Downeast sailboats for sale

Buying a used Downeast: a badge that means one founder, one design partnership, and no factory left

A used Downeast comes from a single small California yard that built only four sailboat models in about seven years, nearly all of them credited to founder Bob Poole and naval architect Henry Mohrschladt, with the last hull off the line by 1982. There's no factory, dealer network, or parts pipeline standing behind any of these boats today, so a survey and a specific hull's maintenance record carry more weight than the badge itself. These were also built with a particular buyer in mind — Poole's stated goal was strong, dependable sailboats with traditional lines, heavy-displacement cruisers rather than boats tuned for speed, which should shape what kind of use a buyer expects to get out of one.

Which era to target

The Downeaster 38 is both the flagship and the best-documented model: it ran the company's entire 1974-to-1981 production span and was built in the largest numbers of the four models — an estimated 230 to 250 examples in all — meaning more surviving boats and more written history to check a given hull against. (The very earliest 38s carry their own asterisk: the company's own account and a later magazine retrospective disagree on whether 1974 or 1975 was the first production year.) The 32 followed within about a year in similar numbers, 134 to 150 built, with production ending in late 1980. The 45, a larger, scaled-up follow-on to the 38, is by far the rarest survivor, with estimates topping out under 100 units, so a buyer set on the biggest Downeast should expect a longer, thinner search. Because the company's own history split cleanly after founder Bob Poole's 1978 death, with sailboat production ending in 1981 or 1982 and the business itself winding down in 1983, a later build year also means less of the original founding team was still involved.

Navigating the lineup

Downeast's range is narrow by defunct-builder standards: four hulls between 32 and 45 feet, all heavy-displacement cruisers from the same small design partnership rather than distinct product lines with their own character. Choosing between them comes down mostly to size and how much company you'll have in the used market — the 38 offers the deepest history and the largest surviving pool, the 32 a smaller and similarly common alternative, and the 45 and 41 scarcer options at the top of the range. The full model directory on this page breaks each down by year and length for closer comparison.