Ray Hunt fast cruising sloop Huntress

[rbgarr]

In-water storage for the winter, Quissett Harbor, Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts:

38' length, 6'6" beam

http://i43.tinypic.com/5xmky1.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/2h2pqjd.jpg

[JimConlin]

Does Huntress have the same kind of bulbed fin keel as the 110 and 210?
What's her draft?

[rbgarr]

I imagine so but don't know for sure. On the other hand, the rudder stock 'looks' like it may cant forward so perhaps it has an attached rudder on the keel?

In either case, 5'6" draft. Built by Lawley's in 1940.

[Ian McColgin]

Hunt was one of the more remarkable designers. Did Ted Kennedy's Mya and also, when a little start-up company couldn't get Hickman to license his sea sled, he got the commission and came up with the trihedral hull of the now ubiquitous Boston Whaler.

[Pete Dorr]

I really like putting around Quisset Harbor. Lots of interesting boats/houses. Too bad the rope swing tree was cut down.

[Soundbounder]

Hunt was one of the more remarkable designers. Did Ted Kennedy's Mya and also, when a little start-up company couldn't get Hickman to license his sea sled, he got the commission and came up with the trihedral hull of the now ubiquitous Boston Whaler.I agree!!
The Bertram 31 owes much of its design to Hunt as well.

[Liam English]

I remember Huntress from my youth in Mass Bay. As I remember, it was kept in Marblehead where Hunt has his office and was one of maybe 2 built as the prototype of a class. I kind of remember that it was called a 310 (he had earlier designed the 110 in the late 30's and the 210 right after the war, I believe).I was lucky enough to have met him several times; it is to him that I owe a debt of gratitude for learning what "ducks" are. and I had thought they were whales!

We had a 210 for some years. What a wonderful boat that was. I miss it! 210/#146.

[bamamick]

Weren't there 510 class boats, as well?

Mickey Lake

[rbgarr]

I recall that there was a 510 design drawn (see WB #7) but don't know if one was built. Tanton designed a take-off on the 510. It's listed in his catalog somewhere IIRC: http://www.tantonyachts.com/catalogue.htm

[Carl Cramer]

I recall that there was a 510 design drawn (see WB #7) but don't know if one was built. Tanton designed a take-off on the 510. It's listed in his catalog somewhere IIRC: http://www.tantonyachts.com/catalogue.htm

I could easily be mistaken, but I believe the 510 was never built.

I believe HUNTRESS was/is a 410. She's such a great boat.

(I really should live in my office so I'd have easy access to such information.)

[JimConlin]

Hunt was one of the more remarkable designers. Did Ted Kennedy's Mya and also, when a little start-up company couldn't get Hickman to license his sea sled, he got the commission and came up with the trihedral hull of the now ubiquitous Boston Whaler.
Also the Concordia yawl

[Hwyl]

And the Fairey Huntress as used in "From Russia with Love"

http://d6751420.u103.surftown.dk/Vehicles/Pictures/m2v53.jpg

[rbgarr]

Why did they have those 55 gallon fuel drums aboard them anyway?

[Liam English]

and I remember Ray Hunt was a really nice and patient man to kids. The world was a better place for his passing through.

[bamamick]

I was just browsing at www.110class.com. Looks like the Maine fleet is growing because of the hard work of a couple of individuals driving around salvaging old boats. Great effort on their part. They've put a nice blog together that you can find on the web site.

How many here have sailed a 110? I bet a lot of you New Englanders have at some point. Awesome looking boats. I would have loved to have given it a try, but have never seen one in person. Sadly, it looks like they are struggling along like the Dragons are here in North America. Struggling, but also like us, not giving up.

Why aren't such boats more popular? Looks to me like they'd be fantastic.

Mickey Lake

[rbgarr]

Mick,

I met Marty, the guy who does the blog for the Maine 110 fleet at an infusion/laminating training class. Nice guy. We talked about having a 110 regatta here in BBH, but I haven't heard back from him.

As someone mentioned above, I wonder if the Huntress's keel looks like the 110/210s?

http://i41.tinypic.com/oqxetj.jpg

A friend used to have a 110 keel on a concrete pedestal in his dooryard as an abstract sculpture, sandblasted and exhibiting a smooth, finely oxidized surface. It was mounted up on steel pins at a "heeling angle". Quite attractive in an odd way, even if you didn't know what it was or signified.

[bamamick]

When I went out to Seattle to sail Dragons two summers ago one of the guys at the CWB told me that he had been given a 110 hull but he didn't know what to do with it. With my usual aplomb I said 'sail it!', but I gathered that it was nothing but a bare hull that would have cost a lot of money to have put together. Such a crying shame. They really are splendid. I have spoken before of my interest in the 210. I still wonder if I shouldn't have moved in that direction when I was thinking about it.

Mickey Lake

[Dave Thibodeau]

Around 1950 a 410 sailed into Lynn Harrbor (Mass) and got stuck in the mud in a receding tide.

