Seawind sailboats for sale

Buying a used Seawind: a small yard with a documented ownership history

A used Seawind is a bet on a specific hull's history as much as on the brand name. The company has changed hands and locations more than most cruising-catamaran builders: an Australian yard that absorbed a Californian trimaran maker in 2010, then went through voluntary administration in 2012 that closed its original Wollongong factory and pushed all production to Vietnam. Two boats wearing the same model name can come from genuinely different eras of ownership and build location, which is why confirming exactly where and when a specific hull was built matters more with this brand than with a maker that never moved. Condition and paperwork carry real weight here -- Seawind's after-sales support continued through the transition, largely through Multihull Central in Sydney, so service records for older boats may run through more than one channel.

Which era to target

The clearest dividing line is 2012. Boats built before then came out of Seawind's original Wollongong, Australia plant; Richard Ward, the company's founder, attributed the closure to high manufacturing costs and a strong Australian dollar that made Australian-built boats uncompetitive against imports. Everything since has come from the Corsair Marine factory in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam -- production of the 1160 and 1250 moved there in 2011 and 2012 -- with a newer second line added in Izmir, Turkey. Practical Sailor, reviewing the 1160, found that later Vietnam-built examples carried fresher upholstery and finish work than the earlier Australian-built boats, worth weighing against any premium placed on "Australian-built" as a selling point on its own. Within a single model line, a build year can also mark a real design change rather than a cosmetic update -- the 1160 itself was reworked as the lighter 1160 Lite in 2014 and again as the 1160XL in 2025, so confirm which generation a listing actually is before comparing it against another 1160.

What to inspect across the range

Independent reviews point to a handful of checkpoints tied to specific models rather than one universal defect. Yachting World found the 1170 relies on a cable across the guardrail-stanchion bases rather than toe rails to meet CE standards, and TradeABoat separately found the 1190 Sport lacking the escape hatches required on CE-compliant European boats -- both worth confirming before a European survey or registration. TradeABoat also noted the 1000 XL's mainsheet car travel can conflict with targa-seat legroom. And because Seawind placed a number of 1000-series boats with charter operators from the Whitsundays to the Caribbean, it's worth asking whether a specific hull spent part of its working life in commercial service before it reached a private owner.

Navigating the lineup

The lineup breaks into rough size bands rather than one continuous line: small daysailers (the 24 and 850), a mid-size cruising core built around the 1000 series, the 1160, and the 1170, and a larger passage-making band that includes the 1260, the 1370, and the 1600. Because several of these lines have gone through more than one generation -- the 1160 alone spans three distinct versions built over two decades -- comparing listings by length and build year is often more useful than comparing by model name alone. The full model directory on this page breaks out those specifications and available listings by model.