Seaward sailboats for sale

Buying a used Seaward: shallow draft as the whole point of ownership

Buying a used Seaward means buying into a specific niche - shoal, thin-water cruising - rather than a general-purpose passagemaker, so the first question isn't which model but whether that niche actually matches how you sail. Because Nick Hake designed nearly every Seaward and, for decades, walked each hull through construction himself, quality on any individual boat has historically depended on one designer-builder's oversight rather than a large production system; a used Seaward is worth judging boat by boat, not assumed consistent across the range the way a bigger yard's output might be.

Which era to target

The clearest line in the range separates Hake's earlier fixed- and wing-keel boats - the 22, 23, 24, 25, Fox, and Eagle, built mostly through the 1980s and 1990s - from the later RK series, which introduced Hake's patented, electrically operated retracting keel starting with the 26RK in 2005, followed by the 32RK in 2006 and the 46RK flagship in 2012. Buyers who want mechanical simplicity and a longer track record should look to the earlier fixed-keel boats; buyers specifically chasing trailerable, dry-out shallow-water capability should focus on the RK line, understanding that its retracting mechanism is also the boat's most complex system to maintain. The company itself changed hands more than once across the RK era - a 2009 ownership change, a 2015 manufacturing partnership, and a further change in ownership by 2017 - so a boat's build year can also mean a different company built it than Hake's original yard, worth keeping in mind when comparing hulls of different vintages.

What to inspect across the range

On any RK-series boat, the retracting-keel and rudder mechanism is the single system that deserves the closest pre-purchase scrutiny: confirm the electric winch raises and lowers the keel smoothly and that the rudder retracts fully as designed. That's especially true on early 26RKs. Good Old Boat's review of the model found that boats built from 2005 to roughly 2009 used a fiberglass-bonded lead bulb on the keel blade instead of a bolted one, which could work loose over time, and that the rudder on those early boats couldn't retract fully into its cassette; by 2010, per that same owner account, the bulb was through-bolted instead and the rudder redesigned to lift completely into place, so confirming which version a pre-2010 26RK has is worth doing before buying. Because Seaward hulls across eras were built without wood or balsa coring, moisture intrusion tends to show up at the deck's PVC-foam-cored flat areas and around the hull-to-deck joint rather than in structural wood, the way it might on other yards' boats of the same age.

Navigating the lineup

The range spans a genuine size gap: small trailerable pocket cruisers under 25 feet at one end, up through the 32-foot Eagle centerboarder and 32RK, to the 46RK flagship - the largest boat Hake's yard built - at the other. Deciding first whether you want a truly trailerable, shallow-draft boat or a larger cruising platform that happens to share the brand's keel philosophy will do more to narrow the search than the model name alone; the full model directory on this page breaks down specifics for each.