Hunter 19 restoration

Richard Date takes up the challenge of restoring an unloved and unwanted cruiser

- Richard Date

When friends of mine, who were keelboat racers, successfully restored a Hunter 19 cruiser and changed the rig I was impressed. If they could do it, maybe I could too - it 1 seemed they'd started a trend.

It began at the 2004 Squib Nationals when a couple of ex-Squib champions took pity on a Hunter 19 that was languishing at the back of Holyhead Boatyard. They bought the yacht and took it back to the East Coast. They restored it with a new interior and put a Squib rig on it before taking it cruising.

At a more recent Squib Championships in Holyhead there was a lay day due to strong winds and, during a discussion at the bar, it transpired that another unloved H19 was on a trailer which had been acquired on ebay and that the trailer was sold to (yet another) Squib champion in Burnham-on-Crouch The boat was surplus to requirements so if I could fetch it from Burnham I too could have a project to keep me busy for a year.

Crouch Cheetah

So, after quite a lot of diesel and the generous provision of a trailer, the 1972 vintage Hunter 19 No34 found its way to Anglesey for a project which was to be shamelessly based on my friends' yacht.

I found out that the boat had been raced as Crouch Cheetah at Burnham-on couch by David Blake in the Burnham Sailing Club fleet and, as an early number built by the designer Oliver Lee, had the Mk1 keel which is highly prized by Squib sailors to this day.

On inspection, the interior was beyond restoration - and full of sails and other paraphernalia - so it was an easy decision to remove all the existing structures and start with a totally empty hull. As much as possible of the interior GRP lay-up attached to the hull was retained for stiffness. Holes that had been cut for a self-bailer and a transducer were filled and the rusted keel-bolts were replaced with stainless steel bolts and lifting hangers; now construction could begin.