Hunt 32CC Review: the Deep-V Center Console With a Yacht Club Finish

Hunt yachts for sale, and the one that came with outboards

Most Hunt yachts for sale are inboard cruisers, coupes and express yachts, the boats the Rhode Island builder was known for through the 2000s and 2010s. The 32CC is the exception. When Hunt announced it in December 2014, Hunt had only a 25 to 26-foot center console and the HBI 30 RIB in its open-boat range, and Power and Motoryacht's Capt. Richard Thiel noted that the brand's Northeast customers had always preferred cuddies and inboards. The 32CC was built for a different buyer, one who wanted big Yamahas and a sports-car ride, but with the finish and manners of a yacht-club tender.

Hull number one went into the water in the spring of 2015 as a demo boat, with hull two already sold. Today Hunt Yachts, now operating as Hunt Yachts by DiMillo's and building only its 56 to 76-foot Ocean series, lists the 32 Center Console among its retired Coastal models. That makes it a rare boat on the used market, and the reason a listing draws attention when one appears.

The console that reaches the port rail

The defining idea is the console itself. Hunt extended it on the port side all the way to the rail, which eliminated the port walkway but made room for a real interior with 6 feet 2 inches of headroom. The companionway faces aft on the port side, outboard of the helm, behind a lockable pocket door, so people can go below while the boat is running and talk to the helm while they are down there. Most center consoles put the door on the side or behind a forward seat.

Inside is an enclosed stand-up head with a shower and an electric freshwater toilet, a galley-ette with a microwave, an icebox and stowage, and a single berth tucked under the foredeck with racks for four rods. Soundings called the head the height of luxury on a center console, and it is genuinely usable rather than a cupboard with a toilet in it. Portlights on each side and in the console front keep it bright.

The trade-off is access forward. You can still squeeze past to port, but in practice everyone uses the wide, step-free starboard passage. That is why Hunt never pitched this as a tournament fishing boat.

A Hunt deep-V in a 3 to 4-foot chop

Every Hunt traces its lineage to C. Raymond Hunt's deep-V, which won the 1960 Miami-Nassau race in Moppie. The 32CC's version pairs very fine forward sections with a running surface that Thiel described as something less than a full deep-V aft, a balance between seakeeping and efficiency. The bottom is solid glass; the topsides and deck are cored with PVC foam.

Thiel ran the boat on a seriously choppy Narragansett Bay in 3 to 4-foot seas and 15 knots of wind, and reported not a squeak or groan into the mid-40-knot range on optional twin Yamaha 300s. He liked how much the outboards' leverage on the Armstrong bracket let him trim the bow down to slice through seas. Soundings, on flat water, saw 50 knots flat out, and found the boat would stay on plane down to about 10 knots.

• LOA 32 feet 1 inch, beam 10 feet 6 inches
• Draft 1 foot 9 inches with engines up, 2 feet 6 inches down
• Displacement about 9,000 pounds
• 235 gallons of fuel per Hunt and Power and Motoryacht

Twin Yamaha 300s: what the numbers say

Power and Motoryacht's test boat carried 120 gallons of fuel and three people. It topped out at 45.6 knots at 5,900 rpm burning 53.6 gph, and cruised at 30.9 knots at 4,000 rpm on 22 gph, good for about 297 nautical miles. Range peaked at 25.2 knots and 3,500 rpm, where the boat burned 16.4 gph and could cover roughly 325 nautical miles. Hunt says the standard twin 250s reach about 39 knots, and its own spec sheet lists 44 knots top.

Soundings' numbers from a calmer day line up: 30 knots at 4,000 rpm with 84 dB(A) at the helm, and about 16 gph at 25 knots. Hunt and Yamaha's own testing recorded 0 to 20 mph in 4.81 seconds.

A single Volvo Penta sterndrive, gas or diesel, was offered for buyers who wanted inboard simplicity, but Thiel estimated it cut top speed by about 17 knots, took up much of the leaning-post module and ruled out the Helm Master joystick. Almost every 32CC you will see has outboards.

Bow lounge for eight and a choice of leaning posts

Forward, J-shaped seating wraps the bow and seats eight around an optional removable teak table, with drink holders that fold out of the backrests, rod stowage behind a door in the starboard seat base and, on the test boats, an electric candle that rises out of the counter for evening use. A Lewmar windlass hides under a foredeck hatch and the anchor retracts into the stem.

The helm seat is a double whose bases flip up into a leaning post with pivoting bolsters. Behind it, buyers chose an entertaining module with electric grill, drawers and cabinets, or a fishing module with a 30-gallon livewell, sink, tackle and bait stations and knife stowage. A transom seat folds up and away, a hot and cold shower sits at the transom, and the standard T-top carries acrylic front and side windscreens. Yamaha's Helm Master joystick was a $19,970 option in 2015 and replaces the need for a bow thruster.

Can it fish? A realistic answer

Thiel was blunt that Hunt never intended the 32 to compete with Regulators on fishability. Early boats had no transom livewell and no fishbox big enough for tournament fish, and the Armstrong bracket and engines mean fish come over the side rather than through a transom door. Hunt's later marketing lists a transom live well, under-gunwale rod holders and lockable rod storage, and the fishing leaning post adds a 30-gallon well.

That makes the 32CC a fine boat for trolling for stripers and bluefish, bottom fishing and weekend canyon days in good weather, and a poor choice for a serious tournament team. It is at its best as a fast, comfortable family boat that can also fish.

Running costs and how to shop a rare boat

Twin outboards at a 31-knot cruise burn about 22 gph, so a 100-hour season mostly at speed will use around 2,000 gallons of gasoline. Budget roughly $15,000 to $30,000 a year for storage, insurance, outboard service, bottom paint and canvas.

Because so few were built, comparisons are hard. Use the original build sheet to establish options, ask whether the outboards are original 2015 engines or a repower, and price the boat against the cost of a new 32 to 33-foot premium center console with a head. A clean 32CC with fresh engines can be a bargain next to a new boat of equal finish.