I walked out to the 410 and managed to push the bow up and down enough to free the boat

I never saw the 410 return to Lynn Harbor

[Thad]

Seeing the HUNTRESS pictures my friend Dotty spoke of having lots of fun aboard her as a teenager with her friend Audie, with Audie's father keeping an eye on them from the house through a telescope. I sent this page to Audie who sent it on to her sisters. Martha sent me the following to post:
Our father, Bill Houghton, bought the Huntress from Ray Hunt in the '40s and moored her off the Eastern Yacht Club in Marblehead Harbor. Yes, she was the prototype for one of the '10s - we called her a four-and-a-half ten. She was only about 6' abeam and carried too much sail originally, so my father had her mast cut down a bit to steady her. My parents sailed her down the Maine coast several times, but mostly closer to home. When I was old enough, I took her across to Provincetown one stormy night with 4 friends aboard. It's a wonder we're not all at the bottom of Massachusetts Bay. After 10 years my father decided that he'd prefer being a guest on the boats of friends to being responsible for his own, and he sold the Huntress. Can't remember to whom. It's lovely to see her again, and in a lovely blue dress! Ps: "Fast" cruising boat??

She was famously slow. Maybe it was the cut down rig. Maybe. But Dotty says she had a beautifully finished interior.

[johnw]

When I went out to Seattle to sail Dragons two summers ago one of the guys at the CWB told me that he had been given a 110 hull but he didn't know what to do with it. With my usual aplomb I said 'sail it!', but I gathered that it was nothing but a bare hull that would have cost a lot of money to have put together. Such a crying shame. They really are splendid. I have spoken before of my interest in the 210. I still wonder if I shouldn't have moved in that direction when I was thinking about it.

Mickey Lake

He restored it and it's down at the dock. I've sailed it, it's lovely.

[rbgarr]

Ps: "Fast" cruising boat?? She was famously slow. Maybe it was the cut down rig. Maybe.

LOL! I knew nothing about her performance when I posted the photo. I just thought the subject line needed a hook other than Ray Hunt's name.

[bamamick]

JohnW, that is fantastic. Better than fantastic.

Mickey Lake

[Thad]

Dave, the two question marks are hers so she knew it was a joke even if unintended. Dotty said Mr Houghton took a lot of ribbing for her performance, but that doesn't make her a bad cruising boat. She got the girls to P'town and back, storm and all.

[JimConlin]

She was famously slow. Maybe it was the cut down rig. Maybe. But Dotty says she had a beautifully finished interior.
I sailed 110's in my youth and they needed considerable hiking to get to windward in a good breeze. Later, they adopted trapezes.
In a boat as narrow as Huntress, where that much human ballast is not available, I'd think it would need lots of ballast (and deep) to stand up.

[rbgarr]

Some 110ers are doing what they can to experiment with boosts in speed. IIRC this boat was at the MBBS a few years ago:

http://i39.tinypic.com/242ctgz.jpg

[bamamick]

iirc that boat was put together by the guys at Forte Carbon Spars in Rhode Island. They make tons of great carbon masts, and I must say at much more reasonable prices than what I have quoted by the European builders.

I like the higher aspect, fat-head main. Makes the boat look pretty sporty.

Mickey Lake

[Liam English]

110's were sporty way before the 21st century carbon fiber masts. I sailed them a lot as crew and remember surfing down wave faces, submarining the bow with the spinnaker hoisted in a blow. going like (as they used to say) stink. and I remember the sound of the mast breaking and the sudden stop. Exciting stuff for a 12 year old. There was an old man (maybe 35?) who sailed with the Manchester fleet who came under intense fire because he was 15 years older than anyone else. Good as he was, he didn't win all the time. What wonderful memories.
I remember hearing that Huntress was slow and not a great cruising boat. Somehow no one was surprised it didn't become a big succees.

great thread for us old goat Mass Bay sailors! Thanks!

[rbgarr]

The story on the Forte 110: http://mas.promorevolution.com//Marine_Projects/MRYC_Distance_Challenge.html

[Soundbounder]

More Ray Hunt info:

http://www.huntdesigns.com/about_ray_hunt.htm

[JimConlin]

And, in today's news from the Goetz front:
"In addition, Goetz has partnered with C. Raymond Hunt of Boston to design a new line of high-tech semi-custom luxury powerboats."

[rbgarr]

Until recently Hunt's Easterner 12m design was advertised for sale on Yachtworld.com. Her contemporaries Vim and Columbia are listed there now. I always thought Easterner was the prettiest of the wood twelves of that era.

[Liam English]

I Loved Easterner and was lucky enough to be at her launching at the old Graves yard in Marblehead. It was a lovely boat to be sure and had a reputation of being the fastest of the twelves of her generation. The theory as to why it lost in the Challenge round was that the Hovey family insisted on sailing her with family and not a professional crew. I knew the Hovey family well; they had been a famous sailing family in the 1930's and, I believe raced Yankee when the J's were competing for the America's cup. They were definitely old school when it came to amateur vs professional. Good people.

[rbgarr]

http://i44.tinypic.com/2zrdsf7.jpg

More info here http://tinyurl.com/d9mymr