Elite sailboats for sale

Buying a used Elite: read the badge as a license, not a brand

A used Elite carries a Canadian badge on a French hull. Kirié, the yard behind France's "Feeling" range, licensed the design for production at a Québec facility, so what a buyer is really evaluating is a Kirié product built for a different market rather than a boat from an independent manufacturer. The 364, 326, 446, and 37 each pair with a specific Feeling sibling — the 1090, 326, 446, and 1100, respectively — worth tracking down as a second reference point on any given hull. That distinction matters for a buyer: condition and design pedigree carry the value here, not a proprietary manufacturing identity separate from Kirié's own French production.

Which era to target

Design credit at Kirié shifted partway through the years Elite boats were built. Naval architect Philippe Harlé worked alone on Kirié's designs through the early 1980s before taking on partner Alain Mortain in 1984; Elite models introduced before that year date to Harlé's solo period, while those introduced from 1984 onward belong to the Harlé & Mortain partnership era, which continued until Harlé's death in 1991 and after which Yiannis Mavrikios joined the office. A buyer weighing two Elite hulls of similar size is really weighing which design office, and which point in Kirié's own construction practice, stands behind each one — worth knowing before comparing them on condition alone.

Navigating the lineup

Sizing the search means picking a band first: a small daysailer under 30 feet, the numerous cruising models clustered in the middle of the range, or the outlier Elite 64 at nearly 64 feet, the largest hull the license ever covered. Because each Elite corresponds to a specific French Feeling model, cross-checking a given hull against its Feeling twin can fill in gaps the Elite-specific record leaves thin; the full model directory on this page is the place to work through the specific sizes and years.