Seafarer sailboats for sale

Buying a used Seafarer: weighing design pedigree against a documented rough patch

A used Seafarer carries two things at once: a genuine design pedigree running through Philip Rhodes, Bill Tripp Jr., Sparkman & Stephens, and McCurdy & Rhodes, and a company record that includes recurring interior build-quality and delivery-timeliness problems along with a mid-1970s bankruptcy filing. Neither cancels the other out. The practical implication is that condition and finish work deserve at least as much scrutiny as the naval architect on the plans, since the badge alone doesn't guarantee the boat behind it was built to the standard its designer intended.

Which era to target

Seafarer's earliest boats were built in Holland under Philip Rhodes and Bill Tripp Jr., during the years before Ackworth's 1965 move to a new Huntington, New York plant; boats from that Dutch-built period reflect an import operation still finding its footing as a manufacturer. Boats from the Huntington years carry more of the company's own manufacturing hand, and most of the 1970s numbered range -- the 22, 23, 24, 26, 29, 30, 31, and 37, plus the 34 -- came from McCurdy & Rhodes, the firm that later placed Seafarer alongside Hinckley and Heritage among its notable clients. Boats built around November 1974, when Seafarer filed for Chapter XI bankruptcy protection and continued operating as a debtor-in-possession, are worth extra scrutiny simply because the company was under financial strain at the time; the yard nonetheless kept building right up until it closed in 1985.

What to inspect across the range

Good Old Boat's account of the marque flags interior finish and on-time delivery as the company's most persistent weak points, and neither was confined to a single model or era -- reason enough to give the interior joinery and systems on any used Seafarer a careful look regardless of when it was built. Buyers should also weigh how a boat was finished: Seafarer sold some hulls and decks as kits for amateur completion rather than as finished boats, and the quality of that owner-completed work can vary far more than factory-finished construction would -- worth asking directly whether a given boat left the plant complete or was finished after delivery.

Navigating the lineup

The range runs from the small Dutch-built and early Huntington designs up through the McCurdy & Rhodes-dominated 1970s fleet to the rare, flagship-sized Seafarer 48. Buyers drawn to the design pedigree of Rhodes or Tripp Jr. should look to the Dutch-built years, while those wanting the yard's most consistent design partnership should focus on the McCurdy & Rhodes-era 1970s boats. The full model directory on this page is the place to work through specific sizes and years.