Precision sailboats for sale

Buying a used Precision: one family's trailerable line, so condition matters more than era

Buying a used Precision means buying into one family's 40-year run of small, trailerable fiberglass sailboats: brothers Richard and Bill Porter owned and built the whole line themselves from 1978 until they retired and production ceased in August 2018, and one naval architect, Jim Taylor, designed nearly every boat in it. That continuity narrows the usual used-boat risk to condition rather than brand or era — these were built as coastal and inland daysailers and family trailer-sailers rather than passagemakers, and Precision itself said it didn't recommend offshore passages even with the 23, the largest of the three boats in its trailerable keel/centerboard series, so category fit matters as much as which hull you land on.

Which era to target

The 27 and 28 are the outliers to search for separately: alone among Precision's models, this pair could be ordered with an inboard diesel engine and, optionally, a wheel instead of a tiller, and Jim Taylor's own design archive notes that the added complexity was a hard sell for Precision's dealer network at the time — meaning a much thinner used-boat pool than the mid-size keel/centerboard models draw from, so buyers set on one should expect to widen their search. The 28 isn't really a separate design, just a running change: Precision lengthened the 27's stern and tacked on a swim platform to create it, so a boat offered as a 27 or a 28 is the same design with different trim. Elsewhere in the trailerable range, the 18, 21, and 23 share a shoal keel/centerboard formula, the smaller 15 and 185 rely on a centerboard alone, and the 165 carries a fixed lead shoal keel instead. One name that turns up in the used market doesn't really belong to this family at all: the Colgate 26 has a Precision-built hull, but it was designed and marketed as a sailing-school trainer under Steve Colgate's name, and later production passed to a different builder entirely — shop it as its own thing, not as another Precision model.

Navigating the lineup

Buyers focused on trailer sailing and simple daysailing should compare the smallest boats in the range, while those wanting a boat that still trailers but sleeps a small crew should look to the mid-size keel/centerboard models. The 27 and 28 sit apart as the closest thing to a small coastal cruiser Precision built, with the diesel auxiliary and wheel steering to match, and the 11 Metre One Design is a different animal entirely — a fin-keel one-design sportboat from naval architect Ron Holland rather than one of Jim Taylor's trailerable cruisers. The full model directory on this page breaks each of those out by hull and year.