2003 Hunter 426 (unnamed in listing), Marina del Rey, CA

Ask a rigger who does not sell rigs, and an offshore underwriter, the same question in writing: would you send this B&R rig — 30-degree sweep, no backstay, in-mast furling main, no trysail track — from San Francisco to Brisbane with two people aboard, and what would you require first?

This is the whole decision. My sources flatly contradict each other: Attainable Adventure Cruising says it would always recommend a conventional rig for offshore work, and Hunter owners report a Cape Horn rounding and a circumnavigation on the same rig. Two informed opinions from people with money at stake will settle it better than more desk research.

Measure the draft physically at the haulout — keel bottom to waterline, with the tape in the photograph — and then work out what she draws loaded with full tanks, chain, stores and a year's spares. Confirm from the HIN and the ballast figure that this is the 6'6" fin and not the 5'0" wing keel.

Your gate is 6.5ft and the nominal figure is exactly 6.5ft, so the margin is zero before you load her; the stated ballast of 7,237 lb says deep fin, and if the limit is a real physical constraint this boat fails it loaded.

Drop the rudder at the survey haulout — do not accept a moisture meter reading through the skin. Is the stock fibreglass or carbon? Is there water in the blade? Are there voids between the stock and the housing? Photograph the stock where it exits the blade.

An owner of this exact model reports manufacturing voids letting water into the blade that would not dry in three months, and composite stocks are documented to crack rather than bend and hide the flaw until they fail without warning — on a skegless spade, mid-Pacific, that ends the voyage rather than costing money.

When was the standing rigging last replaced? Produce the invoice. If it has not been replaced, get a rigger up the mast before you make an offer to inspect wire, terminals, chainplate attachments, the mast step and — specifically — the spreader-tip welds and roots on both spreader sets.

The listing dates the barbecue and not the rigging, so assume 2003 wire: that is the single largest cost line in this file, it blocks departure, and most underwriters will not write an ocean passage over it.

Will the seller permit a full moisture-meter survey of the entire deck and hull with the boat hauled — coachroof, side decks, every stanchion base, the electric winch base, the windlass, the traveller and every hatch frame?

23 years with no rebedding recorded anywhere, on a deck carrying an electric winch and a windlass, makes wet core the largest single financial unknown here, and an out-of-water survey settles it outright.

Run the HIN through a documentation search and produce the USCG abstract of title, every prior survey, any insurance claim or condition report, and the ownership history. How many owners, and has she ever been chartered, lived aboard full-time or damaged?

A prior survey is the cheapest information in this entire process, and 900 engine hours alongside a generator, air conditioning and a full enclosure describes a boat that has been lived on rather than sailed — a different maintenance history from the one 'pride of ownership' implies.

Have the in-mast furler stripped and inspected by someone who knows Seldén systems, and ask the owner directly: has the main ever jammed, and if so how was it cleared? Is there any way to set a trysail on this mast?

A jammed in-mast main on this rig leaves you with no mainsail at all and a trip up the mast at sea, and the answer determines whether the ATN Gale Sail in your catalogue is a nicety or the load-bearing part of your heavy-weather plan.

Has the boat ever been grounded? When were the keel bolts last inspected or torqued, and can the seller produce photographs of the bare keel and the keel-hull joint from the June 2024 haulout?

It is a bolted external lead fin with a bulb on a beamy hull, and a keel drop with the rig out is a five-figure job that would stack on top of every other yard cost in a fifteen-month refit.

Will an underwriter quote a San Francisco to Brisbane passage on this hull with a two-person crew, and what will they require — rigging age and documentation, liferaft specification, EPIRB, storm sails, minimum crew miles?

On a boat with original-age rigging, an in-mast main with no trysail option and a capsize screening formula of 1.98, the insurer's conditions may well set the real refit scope — and it is far better to know that before you make an offer.

What exactly are the January 2025 house batteries — chemistry, make, capacity and count? Photograph the battery compartment, the charging installation and the Magnum's configuration screen. Is there an external alternator regulator or a DC-DC charger?

