The boat measures 35.92 feet overall and 29.5 feet at the waterline, displaces 13,500 pounds, and has a teak-rich interior characteristic of its era. Cherubini’s original concept was a full-keel or shoal-draft cutter/sloop. The boat has been described as very seaworthy, and owners’ continued use of the designer’s name shows how strongly the design has remained in memory.
Design and Construction
Hunter Marine built the Cherubini 36 in the United States as a monohull with a fin keel and spade rudder built by Hunter Marine (USA). Beam is 11.08 feet, and draft is 4.92 feet.
The boat’s 13,500-pound displacement includes 6,000 pounds of lead ballast, giving a ballast-to-displacement ratio near 44 percent. That puts her firmly toward the heavy, stiff end of the midsize cruising spectrum for her day. With a waterline length of 29.5 feet, her calculated hull speed is roughly 7.28 knots.
Both the hull and deck are solid fiberglass. The Cherubini 36 predates the balsa-cored deck construction that Hunter later adopted on other models, so this construction avoids cored-hull blister and fatigue questions entirely. Its solid-fiberglass hull also has no cored-hull blister risk.
Although Hunter sold the boat as the Hunter 36, owners now usually call it the Cherubini 36. It’s a small but telling distinction: the designer’s name, rather than the Hunter generation, is what endured.
Rig and Sail Plan
The Cherubini 36 has a masthead sloop rig with substantial working sail area. The foretriangle measures 46.5 feet on the I dimension and 14.75 feet on J. The mainsail has a 41-foot luff and a 12.75-foot foot, producing an area of about 270 square feet. Mast height above the waterline is 50.5 feet.
Standard headsail options range from a 95 percent LP working jib of about 302 square feet to a 115 percent genoa of 331 square feet. Larger reaching genoas range from more than 450 to 512 square feet. The offwind inventory includes an 846-square-foot asymmetrical spinnaker and a 1,046-square-foot true spinnaker. At the other end of the range is a 119-square-foot storm jib at 60 percent LP.
A sail-area-to-displacement ratio of 17.04 and a displacement-length ratio near 235 describe a boat that’s no featherweight racer but carries enough sail to move in modest air without feeling undercanvased.
Accommodations
Below, the Cherubini 36 has a teak-rich interior whose warmth is valued by period-boat owners. It also distinguishes the boat from the lighter-wood, liner-based interiors of later production cruisers.
The 11.08-foot beam provides the room expected of an early-1980s 36-footer, though not the bubble-trunk volume of many 1990s designs. The cabin follows a traditional cruising layout rather than a modern open-plan saloon, and the extensive teak gives it a classic rather than utilitarian character.
Verdict
The Cherubini 36 is a low-production cruiser that earns quiet respect for its seaworthiness and traditional construction. Its solid-fiberglass hull and deck, fin keel, spade rudder, and teak-rich interior suit an owner looking for a straightforward, bluewater-capable 1980s sloop.
Only about 250 boats were built, so examples rarely appear on the brokerage market. The fact that owners know the boat by its designer’s name more readily than its builder’s says much about the design’s lasting identity.
Pros
- Very seaworthy Cherubini-designed cruiser
- Solid-fiberglass hull and deck, with no cored-hull blister risk
- Teak-rich traditional interior with the roominess of an 11-foot beam
- Fin keel and spade rudder with a 13,500-pound displacement
Cons
- Only about 250 built from 1980 to 1983, making the boat scarce on the brokerage market
- Teak interior requires ongoing cosmetic maintenance
- Owners call it the “Cherubini 36,” not the “Hunter 36,” which can cause confusion with later Hunters
