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The British company * Hunter Boats was set up in 1969 near Rochford, Essex, initially building keelboats and small cruisers. Sizes of yachts built increased, though the biggest British Hunter to date is the Mystery 35. In 2003 Hunter Boats was taken over by Select Yachts (builders of Cornish Crabbers). In 2008 Select Yachts went into administration, and Lauren Marine took over the Hunter name, and rights to some smaller Hunter models. In 2009 they set up Hunter Boats Ltd again, building a limited range of models for a few years. A re-formed Cornish Crabbers now builds the Mystery range under a new name of Mystery Yachts.

Designed by David Thomas, the Hunter Horizon 232 was a very slightly modified form of the popular Hunter Horizon 23, the change in name being more of a marketing device than an alteration to design of the actual boat. The Horizon 23 and 232 were a development of the Hunter Duette, itself a derivative of the well known Sonata 'quarter tonner' one-design club racer from 1975.

With a ballast ratio of over 50% in twin canted aerofoil keels, and an efficient and easily handled three-quarter rig, both fin and twin keel versions sail well, without being overly demanding on their crew. Over 200 Hunter 23s and 232s were built from 1989 to 1998, most being twin keeled. This 1996 version is understood to be the last but one boat built.

* British Hunter are nothing to do with the American-built Hunter range - and there is an American Hunter 23 model, which is a much lighter built design.

The boat is on a RM branded 4-wheel trailer, which is about to be given four new wheels and tyres, new mudguards, and have the braking gear and wheel bearings serviced. The trailer has never been immersed in water, it being used solely to move the boat from home to boatyards, where she was craned in.

With a three-quarter fractional rig the headsail sheet loads are low, and the self-tacking jib, standard on these boats, makes her very easy to handle.

The outboard occupies a well on the port side of the cockpit: in the photo above it is tilted up to lift the prop leg from the water: the photo below shows the leg down.

Although this boat has a trailer, it is better to think of her as a trailerable cruiser than a "trailer-sailer". With quite deep twin keels she would be difficult to actually launch from the trailer, and she is heavy and stable enough to be happily left for a season on a a mooring.

The same factors that make her not a very good "trailer-sailer" make her a very good sailing boat: with the David Thomas hull design based on the one-design Sonata racer she has good performance and handling, and manages to pack a lot of space into a small overall length, which makes mooring costs economical.

The accommodation starts with a raised bunk platform in the bows, which although almost 6' long is very narrow at the bow end, and is probably best thought of as either a childrens berth or stowage space. Aft of this, in the midships part of the saloon, are two settee berths, each 7 feet long, with the saloon table between, and a fold-down chart table by the port berth.

Aft is the heads compartment and galley, and finally behind the galley is a 6' 8" by 4' 6" (at the wider end) double quarterberth. Headroom is 5' 8" maximum by the galley, with about 5' 6" in the heads compartment and 5' 4" forward in the saloon.

British Hunter were right to call these keels "twin fins" to distinguish them from the often shallower and much less efficient "bilge keels" of many of their competitors. All the British Hunters sail well, and the 232 offers a really good family daysailer or weekender, or for a couple a boat more than capable of longer passages.

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