We swapped sails for power

Peter Poland meets 10 seasoned sailors who bought motorboats to extend their time afloat after sailboats became too much like hard work

- 

Many moons ago I had a premonition that Hunter Boats ought to build a classy little motorboat for customers who decide the time has come to move on from sail to power. So when the late, great David Thomas tempted me with a retro-looking weekend whizz-boat with a twin-tunnelled wash-free hull, I didn't scratch my head and ask 'why?' I surprised him by replying 'yes please'.

From the word go, we all loved the Landau 20. I even enjoyed being driven by David Thomas into a Force 8 gale as we rushed across a wave-tossed Solent to keep a Cowes appointment. "No point in going slowly; this hull should take these waves more comfortably on the plane," he said. And as usual, he was right.

Once again, David had come up with a brilliant design. The Landau 20 won an award when it came out in the 1990s and remains popular with motorboat owners and retired sailors to this day.

Since launching the Landau I have always been fascinated to find out the types of motorboats - be they big and pricey or modest and economical - that appeal to the owners of Hunters and of bigger yachts alike, and why.

Oysters for a commodore

The first ex-Hunter owner I contacted was Colin Hall; a past commodore of the Royal Southern YC. He told me that after racing keel boats - Soling, J24, Dragon - in the 1970s and 80s, "a young family came along and I made my first switch to cruising with an Oyster 406 ... This was a splendid sea boat, comfortable, stylish and just the job for cruising to Brittany... But after a few years, the crew decided that cruising was 'boring' and they wanted to go off dinghy racing, which they did."

Colin then reverted to racing a J/105, Laser 28 and finally a Hunter 707 over several years. Then he heard that his old Oyster 406 was in a sad state and up for sale. So he bought it back, sent it to the famous Elephant Boatyard for some TLC and she emerged looking 'as-new'.