The Hunter Boats is a company founded by Warren Luhrs in the city of Alachua, Florida, for the sole purpose of manufacturing sailboats. In the year 1973, the leading designer of the sailboats manufactured back then was Mr. John E. Cherubini, who designed a 25-foot long sloop sailboat. Hunter Boats is an American enterprise, but the original founder Mr. Luhrs was the son of a German immigrant. Officially, their business name is Marlow-Hunter LLC and is currently owned by David E. Marlow, who bought over the company when they were in the middle of a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and saw to it that they were merged with Marlow Yachts.

In terms of pioneering and engineering innovations, they began to make use of stainless steel cockpit arch, which still serves as a market trademark for them and the B&R rig. They also pioneered the crafting of sailboats whose hulls use bow hollow and stern reflex, not forgetting to mention the design involving marine architecture elements that help maximize thrust efficiency while under sail. Currently, Hunter Boats have 9 major models that their company produces.

The Beneteau Boats Company is a boatyard company amongst other numerous enterprises attached to it. Still, in the beginning, it was just a boat manufacturing company located near the water and bridge in Quai des Greniers. It was founded in 1884 by Benjamin Beneteau, and after two generations, it is still run as a family business. What started as a dundee and lugger fishing boats-making factory has now become one of the best boatyards we know it, with over 15 different boat models produced for spot, fishing, and luxury cruising. Today the France boatyard is at St-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie with very many other boatyards in different locations around the globe. The company is currently headed by Jerome de Metz.

Beneteau 49 vs Hunter 49

The Hunter 49 is a sailboat of 49 feet 11 inches and was built in the year 2008. 

The Beneteau 49 is also a sailboat of exactly 49 feet 6 inches, and it was built in the year 2007. Thus it seems reasonable to compare these two boats as a hallmark for determining their company’s boat-making abilities. Beneteau 49 seems well-built and quite comfortable and meant to be a cruiser for a family or a pair of couples. It has also won some awards for being exceptional.

Built Quality

In order to test the integrity of the hull of the 49, when it was fresh out of the shop, it was strapped down, and its rigging yanked hard by a crane. For the record, (at least for the record of the boat that was being tested), not a single thing moved, or came apart.

The hull and deck promise the same low maintenance as the interior. The only material resembling wood to be found on deck and below deck is Flexiteek, a PVC-based composite used just for the seats and transom areas. The cabin sole is low-maintenance as well, made from Everwear gloss teak-and-holly laminate.                     

The hull’s bottom is made of solid laminate using epoxy resin in the skim coat to protect its integrity from blister damage. The sides are balsa-cored, and not one but two layers of knitted Kevlar fabric run from the keel sump to the stem, where it is made to overlap to create four layers. Hunter uses this technique on all boats over 33 feet for extra puncture resistance. Hull number one has a shoal draft of 5 feet 6 inches and a 12,600-pound keel with wings. A deep-draft model with a 7-foot keel is also available. 

For the making of this Beneteau, her engineers made use of resin and balsa core to make her hull. Resin is an ingredient that is more like a constant, but the recipe lies in the balsa core that they use, and this is because the balsa core is tough enough. It permits resin quantity to be reduced in each hull constituent while still retaining the overall architectural integrity. Also, the reduction of resin in the hull helps achieve less overall vessel weight and increases the performance and sailing of the boat. 

Alpi Wood is always the wood of choice in the Beneteau boatyards; they are of different varieties and colors and are totally renewable.

>>Also Read: Beneteau Vs Jeanneau: Which is a Better Sailboat?

Overall Sailboat Design

The Hunter 49 sailboat is not hard to spot in any dock with its actual 49 feet 11 inches LOA.

The dining table is a wide, solid teak table where tasty breakfasts and lunches can be enjoyed by you and all your guests that you have invited aboard. The L-shaped galley sports a gimbaled, three-burner Seaward Princess stove, and there is an oven on the other side of the galley. Other equipment that is found in the galley includes a Kenmore microwave oven with a built-in coffeemaker over the stove, a deep double sink, and front-loading fridge. There are Corian countertops with rounded, high fiddles all over the galley. They are sufficient storage spaces and an attractive antique china cabinet adjacent to them.

