Aloha sailboats for sale

Buying a used Aloha: a designer's boat before it's a brand's boat

A used Aloha isn't one boat with a badge — it's several boats that happen to share a builder. Ouyang Boat Works farmed its design work out to a different naval architect for nearly every model, so what a buyer is really evaluating is a Perry, an Ellis, or a Holland design built by the same small Ontario yard, with no factory support network left behind to smooth over condition problems decades later. Treat designer pedigree and individual-boat condition as the two separate questions they are, rather than assuming one Aloha says much about another.

Which era to target

The Perry-designed 27 and the Ellis-designed 32 ran the longest and are the easiest to find: the 32 alone accounts for about 700 boats built between 1979 and 1988. The Holland-designed 30 arrived later and stayed in production only from 1986 to about 1989, in a run of roughly 100 to 150 boats, so parts commonality and community knowledge will be thinner on that model. Buyers prioritizing availability and support are better served by the earlier, higher-volume 27 and 32.

What to inspect across the range

Aloha's balsa-cored deck construction, used on both the 32 and the 8.5, carries a documented risk: a review of the 8.5 flagged deck-core delamination as a common problem, worth checking on any Aloha built with the same coring method. Those same two models also mount their chainplates on wood knees inside the hull, and a review of the 32 found the knees subject to rot — another detail worth a close look on either model.

Navigating the lineup

The range runs from the compact 27/8.2 up through the 34/10.4, with the 32 as the volume model most buyers will encounter first and the shorter-run 30 worth a wider search if that size is the target. The full model directory on this page breaks each hull out individually for closer comparison.