Heard sailboats for sale

Buying a used Heard: a hand-built hull, not a standardized production run

A used Heard is a hand-laid GRP working boat built in small numbers at a single Cornish yard across more than five decades, spanning a change in yard ownership, a mould reworked more than once, and three generations of builders. That history means condition and build era carry more weight for a Heard than brand consistency does: two 28-footers built years apart can differ in keel construction and cockpit layout, so a buyer should expect to evaluate each hull on its own build details rather than assume uniformity across the range.

Which era to target

On a Heard 28, keel attachment is the fastest way to place a hull in the production run: if the iron ballast is bolted visibly to the outside, it predates the mould change that buried the keel inside the GRP structure — a distinction worth confirming directly, since an encapsulated keel changes what a survey needs to check underneath. Cockpit drainage tells a similar story. Cruising-oriented boats from later in the run gained self-draining cockpits and a bilge water tank that earlier hulls don't have, along with extra freeboard. A buyer prioritizing low-maintenance ownership and drier cockpits should lean toward these later boats; one chasing the original working boat's lower-freeboard proportions and external keel should look earlier in the run instead.

Navigating the lineup

Heard's range runs from the smaller Tosher 20 up to the 28-footer that carries the family name, with the 28 spanning a four-decade production run from 1968 to 2008. Buyers set on the traditional working-boat form and its racing class should focus on the 28; those wanting a smaller, more manageable Cornish-built hull have the Tosher 20 to consider. The full model directory on this page is the place to compare specific examples once era and size are settled.