Sea Otter, by C. Ray Hunt

[Robmill0605]

Does anyone have any information on this design?
It's a double ended 18 ft lapstrake glass boat designed by C. Ray Hunt in the mid seventies.
A buddy if mine just bought one that he is going to use as a water taxi.
There is almost no information online, besides what I found on a Whaler site, which gives the manufacture in NH and then it was shipped to Herreshoff for completion.
Anyone have any more info?

[Robmill0605]

Here is what I have so far;

The Sea Otter boat you are talking about was designed by C. Ray Hunt, co designer of the whaler. I owned a 1975 model that I sold for my first Boston Whaler. Specs are as follows: LOA 18'0" LWL 15'0"
Beam 7'10" Draft 1'0"
Displacement 1,800 pounds
Engine Either 120 HP Mercury I/O or 120 Volvo
Tank 18 gallons.
Standard Boat: $11,600.00
Bottom paint: $195.00
Lifting rings: $325.00
Bimini Top: $325.00
Varnished Teak: $295.00
The standard boat included teak trim, destroyer wheel, canvas cuddy shelter, passenger and operator seat cushions, instrumetn panel, chrome plated bronze haardware, running lights, bilge pump and battery.
The boat was molded in Pembroke, New Hampshire and shipped to Herreshoff for final fitting.

[rbgarr]

There was one at a boatyard here for repair. I talked to the mechanic and he said the engine installation and I/O drive were a nightmare to work on since they were crammed as far as possible into the double ended stern to free up room in the cockpit, of which there was not much. They wouldn't serve all that well as a launch/taxi IMO, mainly because they were intended to operate best at high speed. The I/O unit makes maneuvering at low speeds problematic. I'd put the boat in a class of an early attempt to sell to those who'd end up gravitating toward jets skeets.

They were built (or maybe just marketed) by Nowak & Williams at one time, located somewhere in Rhode Island. They offered the "Herreshoff America" cat boat, a Halsey Herreshoff design afaik, thus perhaps the claim to a Herreshoff connection for the Otter.
http://www.catboats.org/images/nowak.gif