LeComte sailboats for sale

Buying a used LeComte: a builder's yard, not a single design signature

A used LeComte is a bet on Dutch construction quality more than on any one designer's line. LeComte-Holland was a yard that executed commissions from John Alden Co., William Tripp Jr. and A. E. Luders rather than working from a single house design, so hull generation and build year matter at least as much as the model name. The company closed in 1994, so nothing about a given boat's spec can be confirmed by calling the factory — it has to be verified on the boat itself.

Which era to target

The clearest boundary in the lineup is the 1961 switch to exclusive fibreglass construction. Boats from before that point — Alden-designed wooden Malabar Seniors and Nordfarer yawls, plus Challenger yawls completed from Halmatic mouldings — are wood-era hulls calling for different survey expertise than the glass boats that followed. Within the fibreglass era, the Northeast 38's own production run adds a further marker: the original 1962 design was updated into the MK II in 1966 and the MK III in 1969, so which of the roughly 60 boats built you're looking at affects what's below the waterline. Later hulls followed the yard's 1970s renaming — Medalist to ALC-35 in 1970, Northeast 38 to ALC-40 in 1971, Fastnet 45 to ALC-46 in 1973.

What to inspect across the range

The Northeast 38 is the best-documented case: across its run, Soundings Magazine noted minor changes in hull and transom angle, an altered keel shape, and different rudders offered at different times, so two Northeast 38s of different build years can differ meaningfully below the waterline — worth confirming against the specific hull rather than assuming a single spec. More broadly, LeComte's fibreglass boats were built with Airex-cored decks, which makes deck coring condition worth checking regardless of model or era.

Navigating the lineup

Within the range, size varies more than construction philosophy: the Medalist 33 and later ALC-35 sit at the small end, the Northeast 38 and ALC-40 in the middle with the deepest documentation, and the Oceanracer 52, Fastnet 45 and ALC-46 at the top for buyers wanting more boat from the same yard. The full model directory on this page breaks out year ranges and length by name.