The basic Hunter 49 comes with a main and a self-tacking 90-percent jib, and just two winches are enough because of a brace of line stoppers on both sides of the cabin top. Hull number one, however, has been fully tricked out in this version and is equipped with a beefed-up sail package that involves an overlapping 110-percent genoa fitted on a Harken roller-furler, a staysail, and a full vertical-batten main with Seldén in-mast furling. A Lewmar 44 on the cabin top is augmented with another Lewmar 44 (but this one is electric-powered), making halyard work and furling a very easy task. At each helm station are found Lewmar 54E winches which serve to trim the genoa (and, because of the provision of a line stopper, the main to starboard) and an additional manual 54 to starboard to coordinate the spinnaker gear.

The general specifications of the Hunter 49 include:

LOA: 49 feet 11 inches.

LWL: 43 feet 10 inches.

Beam: 14 feet 5 inches.  

Draft (shoal): 5 feet 6 inches.

Sail Area: 1,051 square feet.

Displacement (shoal): 32,813 pounds.

Water: 200 gallons.

Fuel: 150 gallons.

Engine: 75-horse power Yanmar diesel engines

Concerning the Beneteau 49, it has a teak-decked swim from which you climb aboard from the dock. There is the insert with a latching door that is set in the transom and designed to hold a life raft. The insert can be removed to create some space for the installation of a generator. 

The 9/10ths rig features a large main and a 140-percent genoa; both furl and are set on a deck-stepped, anodized-aluminum mast with double swept-back spreaders. A rigid vang helps keep the main under control. It is also acceptably nimble in drifting conditions. 

At the end of a 3- or 4-foot alley, the cupped companionway steps lead down to an interior styled by the Italian firm Nauta Designs, a renowned interior designer in the boat-making business and a well-known collaborator with Beneteau. 

Coming to the port is the galley, with a gimbaled three-burner stove and oven, and there is no shortage of storage space. The designers have done a nice job compromising between stylishness and the need to use the interior at sea; fiddles and handholds abound in warm, light, and airy surroundings.

When the light gets too bright, blinds pull down inside a deck liner/valance that also keeps them from unlatching when the boat is heeling or rocking.

Other general specifications include 

LOA: 49 feet 6 inches.

LWL: 43 feet 8 inches.

Beam: 14 feet 9 inches.

Draft: 5 feet 9 inches.

Ballast: 9,480 pounds.

Displacement: 26,500 pounds. 

Sail Area (100%): 988 square feet.

Water: 150 gallons.

Fuel: 63 gallons.

Mast Height: 63 feet 6 inches

Engine: 76-horse power Yamaha diesel-powered engines.

>>Also Read: Beneteau vs Hanse: Which Is Better?

Comfort

The Hunter 49 cockpit space seems generous on the width measurement. It has an open transom with a swim platform plus a shower of both extreme temperatures, a telescoping swim ladder, and panels that swing shut to secure things that are always trying to bounce off into the water from the stern. A pair of Hunter-made davits suspends a dinghy overhead so that 6-foot plus crewmembers can pass astern while keeping their heads high and enjoying the view. The 49 sports a stainless-steel arch over the cockpit that puts the mainsheet traveler overhead and out of the way. Apparently, the stainless steel arch has been tested and is tough enough to withstand any crash jibing exercise and also does double up as a bimini frame.

The cockpit is furnished with high coaming and a Corian-topped table. At the same time, shade I provided by the bimini that hangs over the arch. Forward of the galley, the dining table offers plenty of seating for your co-cruisers aboard. The outboard settee is comfortable enough to get forty winks.

The 49 comes in a four-cabin (charter) layout or in one of a pair of three-cabin (owner) configurations. Hull number one has twin aft cabins, and innerspring mattresses are found on both berths.

Going forward, “roomy” doesn’t do justice to the definition of comfort and space that is found in the owner’s cabin in hull number one. The bed is an island queen with a memory foam mattress and on the flank is a seat and a cedar-lined hanging locker to port, with a shower compartment just aft. To starboard, there’s a vanity for freshening up, a well-sized head, and a second cedar-lined hanging locker for storage. 

All the furniture in the boat are covered in light-colored, low-maintenance Ultraleather upholstery, which, with the light-colored teak woodwork, makes the interior look bright. 

The large centerline cockpit table on this Beneteau 49 is built-in with fold-up wings to create more room. The cockpit seats are long, with coamings high enough to lean on comfortably though not too high to make getting forward difficult. The squared ends will make good backrests for stretching out in calmer conditions.

