Hunt 4 Design

Southport’s Hunt4 hulls are designed for today’s heavyweight V6 four-stroke outboards.

It’s no secret that today’s big, new V6 four-stroke outboards weigh more than conventional two-stroke V6s. Many outboard sport fishing boats were designed prior to the availability of four-stroke V6’s. Consequently, those products were never intended to perform with as much as 1,300 pounds of outboard weight on their transoms.

Southport’s Hunt4 hull designs were designed to utilize the weight of modern four-stroke V6’s to provide a soft, dry ride, stable platform, and easy handling. In fact, Southport is the only sport fishing product line designed to maximize the potential of modern four-stroke power plants.

Hunt4 hull technology is a clever combination of offshore racing laminates with a C. Raymond Hunt Associates hull designed around four-stroke power.

C. Raymond Hunt Associates, Inc. Southport’s lamination schedules revolve around offshore racing technology. Using a light, strong composite structure, the marine architects at Hunt balanced the weight of dual four-stroke V6’s with a wider aft stance and deeper continuously-variable vee design. Hunt4 Design Southport’s Hunt4 technology actually benefits from the added weight of the four-stroke V6’s because these designs carry a sharp vee aft on a wide stance, adding crucial buoyancy, and the broad aft chine areas are held firmly in place by the engine weight. The result is a wide, stable platform with a 22-degree deep vee aft that rapidly increases to the mid 30’s amidships and a very fine forward entry.

No other hull designs combine Southport’s soft ride and incomparable stability in a single boat. Overall, the Hunt4 hull technology turns four-stroke engine weight, a problem for some other sport fishing hulls, into a benefit by combining deep vee ride with trolling stability. The pleasing result of this elegant solution is a surprisingly agile product that jumps to plane and turns on a dime, a true technologically advanced design.

A ride one writer described as “astonishingly dry.”

Your first Southport ride will be a memorable experience. Smooth, responsive, and exceptionally quiet. But perhaps the most surprising performance feature is that even in a seaway with a beam sea, spray is practically non-existent. In a gale-blown sea on the aft quarter? Sure, there’ll be spray. But in most sea conditions, even challenging ones, prepare to be astonished at how well the sharp strakes control the water flow.

The formula for the dry ride of a Hunt4 Southport lies in the knife-like sharpness of the strakes combined with the straight hull sections of a Hunt4 continuously variable vee hull design. It is always a straight line from the keel to the chine, the Hunt4 design directs water out and away from the boat, rather than up and over the gunwales, like many other hull shapes. You can actually see three waves generated by the hull, at speed. From each of the strakes and the chine, as the Hunt4 hull attacks and controls the seas.

An amazing range of economical cruising speeds — from 25 mph to 40 mph

Most hulls have a narrow band of maximum economy, usually over 30 miles per hour. But because Hunt4 hulls use the four-stroke’s heavier weight for balance, they plane off in seconds and easily maintain the planing attitude in the lower 20’s. Of course, the soft ride of a Southport Hunt4 hull will tempt you to run fast in most sea conditions. But it’s comforting to know that on those days when skipping over the tops isn’t a viable option, you can efficiently cruise in the mid 20’s comfortably and safely.

The final benefit to the balance of a Hunt4 hull powered by four-strokes is fuel economy in the 2 miles-per-gallon range between 25 mph and 40 mph. You can match the hull speed to the sea conditions without giving up range or economy. When the conditions permit, see what she will do. But when it really gets tough, you and your crew will appreciate that you can ease off without getting knocked off plane by the sea conditions.

You don’t call your products “the sports cars of sport fishing” without backing it up.

Southports are really fun to run. Unlike lots of boats simply designed for speed, there is little focus on the tabs, attempting to find the ride you want. In a Southport just get in and go. Since Hunt4 hulls weren’t designed around multiple engine choices, the balance of a Southport produces a hull that’s very forgiving and surprisingly agile. In fact, we routinely do a few doughnuts in the waterway on the way in, just for fun. That’s what running a sports fishing boat really should be — an experience that brings a smile to your face like a sports car does on a mountain road. That’s a Southport experience. At the end of a day offshore when you’re running in, you’ll be saying to yourself, “wow, this really is a great boat!” We know. It happens to us all the time.