Marlow-Hunter sailboats for sale

Buying a used Marlow-Hunter: know which side of the 2012 sale built it

Buying a used boat from this make means recognizing two different builders behind one name. Hunter Marine, the original company, went through bankruptcy in 2012; David Marlow — a powerboat builder who ran Marlow Yachts out of Palmetto, Florida — bought its operating assets that year and reworked the construction process to his own standard while keeping the boats in the same Alachua, Florida factory. A listing's build year is the fastest way to sort which era actually built it, and how that hull was put together.

Which era to target

The 2012 sale is the dividing line to work from. Boats built afterward reflect construction methods David Marlow brought over from his own power-yacht line: Kevlar-reinforced composite construction, vacuum-bag resin infusion, and — as Canadian Boating found reviewing the Marlow-Hunter 31 — a switch away from balsa-cored hulls and decks toward a honeycomb-panel replacement, plus a resin and gelcoat system used consistently across the boat rather than concentrated below the waterline. Cruising World's review of the same boat credited Marlow's layup shop with abandoning chopper guns for biaxial cloth engineered to carry stress in the right direction, which the reviewer read as evidence of a more deliberate process than the brand's construction had followed before. Boats from the early years of that new ownership, including the Hunter 40, shipped with a one-year stem-to-stern warranty and a five-year hull guarantee — worth asking a seller whether any related paperwork survived with the boat.

Navigating the lineup

The lineup split broadly into two size bands: small boats sized for trailering and daysailing, and larger models built for extended cruising. Because the same design partnership behind the pre-2012 Hunter lineup — naval architect Glenn Henderson — carried into the Marlow era on both the 31 and the 40, a buyer comparing hulls from either side of the sale is often looking at variations on one designer's thinking rather than a clean design break. Match era and size band first, then compare specific models on the full model directory on this page.