2004 Hunter 41 Deck Salon — Hilton Head Island, SC 29928

A 2004 Hunter 41 lying at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, asking $89,895 through Brewer Yacht Sales, and carried on our shelf as the 41 Deck Salon. Hunter built the family to Glenn Henderson's lines — 40.3 ft of hull on 13.25 ft of beam, a plumb stem, and the yard's backstay-less B&R rig with swept spreaders. Henderson drew for stability, speed and a kind motion rather than sail area, and the raised-saloon version took Cruising World's Best Production Cruiser 40 to 44 feet in the 2006 Boat of the Year, with the overall value prize alongside it.

One thing to settle before anything else. Published histories date the raised-saloon 41 from 2006 and the aft-cockpit 41 from 2004, so a 2004 hull filed under Deck Salon is a question for the broker rather than an assumption: ask which layout you are looking at. We hold no other 41 of either kind to price this one against, and the listing reached us with no condition note, no days-on-market and no equipment list. The survey carries the rest.

On price it sits near the ceiling of the monohulls under $100k — under the newer boats of its length beside it, over the older and smaller ones.

More length for a little more money is the 2003 Hunter 466 at Pensacola: six feet longer, one year older, $10,005 above this boat, and no raised saloon.

Where the opposite instinct leads, the 2000 Beneteau 361 at Port Henry, New York, is four feet less boat for $13,895 less.

The upgrade is the 2008 Wauquiez Centurion 40S — the same length, four years newer, a French performance cruiser rather than a volume boat, at $59,105 more.

If the layout checks out, this is the one to survey first: