title: Hunter Passage 450
text: # Hunter Passage 450
  
  The Hunter Passage 450 is an American sailboat that was designed by the Hunter Design Team as a cruiser and first built in 1996.
  
  ## Production
  
  The design was built by Hunter Marine in the United States, but it is now out of production.
  
  ## Design
  
  The Hunter Passage 450 is a recreational keelboat, built predominantly of hand-laid polyester and vinylester resin fiberglass, with a deck made from a fiberglass and marine plywood sandwich and Baltek end-grain balsa core hull above the waterline. It has a masthead sloop B&R rig, a raked stem, a walk-through reverse transom with a swimming platform and folding ladder, an oval-shaped center cockpit, a fiberglass mainsheet arch, an internally mounted spade-type rudder controlled by a wheel. It displaces 26,180 lb (11,875 kg) and carries 9,680 lb (4,391 kg) of lead ballast.
  
  The boat has a draft of 5.50 ft (1.68 m) with the standard wing keel with a weighted bulb. It is fitted with a Swedish Volvo or Japanese Yanmar diesel engine of 78 hp (58 kW). The fuel tank holds 100 U.S. gallons (380 L; 83 imp gal) and the fresh water tank has a capacity of 200 U.S. gallons (760 L; 170 imp gal).
  
  Standard equipment includes dual staterooms, with private heads and a transom hot and cold water shower. Air conditioning, a clothing washer and drier, a bathtub, and in-mast furling mainsail were factory options. The below decks headroom is 78 in (200 cm). The design has Community of Europe certification for "unlimited offshore use".
  
  The design has a hull speed of 8.32 kn (15.41 km/h).
  
  ## Operational history
  
  Reviewer Quentin Warren, writing for Cruising World in 2002 praised the design's accommodations. He wrote: "This boat is comfortable to be aboard, light and airy, easy to handle from the cockpit, big on tankage, chockablock with amenities and perks - it’s no surprise that people are queued well down boat-show docks for the obligatory look-see. It isn’t traditional or classic or reserved; rather it’s a showcase of modern thinking with liveaboard focus."
  
  