Hunter Edge 27 discontinued?

[yukonbob]

We slip ours for half the year. If we couldn't drag our boat home (3800ft in <12 miles) then we would have to p[ay to take it out and store in the yeard for the rest of the year. Winter on the water in Alaska is extremely tough on boats. Until I can take a keeled boat south for the winter I'm sticking with the MAC and I can watch it in my backyard all winter.

[FishyFabs]

I keep it in a slip for the summer (which is really short up North) and then need to pay for winter storage as my yard is the size of a postage stamp and cannot fit the Mac. The winter storage sucks as I cannot access the boat at all for 6 months of the year so I start foaming at the month by the end of winter . I do a lot of Salmon fishing and my Mac has downriggers too. My kids are not into sailing yet but love the cabin and spending weekends on board. They will be old enough to try tubing next year. Every year I take it on a week long boys only trips where we go to different places to sail, explore and fish. Previous trips included the North Channel & 1000 Islands and we intend to make it down to the Florida Keys in future.

You cannot do this with a keel boat and it would be difficult for me to switch to a keel boat no matter how luxurious and spacious it may be. Long live the power trailer sailor....Long live the Macs!

[Seapup]

I don't think too many of the edge sold, they never seem to be on the for sale sites anyway. Personally I went and looked at it a couple times at the 2010 Annapolis show and liked it a lot, seemed spacious and stable to me. There were always at least a half dozen people on it at the show and it did not feel crowded and barely rocked around with all the people climbing all over it.

[BOAT]

I saw no difference in stability when I looked at the Hunter. To me it rolled FASTER under sail between 10 and 25 degrees. It felt a lot like my old round bottomed Aquarius.
'boat' is VERY stable at the dock with people walking all over it. When the ballast tank is full I can lean way out hanging from a side stay and can hardly get the boat to move and I'm pretty fat. My ballast tank fills all the way up and puts 2 inched of water in the vent bowl. 'boat' is HEAVY when full of ballast.

The righting moment that is "tippy" on the MACM is not at the dock - in fact the MAC X ( ) is even MORE stable at the dock than the Hunter AND the M ( ) boat because of the flatter bottom on the X ( ) boat. I say this because there is a X boat here in the harbor that I visit all the time and we walk all over Nicks boat and it does not move at ALL.

It's the moment between 20 degrees and 30 degrees that get's all the scarey cats bent out of shape on the M ( ) boat because the ballast is so high up in the MACM boat it does not kick in again after 20 degrees until you get to about 30 degrees because of the shape of the hull when the boat heels at that angle it's trying to lift half of the ballast up out of the water.

'boat' has two points on the dial where he gets stiff: one at about 16 degrees and another at about 32 degrees.
That is the point where the MACM gets REALLY stiff, at about 32 to 35 degrees.

Sorry for my bad writing here but I did not take the time to edit myself.

[Ixneigh]

So I am guessing no one here has actually sailed on an edge? Or even sailed against one? The added beam should result in a better performing boat. Plus I can't see hunter making something that didn't sail well.
Ix

[J--]

I think I know why it was discontinued and why no one has sailed one:

http://www.sailboatlistings.com/view/25018

It's $48k for a 4 year old boat. You can buy a lot of used sailboat for that kind of scratch or sail away a new Tattoo. Just sayin....

[dlandersson]

I think I know why it was discontinued and why no one has sailed one:

http://www.sailboatlistings.com/view/25018

It's $48k for a 4 year old boat. You can buy a lot of used sailboat for that kind of scratch or sail away a new Tattoo. Just sayin....

[EZ]

So I am guessing no one here has actually sailed on an edge? Or even sailed against one? The added beam should result in a better performing boat. Plus I can't see hunter making something that didn't sail well.
Ix

In the past I have read several posts expressing frustration with SA. How they criticize Macs without ever sailing one.

I am sure everyone on this board is better than that.

With that said, from looking at the specs and pictures the Edge seems like a nice quality boat. Probably better quality than a Mac. I just wish there was one in a marina or somewhere that I could take a closer look at.

[JotaErre]

The Mac is like a heressy for "purist" sailors, but... who cares? It is fine for me.

I did not buy my X because its trailerability, but because I wanted a powersailor. More: a powersailor that I could afford. There are not meny powersailors in the market, and a second hand X was the only one that fitted into muy budget.

It looks like Hunter tried to build an "upmarket MacGregor" with the Edge, and they didn't succeed. Why? maybe it's the trailerability problem, I don't know. I think it was because it was too expensive, and because people tend to choose the original rather than a copy.

[FishyFabs]

Hunter is a great company making great boats. I encourage anybody considering the Edge 27 to contact them and/or a dealer directly and ask if it was discontinued due to safety issues. This would be my only concern as it appears to be well designed an paper at least.

Competition drives improvements so I am sorry to see it discontinued.

[Ixneigh]

My guess is that people in the edges price range opt for one of hunters keelboats instead. I bought the M because it had less draft, more space, looked cool, and sailed passably well. And I could afford it. I figured I could fix any issues concerning strength later. The way the edges rudder retracts was a deal killer anyway. If I'd had a million dollars I still would have choose the M. I just would have rented the molds and had a custom carbon fiber layup

[mastreb]

It's the cost issue. When you're looking for <30ft boats, the reason is because you don't want to spend the money on slipping and initial purchase price. Price, Quality, Performance: Pick any two, three is not really possible (except in markets that are temporarily disrupted by technological advances).

For this market, price-out-the-door is the primary driver of sales. Roger knew that, and that's why he made his boats as thin as safely tolerable.

Doubtless the Hunter Edge is a fine boat and likely comes better initially fit out than a MacGregor. But alas, it's hard to compete with half the MSRP and 25% less completely fit out.

[JotaErre]

Dufour also built a powersailor (the Dufour Duo), which was almost a Mac clone (with better appointed interior). It sold quite well, but it was discontinued after a few years in production.

My guess is that, as Dufour tries to sell their boats as "more upmarket" than other large brands like Jeanneau, Beneteau or Bavaria, someone in the marketing department thought that the Duo didn't fit in the image they wanted to project...

[FishyFabs]

The Dufour Duo does not appear to have a water ballast system and it weighs over 6 000 pounds so you would need a serious tow rig to move it around. It does look nice though.

[Divecoz]

As you see on your right.... we left Chicagoland and now live in Port Charlotte Florida I assure you all, that none of you live in as close proximity to as Many Mac 26 SDX&Ms as I do, and most of them( but not near all of them) live on lifts when not being sailed. Why own them then? The Harbor can be shallow and the retractable boards opens up more sailing and anchoring areas , and MY goes 70MPH down #41& #75 behind my truck getting to where ever else it is I want to sail. It sure is nice to sail up to anyone of a hundred or more islands / beaches and .....Beach Her Even with Anti-fouling , in our tropical salt waters You'll have to (or you will have to pay to have someone) to clean the bottom every 2 months $$$
So my Mac is on the Lift and My Seaswirl Striker with its anti fouling paint sits at The seawall...

Ixneigh said;

That’s why many MAC owners resort to slipping their boats which to me defeats the whole purpose of buying a MAC in the first place

Having a trailer-able boat does not mean its only used as that. It means it's more versatile. While in a slip, it is out on the water within in moments of stepping on board. Real sweet If one wants to sail on another body of water, or use it as a waterbago to travel across the country, then onto the trailer, and off you go for a day, week, month, etc., to another lake, river, or ocean, in another state, or even country.

All hail the mighty

Ray