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Review of the Hunter 27_75-84 by David Short

Year built 1978  
Location of boat Kingston, Ontario, Canada  
The boat is sailed on The Great Lakes  
How the boat is used Day sailing  
Normal wind strength 10-15 knots  
Average size of crew 2-4  
Liveaboard? No  
Owner bought the boat in 2006  
If the clock could be turned back, would owner buy again? Yes. I bought the boat for a very low price, knowing that there was some work to be done on it. The projects always take longer than expected but there have been no bad surprises. I have been pleasantly surprised with the boat's sailing stability, handling under power, and engine reliability.  
Gear that's been added Replaced VHF. Added primary fuel filter/separator, replaced head, compass. New shaft packing, Boom vang, Stero. New cabin lights. Epiphanes does a nice job shining up the teak interior In future: insulate the icebox, add alarms to the engine idiot lights, maybe a diesel cabin heater. Interior improvements to cushions and woodwork. New sails sometime.  
Structural or complex improvements Took out the old porta-potti and installeed a Jabsco head. The old 34 gallon fresh water tank forward was converted to a holding tank. I'll install a new fresh water tank and all new plumbing next year. I re-cored a 2' X 3' section of the cabin deck, directly under the mast. The old balsa core had disintegrated and the mast was sinking into the deck. This was a major job - I knew it needed to be done when I bought the boat. Now I have new coring and directly under the mast there is 2 inches of solid FRP. This is better than the original design and no more mast sinking. The 12V DC wiring was a mess. I replaced it all and re-routed wires so they're not in the bilge. It took about 500 ft of wire in total! Next year I'll do the 110 V AC wiring. I have ordered a new forward hatch from Bomar to replace the old wooden one. There was some leaking at the toerails, making the interior damp. I removed and re-bedded the port rail last year - next year I'll do the starboard. A tediuos job but worth it. Larger cockpit drains next year  
The boat's best features Number One: Good solid hull. A stable sailor but not slow. Reliable, safe diesel I/B power. Good sail area. Terrific layout below - Nice to have a real chart table in a 27 boat. Very livable and practical space with headroom. Nice amount of woodwork. Decent storage, especially with the quarter berth Decent lines, with a slight counter and shear. Dry cockpit in rough weather. Great value, once upgrades are made.  
Problem areas in terms of design, materials, maintenance, etc. This model was known for its somewhat cheap deck hardware and fittings. The winches are single speed and small, the lifeline stanchions weak, mooring cleats small and too few in number. Cockpit drains are way too small. My forward hatch was the old wood version and is junk. My boat was 1978; I see that later versions of the same model had better hardware and fittings. Worst design flaw: The deck-stepped mast had compressed the balsa-cored deck underneath where the core had decomposed. This was a major fix. Fortunately all these things can be corrected or upgraded at reasonable cost.  
Sailing characterisitcs So far mainly day trips. We had one day of squalls where we got pushed along at 10 knots under genny alone - the rig held up OK. As posted elswhere, lots of weather helm as the boat gets overpowered by the wind. Reefing takes care of this OK.  
Motoring characterisitcs Despite other owner's concerns on the noise and low power of the Yanmar 8 HP SB8, I am quite pleased with this motor. At almost 30 years of age it starts with absolute consistency, runs fine, and pushes the boat at hull speed in calm water. If I was living in an area where I had to frequently fight current then more power would be in order but on Lake Ontario it is just fine. I added a good quality fuel filter/separator so I expect many more years from this engine. Fuel consumption is laughably low - about 12 gallons a season for me. It's pretty noisy but that's not worth re-powering. I like the safety and simplicity of diesel. Crank start capability is a great safety feature in case your batteries die. The Hunter turns on a dime under power, great for tight docking. Prop walk going astern is about as expected on any boat.  
Liveability As good as you can get in a 27 foot boat, better than many. Love that chart table and headroom! The layout very cleverly squeezes the maximum space out of 27 feet.  
The owner's experience in dealing with Hunter (if any) Never dealt directly with the company.  
The owner's experience with the boat dealer or broker, if any Nothing remarkable. The previuos owner, I suspect, was leery of doing any work to upgrade and maintain the boat, so he was anxious to sell.  
Other comments I still have many projects to complete on this boat but can sail it in the meantime. When all projects are done I expect the value of the boat will be more than doubled. But I will keep her - I don't need anything bigger.  

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