Thank you Paul. I'm sorry, I missed your post at the time, I have lost the whole sailing summer due to a back injury in July.

I did manage to sell the 5 tonner without losing too much money and have the Hunter on a mooring in the Fowey river. Haven't managed to hoist the sails yet but with 3 weeks to go before lift out, I'm determined to get one sailing trip in.

Then, I'm fairly sure that I can convert her over the winter, or certainly do most of the donkey work. She's a bit small for my liking but being able to keep her in the garden over winter will save enough money to pay for a lot of the kit.

I have not managed to find any examples of a junk Hunter Medina so if anyone could advise how to start the process, I would be very grateful. The two main questions would be how to work out the position of the mast and how to size the mast and sail area.

I guess the real starting point is to read the books!

I recently got tons of great advice here on converting my Yachting World 5 Tonner, especially with Arne's fantastic drawings. The time has come for me to make a difficult decision, keep the 5 tonner or keep "my other boat" which is a lovely little Hunter Medina 20 footer, currently on a trailer in our garden.

There are many good reasons to come down on the side of the Hunter. We can keep her at home over the winter, saving a thousand pounds storage fee. She's easier to sail for an old timer like me. She can be left with the mast up, on the trailer at a boat park 7 minutes drive away and dropped in in half an hour. We can creek crawl up the river with the keel up and beach her.

The main downside of the Hunter is that she's small, an oversized dinghy really and a bit tender for coastal cruising. Converting her would presumably be much cheaper, smaller mast, smaller sail, everything much more lightweight. I sailed on David Tyler's Hunter Duette and was extremely impressed but that was 2 or 3 feet bigger. Would junking a 20 foot boat make her more seaworthy or is that really down to just the hull. Would it still be like sailing a dinghy?

Thank you for any advice / opinions. Or should I sell them both and get a Hunter Sonata? I've chickened out a bit with maintaining a 77 year old wooden boat.