Boreal sailboats for sale

Buying a used Boreal: a handbuilt aluminum expedition boat, not a production cruiser

A used Boréal isn't a production boat in the usual sense. Full-aluminum hulls are cut and welded to order in Tréguier, Brittany, and a Yachting World tester of the 52 described it outright as "a custom-built boat." That changes what condition means here: rather than checking one hull against a known factory spec, a buyer is really evaluating how one owner's particular build, and the yard's own engineering choices for grounding-capable, corrosion-resistant aluminum cruising, have held up. Writing in SAIL in 2017, Charles Doane noted that Boréals almost never appeared on the brokerage market at all — a brand built by sailors headed toward higher latitudes and remote coastlines rather than by owners trading up on a schedule, so patience and a wide search net matter as much as the usual pre-purchase survey.

Which era to target

Boréal's original 44, 47, 52, and 55 established the yard's centerboard-and-skeg approach to grounding and beaching. The later 44.2 and 47.2 replaced the smaller two only after incorporating input from the owners who'd sailed the originals — more than sixty of them, by the yard's count — and Attainable Adventure Cruising's test-sail review treated the update as a genuine design break rather than a numbering bump, flagging construction refinements on the newer hulls that the earlier boats don't share. Buyers should confirm which generation's specification a given hull actually carries rather than assume continuity across the range.

Navigating the lineup

Boréal's range runs from compact 44-footers up through the 52 and 55, with the newer 44.2 and 47.2 now standing in as the yard's smaller sizes. A buyer weighing the small end of that range against the large end is really choosing between a boat sized for shorthanded sailing and one with room to carry a family or extra crew on a longer expedition; the full model directory on this page breaks out year and length for each.