It takes just one look at Hunter Marine's new Edge 27 to know this boat is different. The stout, sloop-rigged trailer sailor is unassuming, until you realize it is kicking a rather large wake for a sailboat – and that it is towing a skier.
With a catchy name and a modest price, the Edge is a brand new trailerable motorsailer that has much to offer a small family who wants to sail when the wind is good, motor quickly when it's not and – with a 75 HP outboard – have enough power to pull the kids on a wakeboard.
HUNTER MARINERated for a 75 HP outboard, the Edge can travel 19.9 MPH and tow a wakeboarder. If one of the goals in the sagging marine industry is to bring new people to the sport, particularly in sailing where sales numbers have sharply waned in recent years, then the nation's largest sailboat maker may have a powerful attraction.
Motorsailers and trailerable boats are nothing new, but Hunter has combined the two concepts in a modern package, creating an extremely flexible design that is capable of reasonable fuel efficiency. Purists in both power and sail may scoff, but veteran boaters are not the target customer.
This boat is aimed squarely at young, first-time buyers who, in a recessionary climate with gas topping $4 a gallon, may be drawn to a new boat with multiple capabilities and a base price of $32,990 (without the engine).
While the boat is not the first of the genre, Hunter's marketing resources and sales philosophy – fully outfitted boats with minimal options lists – could make it one of the most successful.
"The Edge gets people out on the water, having fun and enjoying boating," said John Peterson, Hunter's vice president of sales and marketing.
THE EDGE
The Edge is 26 feet, 4 inches in length overall, with a waterline length of 24 feet, 2 inches. Her beam is a trailer-legal 8 feet, 4 inches and the draft with the centerboard down is 4 feet, 11 inches (it is 1 foot, 7 inches with the board up).
Like many other trailer-sailors, the boat uses a 1,600-pound water ballast system to reduce weight on the trailer, give the boat stability under sail and allow the flexibility to motor at planing speeds. The system is gravity fed from a three-inch valve at the transom. To offload the ballast, simply open the valve, accelerate the boat and the tanks clear in less than 15 minutes.
With the sails raised, the ballast must be aboard for stability and sailing performance. In fact, the Edge comes with a warning placard right at the helm to remind sailors to ensure that the rudder and centerboard are both down and that the water ballast is loaded.
This is not a light boat, however, and owners will need a vehicle capable of towing something in the 5,000-pound class. That eliminates the possibility of using a Honda Accord to do the job, but many of the larger SUVs can handle that kind of load. For example, a recent-model Dodge Durango, with its 8,950 pounds of towing capacity, could easily bring the Edge along on a family vacation.
HUNTER MARINEThe standard sail plan has 333 square feet of sail, including the fathead mainsail.
Many owners may decide to keep the boat in a slip for convenience. The Edge has what looks to be a fairly simple system to raise the mast, but having to raise and rig every time you want to go sailing means reserving full days, and eliminates the spontaneity of simply dropping the dock lines and heading out.
PERFORMANCE
On the water, the Edge promises good performance as a sailor with its fathead sloop rig and 333 square feet of sail. The swinging centerboard and deep rudder, along with nearly a ton of water ballast, will allow it to sail in most conditions.
With a relatively high sail-to-displacement ratio of 18.4, the boat should speed along well, doing better than five knots in a respectable breeze.
Of course, the longtime argument against motorsailers is that they provide compromised performance under both power and sail. And there is some merit to the argument. The Edge is unlikely to point as close to the wind as well-ballasted racer or cruiser, nor is it going to move as fast or be as fuel efficient as a thoroughbred motorboat.
But that is also not the purpose. Hunter is hoping to introduce new people to sailing, while giving them an alternative for a windless afternoon with the kids aboard. Seen through that prism, the flexibility in Hunter's design may offset any performance limitations. It is also worth noting that Hunter is not the only company experimenting with motorsailers in today's market. Pacific Asian Enterprises, makers of the wildly-successful Nordhavn trawlers, is hard at work on a 56-foot motorsailer.
Hunter tested the Edge with a 75 HP Evinrude E-TEC two-stroke outboard in May while the boat was under development and the company documented a top speed of 19.9 MPH. The standard motor will be a 50 HP Evinrude, but the boat will accommodate any modern outboard up to the maximum 75 HP rating.
Testing by Evinrude showed the boat will get 8.7 MPG going 6.7 MPH at 2,000 RPM, giving it a range of 94 miles (see link for the full test report). The top speed recorded in this test, with full tanks and two people aboard, was 19.9 MPH.
