A co-founder of Hunter Boats in the USA has died unexpectedly, aged 69.

Warren Luhrs passed away suddenly following a heart attack on September 18.

His name first came to international prominence in solo trans ocean races, starting with the 54ft monohull Tuesday’s Child which he and his brother John sailed to 2nd place in class in the 1982 two-man Round Britain Race.

It was in the 1984 Observer Single-hand Transatlantic that he really made his mark, both as a designer and sailor, with his innovative ultralight Open 60 Thursday’s Child.

Thursday’s Child was the first monohull to finish, just 16 hours behind the first trimaran, Yvon Fauconnier’s Umpro Jardin V, with an elapsed time of 16 days, 22 hours 27 minutes – an upwind average of 7.4knots.

In 1985, Luhrs teamed up with Ola Wettergren to compete in that year’s Round Britain Race and Thursday’s Child again finished top monohull, despite a two hour, nine minute penalty for late arrival at Plymouth for scrutineering.

Innovative design

Thursday’s Child was designed by Paul Linderburg and built in 1983 and was innovative in many ways. Light displacement, with a narrow waterline beam with wide overhangs to provide greater form stability, she had water ballast tanks and carried a lightweight Bergstrom rig with swept-back spreaders negating the need for runners and check stays, and a fully battened mainsail. Her headsails were self tacking.

This boat was probably the first to carry a gimballed nav station, and certainly the first to have a super comfortable racing car seat attached.

Luhrs reasoned that he would be spending more time at the nav station than steering. The design inspired many innovations that appeared later in Hunter production models, including B&R rigs, arches and water ballast.

He also entered the same boat, re-named Hunter’s Child in the 1986 BOC Around Alone Race and got as far Sydney where he withdrew because his first-born son was ill.

Record-breaker

In 1989, Luhrs sailed Thursday’s Child from New York around Cape Horn and up to San Francisco, breaking the sailing record set by the American clipper ship Flying Cloud. It took him 80 days and 20 hours, creating a new record for the first time in 135 years.

Luhrs built a revised 60-foot boat called Hunter’s Child to compete in the 1994-1995 BOC Around Alone race. In the end, she was skippered by Steve Pettengill who brought her home in second place after completing the circumnavigation in 128 days.

Luhrs began building boats with his brother John and father Henry, a German immigrant at Henry Luhrs Sea Skiffs.

The first Hunter sailboat, the Hunter 25 designed by John Cherubini, was launched in 1973. Luhrs was still working with the St. Augustine Marine Center, his one remaining business after Hunter Marine and the Luhrs Marine Group declared bankruptcy in 2011.

Very much a bohemian at heart, the soft-spoken Luhrs was an outdoors man. When he wasn’t sailing, Warren loved exploring the outback with his wife Linda and their eight children.

He also loved his work, and it was a great personal loss when his companies were forced to close. Extremely fit and health conscious, he looked a lot younger than his 69 years, and his sudden death came as a complete surprise.

Pictures: Warren Luhrs: Credit PPL Photo Agency

A Hunter 306 – sold as Legends in the UK. Credit: David Harding/SailingScenes.co.uk