Aloa sailboats for sale

Buying a used Aloa: a closed yard, and a range with no single designer

A used Aloa comes from a yard that no longer builds or supports its own boats, so condition and documentation on the individual hull carry more weight than the make's name alone. Aloa never settled on one house designer either — the Aloa 21, the Aloa 23 R, and the Aloa 29 each came from a different independent naval architect — so the specific model matters more than a general reputation attached to the brand.

Which era to target

The Aloa 21, designed by J-M L'Hermenier, dates to 1969 and predates the ownership crisis that hit the yard in the mid-1970s; a boat from this window is the marque's original model. The Aloa 25 and Aloa 27 were built through the second half of the 1970s, spanning the exact years of the yard's court-ordered receivership and its 1976 restart under new ownership, so tracing a boat's history through that window is worth the extra effort. The Aloa 23 R, designed by Jacques Fauroux, and the Aloa 29, designed by Groupe Finot's office, followed the restart and stayed in production longer than any other model in the range.

Navigating the lineup

Aloa's range runs from small early boats up to a 34-foot flagship at the top. Construction was conventional fibreglass throughout the line, though keel choice tracked size rather than era — the smaller Aloa 17 carried a swing keel where the mid-size Aloa 27 was built with a fixed iron keel, a difference worth confirming against the specific model rather than assuming across the range. A buyer after the marque's defining, longest-running model should look toward the Finot-designed 29; a buyer after the yard's earliest, one-designer boat should look to the L'Hermenier-designed 21. The full model directory on this page breaks out size and year range for everything in between.