I have deliberately not credited a single amp-hour of your 600Ah LiFePO4 requirement against 'new house batteries', because the word 'new' says nothing about chemistry — this answer either zeroes a large catalogue line or leaves it standing in full.

Produce every engine and generator service record that exists. When were the mixing elbow, heat exchanger, injectors, impeller, motor mounts and valve clearances last done? How many hours are on the Kohler generator?

900 hours in 23 years means calendar-driven wear rather than hour-driven, and the listing gives hours for the engine and none at all for the generator — which usually means nobody has been tracking the second engine.

Have a sailmaker inspect the 2018 Ullman in-mast main and the undated UK genoa and give a written opinion on whether each will do a Pacific crossing and a year of tropical cruising. What year is the genoa? Is there any storm canvas aboard at all?

The main's 2018 date is the best sail information on any candidate and may delete a $7,500 line entirely, while the genoa's silence probably adds one — and 'no storm canvas' on a boat that cannot hoist a trysail is a gap that has to be filled before departure.

Photograph every transom locker, swim-platform hatch and cockpit locker, showing hinges, fasteners and latches from inside and out. Have any been reinforced or re-fastened since new?

The model's own launch review singled these out as needing reinforcement for following seas at about 32 inches above the waterline, and this voyage is 6,000 miles of following seas — a downflooding path is not a defect you discover at sea.

Is this hull the 426 DS (raised coach house, deck salon) or the 426 AC (conventional aft cockpit)? One photograph of the boat from abeam settles it.

Every review and specification I have found describes the DS, so if this is the AC then the coachroof, glazing, cockpit and interior findings in this file do not transfer — and the amount of large fixed glazing to shutter for an ocean passage changes with it.

What make and model is the Simpson Lawrence windlass — photograph the serial-number prefix and the gypsy. What anchor is aboard, what type and weight, what size and length is the chain, is there a snubber and swivel, and is there a second anchor and rode?

Lewmar lists the Simpson Lawrence series as obsolete with limited parts support, and a windlass you cannot get parts for is a windlass you cannot rely on for a year of coral anchoring — plus the listing names no anchor or chain at all, and chain ordered into Papeete takes months.

Decide where you refit: Southern California where the boat lies, or the Bay Area as planned? Get two delivery quotes for Marina del Rey to San Francisco, compare Los Angeles yard rates to Bay Area rates, and establish where the boat will be berthed and registered during the fifteen-month refit.

This is the one cost in the file entirely within your control and it moves in several directions at once — delivery is $2,500-$8,000, LA labour may be cheaper than Sausalito, and California use tax is assessed on where the vessel is berthed and registered, where district rates differ. That last point is why I left useTaxPctOverride null.

When was the EV-200 installed, which linear drive unit is fitted, where is it mounted, and how does it attach to the quadrant on a composite rudder stock? Has it ever been used for more than a few hours at a stretch?

This is the most valuable single item already aboard and it retires a large catalogue line — but the drive's attachment to a composite-stock quadrant is one question with the rudder, not a separate one, and a pilot that has only ever steered a day sail has not been tested.

List every electronic device by make, model and year of installation, and confirm whether the backbone is SeaTalkng with spare spurs. Is there AIS of any class aboard? What is the actual model of the Quantum radome — 24 or 48 mile?

Four to six lines of your generic catalogue turn on these answers, which is the largest single credit this boat earns — but a 2017 Axiom and a 2024 Axiom are different remaining lives, and the complete absence of AIS on a commercial-traffic route is the gap that matters most.

Is this a shaft drive or a saildrive? Photograph the stern gland, the coupling and the propeller. When were the cutless bearing, the shaft seal and the alignment last done, and is the prop fixed, folding or feathering?

The listing never states drive type, and a saildrive adds a below-waterline rubber diaphragm with a hard replacement deadline and a failure mode that sinks the boat — a completely different purchase from a shaft.

