McNulty – Sea Hunter (SOLD)

After flipping the Old Town Castline, and money in hand, it was time to find another boat.  I saw an orange sea kayak advertised online, at a paddle shop in Jensen Beach, so I messaged the owner (Ted Nielander) and arranged a time to come up to see it.  This was during the early COVID days, where we donned not only masks, but gloves.  As if ready for surgery, Ted and I blew the dust off a kayak high up on the racks and placed it on the floor for a closer inspection.

The price was right, but the closer my inspection, I began to hesitate.  It had a tiny ocean cockpit and that was something I was not used to.  Would I be able to get in and out of it in a dock launch? Then I noticed there was some glass repair work needed on the keel, a broken bilge pump handle, some cracks in the seat and the hatch covers were missing, not to mention it needed all new deck  cording  Although in seemed in good shape, the coloring was splotchy with some sunburn that I was not sure I could bring back without going too deep into the glass layer.  This was a vintage boat I was not sure  I could flip.  But with money in hand, I bought it and a paddle from Ted, then a carbon paddle from Ted  a few days later that cost way more than the boat.

After glassing up the holes in the keel, repairing the bilge pump handle (more glasswork) and seat cracks, I took on the paint surface.  It turned out that after a couple of passes with an orbital sander with a quality buffing compound, the color rose up.  I had to cut down the bilge hose, that for some odd reason was around 3′ long.  But after flooding the hull with water, the pump worked perfectly.

I was ready for the bungee decking cord and seat-back roping.  This is probably the part I like the most and with each project I get a little better (YouTube University).  I saw a trick by someone modifying the bungee cords with clear tubing making some pretty good handholds in the event of a wet exit.  It’s a bit tricky at first, but I am now a pro.

If you do nothing but replace the deck cording, you can make your boat look like new.  And there are so many different roping patterns that it becomes an art.  I just have to remember to also make it functional (LOL).

With any new boat, I want to find out it’s pedigree and this was a tough one.  Ted and pointed me toward McNulty, and he was right.  But identifying the model took some weeks of google searches and I was convinced it was a McNulty Huntsman, but some responses to my questions weakened my conviction.  The length at 18′ did not seem to match people owning a Huntsman.  It was not until I started searching google.uk and google.de that I discovered I had a McNulty Sea Hunter. With new hatch covers in place and a British flag decal, I was ready for the water.

This is a comfortable fast boat, easily getting up to 9 mph without effort.  I was surprised at how nicely it tracked with a stiff sidewind, where most boats without a skeg or rudder  would turn up wind.    At first, this boat felt a little unstable, narrow, with a tight cockpit, but I was not familiar with this style boat. After a few sessions, I was hooked.

Time to get another boat……