Compromis sailboats for sale

Buying a used Compromis: a cruiser whose builder never disappeared

A used Compromis comes from a yard with an unbroken thread behind it: Zaadnoordijk Yachtbuilders started as a marina in 1947, moved to its Heerenveen shipyard in 1968, passed to Jan Muller in 2000, and became part of Wajer Yachts in mid-2022. For a buyer, that continuity is the brand's quiet advantage - there is a live builder lineage behind these boats, not an orphaned nameplate. How alive that lineage stayed is best shown by a detail YACHT reported in its used-boat test of the 777, 888 and 999: the yard still held the 999's original moulds and built a brand-new example to a customer's order in 2014. The same test rated the 999 very solidly built, and the yard laminates its hulls with a vinylester resin it developed with DSM, claiming water resistance well beyond ordinary polyester and minimal osmosis risk - a manufacturer's claim, but one a surveyor's moisture readings can put to the test on any individual boat.

Which era to target

The earliest Compromis boats are small: sub-24-footers built from 1969 through the early 1980s, dating from before and around the start of the Frans Maas design partnership, which began in 1976. The core of the line is the Maas-era mid-band from the mid-1970s onward - Yachtdatabase credits the 850 to Maas in the mid-seventies, with fewer than 200 built, while the 777 ran longer than any other model in the line, from 1977 to 2001. Within that band, YACHT draws a useful distinction for shoppers: the 999 is a revision of the earlier 909 rather than a clean-sheet design, swapping hydraulic steering for cable and changing the interior layout, so the two share a family character across different build years. The largest Compromis models - roughly 34 to 38 feet - came in the 1990s and 2000s and are genuinely scarce; Yachtdatabase puts the 36 at fewer than 100 boats built. Boats from the same Heerenveen builder under its newer C-Yacht brand are covered separately on this site.

Navigating the lineup

Choose a size band before a model: the range steps from late-1960s pocket cruisers under 24 feet, through the 26-to-33-foot family cruisers that carried the longest production runs, up to the scarcer 34-to-38-footers of the 1990s and 2000s. The full model directory on this page lays out each model's years and dimensions so you can compare boats within the band that fits your crew and cruising ground.