How many through-hulls are there, what are the valves made of, are any of them gate valves, have any been replaced since 2003, and does every single one still turn by hand?

A total blind spot in the listing on a boat with two heads, a generator and reverse-cycle air conditioning — meaning fourteen to eighteen holes below the waterline — and the difference between servicing what is there and replacing everything is several thousand dollars.

Is the emergency tiller actually aboard, does it physically ship, and can it be steered with the cockpit table and the dodger and enclosure in place? When were the Whitlock system's rods, cables, bearings and quadrant last serviced?

The launch review says the model came with a tiller in the port seat locker, which is not evidence about this boat in 2026 — and an emergency tiller that fouls the cockpit table is discovered at precisely the wrong moment.

How many hatches and opening ports are there, are the coachroof windows fixed or opening, has any frame ever been rebedded, and are the acrylics crazed? Does the boat leak anywhere in rain?

Never mentioned once in the listing, and hatch leaks are the mechanism by which a cored deck gets wet — so the answer bears on the largest risk line as well as on its own repair cost.

Decide early whether the Kohler 6kW generator stays or goes, and get a price for removing it and glassing over its through-hulls. If it stays, get it serviced and inspected and find out its hours.

A 23-year-old second engine with no stated hours is several hundred pounds, two more holes in the boat, a fuel draw on a 51-gallon tank and a maintenance burden with no dealer support on the route — and once your solar and lithium are in, its only remaining job is air conditioning at anchor.

On sea trial: what RPM does she reach at wide-open throttle, what is the coolant temperature after twenty minutes at cruise, is there smoke at load, what is the actual fuel burn at cruise, and does she make hull speed under power?

The cheapest possible test of a lightly-used 23-year-old diesel, and the burn rate is what tells you whether 51 gallons is a constraint you can live with or one that needs six jerry cans on deck for the doldrums.

Photograph every berth, the galley and the engine access with the companionway steps out. Where do two people actually sleep on a twenty-day passage, can lee cloths be through-bolted at those two positions, and is there any sail locker or serious stowage?

A walk-around queen aft and a convertible dinette are liveaboard features, not sea berths, and where the off-watch sleeps on a long passage is a habitability question that no refit budget fixes cheaply.

What condition are the 2020 dodger, enclosure and clear vinyl panels in? Is the frame stainless and sound, and would it carry solar panels or a radar arch if extended?

This is the best canvas on any candidate and the answer decides between a $1,200 re-stitch and a $6,000 rebuild — and whether the frame can carry part of your 800W of solar changes the mounting line in your catalogue too.

How old are the water tanks, the potable hose and the sanitation hose? What condition are the two VacuFlush systems in, when were the duckbills and bellows last replaced, and is 30 gallons really the total holding capacity for both heads?

30 gallons for two freshwater-flush heads is a marina-with-a-pumpout arrangement, not an atoll one, and permeated sanitation hose is one of the few jobs that gets dramatically worse in tropical heat.

Is there refrigeration aboard at all, and if so what make, what age, is it engine-driven or 12V, and does it hold temperature? How is the box insulated?

The listing dates the barbecue to 2025 and never mentions a fridge, which is a strange omission — and in the tropics refrigeration becomes the largest continuous electrical load on the boat and therefore sizes the solar and battery lines in your catalogue.

What exactly was replaced in 2021 — halyards only, or sheets, control lines, the furling line and the outhaul as well? What line was used, and when were the Harken winches and the electric primary last serviced?

The furling line and outhaul are the two lines whose failure jams the in-mast main, so whether they were included in the 2021 job decides whether this is a credit or a gap — and an unserviced electric winch is a foredeck-load failure waiting to happen.

What is the lifeline and stanchion arrangement — height, single or double wire, terminal type — and are there any jackline attachment points or hard points in the cockpit? Photograph a stanchion base from below deck.

Never mentioned in the listing, and the jacklines-tethers and lifelines lines in your catalogue both depend on what is actually there — a stanchion base bolted into wet core is a repair, not an attachment point.