Hunter 18.5

The Hunter 18.5 is an American trailerable sailboat that was designed by the Hunter Design Team as a cruising sailboat and first built in 1987.

Production
The design was built by Hunter Marine in the United States between 1987 and 1993, but it is now out of production.

Design
The Hunter 18.5 is a small recreational keelboat, built predominantly of fiberglass, with wood trim. It has a fractional sloop rig with a fully battened mainsail, a raked stem, a reverse transom, a transom-hung kick-up rudder controlled by a tiller and a fixed wing keel. It displaces 1600 lb and carries 520 lb of ballast.

The boat has a draft of 2.00 ft with the standard shoal-draft wing keel, allowing ground transportation on the factory standard trailer.

The boat is optionally fitted with a small 3 to 6 hp outboard motor for docking and maneuvering. Other factory optional equipment included a portable head, galley alcohol stove, water pump tap, cooler and anchor.

The design has sleeping accommodation for three people, with a double "V"-berth in the bow cabin and a straight settee in the main cabin on the port side. Cabin headroom is 48 in.

The design has a PHRF racing average handicap of 288. It has a hull speed of 5.28 kn.

Operational history
In a 2010 review Steve Henkel wrote, "in the late 1980s, Hunter Marine expanded their cruising, boat line into smaller sizes. They also redesigned the line with a more 'modern' look. The Hunter 18.5 was one of the first of Hunter's minicruisers to be introduced. Unique features include a very shallow (two-foot draft) keel with both a bulb and 'winglets.' Best features: Headroom of four feet is exceptional for a boat of this size ... Ballast is also highest for the group ... Worst features: The keel is too shallow, and has too small a lateral area, to expect even so-so upwind sailing performance, with or without the winglets (which we suspect are too small to serve any real purpose). The full-length battens make it difficult to 'read' the trim of the mainsail, The flip-up rudder, being deeper than the keel, is thus unprotected and therefore subject to damage or loss if a sudden shoal water situation is encountered and the flip-up mechanism isn't ready for it."