The forehatch supplies ventilation and more light. The large head has a separate shower enclosed by a curved sliding door, and a hatch above the shower ventilates the head. Opposite the head is a good-sized hanging locker for clothes storage and a vanity with a seating option in case your lady needs to powder up.

To the aft of the nav station, there is a second head with a shower. The designers have abandoned the notion of stylish but uncomfortable curved settees for straight seats. The saloon table, which can seat up to eight persons, cleverly swivels and folds up for sailing and expands for dining or for business. 

Amidships under the floorboards is a small sump-a feature that’s rare but appreciated in modern, shallow-bilged boats. Mounting the bilge pump there keeps water concentrated in a small area and helps keep the rest of the bilge dry.

The aft cabin on the two-cabin layout featured good use of the available space with a large double berth angled at 45 degrees. Judicious placement of pillows will make this a comfortable sea berth-at least on port tack. There are hanging lockers, port and starboard, a vanity on the centerline, and six opening ports and hatches for light and ventilation.

The louvered companionway doors will be excellent for keeping the boat ventilated. Still, they’d have to be modified if the boat were going offshore.

>>Also Read: Beneteau vs. Catalina, Beneteau Vs Bavaria

Sailing Performance

This new offering by Glenn Henderson and the Hunter design team is definitely intended for a more discerning traveler-a Buick Roadmaster for the sea, perhaps, and the ride is comfortable. A forward-facing navigation table with captain’s chair offers more than enough space to file away the paper charts you’d seldom need. You will rarely need them because of the array of Raymarine instruments that provide chart, radar, and GPS data in about any combination as you may deem useful.

During a long test drive of this baby, it was chop kicked up by an opposing 15-knot breeze and current, and there wasn’t a squeak below, under power, or later under mainsail and genoa.

A 100-horsepower Yanmar easily drives the boat at close to 7 knots at 2,500 rpm and 7 and a half knots faster at 3,000 rpm. The pace can only get better to an easy 8 knots while motor sailing. The engine controls, such as Lewmar Mamba gearbox-and-shaft-steering linkage system, are located at port. Still, the provision to install a second control at the starboard can be made, too. The 100-ampere optional alternator is there to keep the battery bank topped off.

In designing the 49, Hunter’s Henderson says the challenge which drove the creation was a need to make a large, long-distance cruiser with high stability and seaworthiness. He wanted it to be easily handled, hence the simple sail plan, keel, highly balanced rudder, and limited in mast height to accommodate for bridge clearances.

The Beneteau 49 does not underperform in any way. The navigation station is to the starboard of the companionway. The chart table is big enough to accommodate charts with a minimum of folding and plenty of room for a plotter, radar, and other instruments.

The cockpit is laid out for shorthanded sailing, with the Lewmar 65 primary winches just forward of the wheel so the trimming of the jib can simply be done by the person manning the helm. The mainsheet is led back to the coachroof at the cockpit’s forward end, and this one will require an extra hand to go forward to adjust it. All control lines and halyards are led aft through stoppers to winches on both sides of the companionway.

The handholds that are situated to help the easy movement towards the bow are seemingly made only for people with slender fingers. Often a man with meaty hands has had their knuckle skinned there. Apart from that little downside, the teak deck is built wide, and the house provides a substantial brace as you move forward. The anchor is set over a stainless-steel sprit that stows it out of the way of the jib-furling gear. A 1,600-watt windlass hauls the rode into a large anchor locker. 

The Beneteau 49 is a sprightly performer thanks to its modern underbody and powerful sail plan. It comes with all the creature comforts for which cruisers could ask, attractive avant-garde styling, and a price that offers an excellent value.

Price Difference

With a base price of $319,000 (this tricked-out version used as a case study checked-in near $420,000), the Hunter 49 can still boast that its value is worth every buck. The Beneteau 49 Price starts at $290,000, although a recent survey sees it at $315,000

Beneteau vs Hunter – Verdict

Having seen all that the Hunter 49 and Beneteau 49 can offer, one can infer that the other boat models will reflect some of what they have already done in these reviewed ones, the 49s. However, it is also worthy to note that a few modifications may be made in the other boats knowing that these versions that were looked at are also test versions. Therefore, request full documentation of the specification and test results of any boat from the company and go through all the clauses before you make your final decision.