed they had made a mistake on the financing and had quoted the wrong number of payments( added two more). This owner sold out not long after and the dealership is now run by much friendlier and competent people.  
Other comments With the waterballast system if you ever get stuck you can put your dinghy inflation pump on the air intake to the ballast tank and blow your ballast raising you about 6" getting you unstuck. Hunter corrected the problems we had on later models and this is a great very versatile boat.  

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