In the mid 1990’s Hunter Marine was struggling to find its way. Begun in 1973 with a plan to target the then, emerging lower priced sailing market, Hunter became saddled with “cheap boat syndrome”. This was certainly not the intention of Warren Luhrs. Along came Glenn Henderson, one of the shining new stars of yacht design with his feet clearly in the sailboat racing world. He set about to help reinvent the company through innovative designs, which turned out to be no easy feat. The mission was to create a line of easy-to-sail, fast, cruising boats. The combination of Henderson’s exceptional design skills coupled with the willingness of the Luhrs Group to produce a very high quality product has resulted in the Renaissance of one of America’s top sailing brands.

With the introduction of a new Henderson 36 foot model this Fall, Hunter has effectively left their bad rap of the “good old days” behind. The entire lineup of big boats, from 31ft to 49ft bears the Henderson design stamp now. This, coupled with the fact that Hunter is an ESOP company ensures that they will settle for nothing less than excellence in the sailboat building industry. The 36 is an update to perhaps Hunter’s most popular size. It is sandwiched in between the 33 and the 38 which were both introduced in 2005. The 36 was the last boat size to get the Henderson magic wand makeover mainly because the 356 he designed in 2000 was so wildly popular. This update creates 6″ of additional waterline on the 36 created by some hull design tweaking and the signature Henderson plumb bow.

Look for this new model along with the new 45CC at the boat show circuit this Fall. Perhaps the most popular sized boat in the SailTime fleet, there will be plenty of opportunities for SailTime members to sail the new 36 all across North America in 2008.

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