CSY sailboats for sale

Buying a used CSY: a charter-boat pedigree that cuts both ways

A used CSY is, more than most brands, a boat built for someone else's business before it was built for you. CSY's boats were built to unusually high standards of strength, durability, and quality because of the demands of charter service, and many hulls -- the 44 walk-over above all -- carry charter-fleet mileage that predates their sale to a private owner, since CSY commonly ran new boats through its own charter operation before handing over title. That heritage cuts two ways: these are overbuilt hulls by design, but condition on any individual boat owes as much to how hard its charter years were as to how the yard originally built it. Weigh a CSY's charter-service history at least as heavily as its model or year.

Which era to target

CSY's original charter-era line -- the 33, 37, and 44 -- ran from the late 1970s into 1981, offered first as a walk-over or a pilothouse; a walk-through 44 followed later in the run, with only about 40 built before the Tampa manufacturing operation closed. A second era followed under different ownership: after that closure, John Coats's Antigua Yachts put a customized version of the 44 back into production as the Antigua 44, a small run from the original molds built through the 1980s. A third, later era belongs to the CSY 505, a larger Charles Morgan design built once the original charter-boat line had run its course. Be clear on which of these three eras -- original CSY, Antigua-built, or the 505 -- a given hull actually comes from before comparing it against others.

What to inspect across the range

Confirm draft configuration before anything else: CSY built boats with deep or shallow draft, and could modify and cut draft afterward depending on whether a hull was headed for charter work or East Coast cruising, so two boats of the same model may not share the same underbody. Beyond that, treat hull integrity as the known quantity and service history as the unknown one: Practical Sailor called CSY boats "probably the strongest production boats ever marketed," but a boat that spent years turning over with charter guests needs its maintenance and refit history verified more than its layup schedule.

Navigating the lineup

The 33 and 37 are the smaller, more numerous entries into the line; the 44 walk-over is the model that carries CSY's charter-boat identity, with the rarer walk-through and the later Antigua-built version as variations on the same hull. The 505 sits apart, a larger, later Morgan design built after CSY's original charter-boat mission had ended. The full model directory on this page is the place to compare specific years and configurations once you know which of those bands fits your plans.