About: Hunter Frey

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My name is Hunter Frey. I’m a sailor, writer and adventurer. It’s my passion to enjoy life, get the most out of it, and have no regrets. I like to share about the things I learn and experience.

Posts by Hunter Frey:

Catamaran Financing Explained by Jennifer Meyers

In this episode we talk to Jennifer Meyers of Yacht Closer Financial. We talk about the basics of financing catamarans with particular emphasis on current market conditions and the nuances of financing a catamaran located in the Caribbean. Her contact information phone at 954.816.1818 or email to finance@yachtcloser.com. The website is www.ycfinancial.com where you can fill out an application for marine financing. What is a marine finance agent? What do you do? We are primarily a service company that assists buyers with financing for boat purchases. Financing for boats is really based on the strength of the borrower but there’s so many programs to fit so many different types of borrowers and we have all of them as a service company. We have several different lenders that we work with and once we get someone interested in a purchase we will fit that borrower to the right program. We handle […]

Should I Buy an Ex-Charter Catamaran?

I questioned 20 catamaran owners; if you were buying a used catamaran, would you consider a yacht from a charter company or only search privately owned vessels? 8 of the people said they wouldn’t consider ANY boat coming from the land of charters. Ten of the people said they would entertain the idea of buying a pre-owned charter boat and two already have purchased pre-owned charter cats and BOTH had good things to say about their experiences. Read on later in this article about specific experiences from one of the buyers. Searching for your next catamaran can get over-whelming pretty quick. There a plenty of cat’s out there to choose from; between all the different designs, years and location of the boats, one can become bewildered with hopefully choosing the “right” catamaran. This doesn’t even include whether or not the boat was used privately, or for charter. Knowing if your […]

Should I Buy a Catamaran with Saildrives?

Catamaran buyers out there in the world have explicit demands and preferences when it comes to the layout of their catamaran. Things like dagger boards versus keels, Yanmar versus Volvo, flybridge versus bulkhead helms and the list goes on. A hot topic these days is that of the buyer of a straight shaft engine, or the other guy who would like a saildrive unit instead, on his catamaran. Traditionally, there are more straight shaft drive monohulls and more catamaran’s built with saildrives today. This rule tends to go out the window on vessel’s over 50 feet. Just to gain some perspective, I drove down to the marina by my house, where there are about two hundred vessels tied up in season and about half that being full time slip holders. The marina is known to be the home for many of the Mid-Bays catamarans. It was a beautiful Saturday morning […]

Jeanneau Lagoon 35 CCC Review

What does Jeanneau want the world to think with the acronym of “CCC” In the title? It’s the Coastal Cruising Catamaran. That’s it. Jeanneau was so transparent about the capabilities of their new cat, that they put it in the title. Thinking about racing to Bermuda? Look elsewhere. Designed by notorious sailing and design guru’s, Gino Morrelli and Pete Melvin (America’s Cup & Olympics), they chose performance over comfort. To understand the boat, I really needed a quick history lesson on Jeanneau’s production timeline. In 1984 they started production of their first generation Lagoon boats. They started big too. The Lagoon fleets of 55, 57, 67 and 67s models were the first boats that were splashed starting from the mid 1980’ up into the early 1990’s. Beginning in 1992 the production of any new models stopped. Looking back into the history glass, one can see the writing on the wall. […]

Prout 39 Escale Review

The Prout 39’ Escale was built in Essex, United Kingdom in 1991. Finding one of these cats is a rarity, since it’s to be believed that only a mere 200 some are left sailing the seas; a cruising class gem, designed by two brothers, Francis and Roland Prout. The two brothers spent their youth learning the ropes of design and boat-building within the families’ business, building folding canoes and dinghies. The brothers even raced canoes in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics! Before the Prout Cruising Classes were built, the brothers designed smaller day sailing boats and also the infamous Shearwater class, under the families business. The Brothers domination of the catamaran cruising world began in 1975, when their company, “Prout Catamarans” was founded. From 1975 to when they shut their doors in 2002, Prout Catamarans manufactured close to 4,300 boats; 658 of which were the Escale 39 Series. From looking at […]