Reader Boat: Hunter 23, God's Gift

This is a story of a Hunter 23 and friendship. This 1986 beauty aptly named God’s Giftwas leftto us by our dear friends Steve and Marcia after Steve’s untimely passing. We had sailed with them over the past 17 years on this boat, and in fact wrote about her twice before in these pages: issues #49—Jan/ Feb 2008—Places:Mooselookmeguntic Lake, Maine and #56—Mar/Apr 2009 – Places: Lake Cupsuptic.

- David Whitney

My wife Kathy and I were reintroduced to sailing back in the late 90s, when our friends took us out for a daysail. Soon after, we purchased our own little boat—a Sailstar Meteor 14 that fit our lifestyle perfectly. We trailersailed the Meteor for about five years—including several two-boat tours with our friends. I think it was the cabin (and accompanying Porta-Potti) in the Hunter that pushed us over the edge to sell the Meteor for a bit larger boat with a cabin. That is when the Sailstar Orion-19 came into the family. Sadly, we never finished that restoration project, and spent the next four years scratching our sailing itch aboard the Hunter with our friends.

I never considered the Hunter 23 a “small craft.” In fact, I thought it belonged moored with the big fixed-keel wheel-steering boats which I vowed never to move up to. I considered 19 feet the perfect size, and promised my wife that we would never build a barn to store our boat—if it doesn’t fit in the garage, it’s too big for us.

Of course that all changed when we were asked to carry on the legacy of God’s Gift. Now I think it’s the perfect-sized boat! Not that we would be able to trailersail all over the place like our previous boat—this thing takes a good two hours to set up. Once a year is quite enough.