1997 Hunter Passage 42 — Marina Del Rey, CA 90292

A 1997 Hunter Passage 42 at Marina Del Rey, asking $69,000 through Marina del Rey Yacht Sales, from the last year of a 1989–1997 run. The model is Hunter's center-cockpit cruiser: 42.5 ft of hull on 14 ft of beam, a B&R masthead rig, and a deck carried high from the mast aft so the volume under the cockpit becomes an owner's stateroom. The design idea is living space for two, not speed.

Two honesty notes. We hold no other Passage 42, so there is no sister to benchmark this asking price against. And the model was sold with a choice of deep fin or shoal wing keel — which one is under this hull is a question for the broker. We have not seen the boat.

What the shelf does place is the position. This is the cheapest and the longest boat in its price neighbourhood: the two other Hunters we hold ask $89,895 and $99,900, and a 36-footer of the same era asks more than this 42. It is also the oldest of them by six years: length and volume bought with age. It belongs on the monohulls under $100k shelf and among the liveaboard sailboats.

The same yard's later take on the brief is the 2004 Hunter 41 Deck Salon at Hilton Head Island — slightly shorter, seven years newer, $20,895 more:

Where more boat is the point, the 2003 Hunter 466 at Pensacola adds four feet and six years for $99,900:

And where the opposite instinct leads, the 2000 Beneteau 361 at Port Henry buys newer and simpler at $76,000 — six feet less boat for $7,000 more:

But if it is the center-cockpit forty-two you are after, nothing else here does it at this money — this is the one to survey first: