Hunt Yachts purchased by Hinckley Co. parent

HUNT YACHTS has been purchased by the owner of another Portsmouth-based yacht manufacturer, The Hinckley Company. Peter Van Lancker, president of Hunt Yachts, says Hunt will continue to operate independently. / PBN FILE PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
HUNT YACHTS has been purchased by the owner of another Portsmouth-based yacht manufacturer, The Hinckley Company. Peter Van Lancker, president of Hunt Yachts, says Hunt will continue to operate independently. / PBN FILE PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

PORTSMOUTH – Luxury boat builder Hunt Yachts Inc. has been purchased by a New York investment firm, the company announced Tuesday.

Hunt was purchased by Scout Partners Inc., a joint venture between David Howe and Peterson Capital LLC, for an undisclosed sum.

In 2010 Scout purchased The Hinckley Company, another luxury yacht builder headquartered in Portsmouth.

Now under common ownership, the two companies will maintain separate identities but work together, according to a news release announcing the sale.

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The most immediate example will be “in the Hinckley service yards which now have a direct pipeline to Hunt parts and technical advice to service Hunt products.”

Hunt Yachts President Peter Van Lancker will continue to run the company, which will now be called Hunt Yachts LLC.

“I could not have designed a better stage for the future of the Hunt Yachts’ brand, legacy and products than this new ownership and partnership with Scout Partners and Hinckley,” Van Lancker said in the release. “I can tell you that David Howe and the Hinckley team share the passion and enthusiasm to ensure Hunt Yachts of even greater growth, success and innovation going forward.”

Hunt Yachts was founded in Massachusetts in 1998 to build designs from C. Raymond Hunt Associates, which pioneered the deep-V hull shape for power boats.

C. Raymond Hunt Associates will remain the exclusive designer of Hunt Yachts, which moved to Rhode Island in 2004 and now employs about 50 people.

Peterson Capital was founded by investor Peter G. Peterson, founder of the Blackstone Group and a former U.S. commerce secretary under President Richard M. Nixon, whose foundation advocates reducing the national debt.

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