Hunter Horizon 26

I had a trip out to Loddon on the South Broads today to Survey this Hunter Horizon Yacht for pre-purchase. The Hunter Horizon 26 is a David Thomas design for Hunter Boats, intended to be a slightly larger, more cruising-orientated version of the 25 foot Hunter Delta, itself a development of the very successful Hunter Sonata 24 foot one design cruiser-racer.

Introduced in 1984, the Horizon 26 design was one of the first small British-built boat to have what was then the unusual feature of an aft cabin and aft heads. The design was a success, with about 160 built in four years, and led on to the later Horizon 27, 272 and 273 variants. Although fin and lift-keel Horizon 26s were built, the majority were twin bilge keeled, these twin keels being fairly deep and giving good performance under sail. The Horizon 26 design remained in production until 1988.

The Horizon 26 was designed to have the choice of an outboard in a cockpit well, typically 6 to 9 hp, or a small inboard engine - usually a 9 hp Yanmar like this version.

 

 

If an inboard is fitted it is often a Yanmar 1GM. The alternative outboard is fitted in a well in the port side cockpit locker. As this means this cockpit locker is of little use for fenders etc. the under-companionway space occupied by an inboard become locker space