Sydney sailboats for sale

Buying a used Sydney: a racing pedigree that changed hands more than once

A used Sydney carries an Australian offshore-racing pedigree that runs through more than one company and more than one build location: the same broad design lineage was built first at Bashford International's original Nowra yard, then by Sydney Yachts as a division of Azzura Marine, then — after Azzura's 2009 liquidation — under contract by Mark Rowed's Innovation Composites at the old Nowra site, and since 2013 by AD Boats in Split, Croatia. None of that changes the design intent behind the boats, but it does mean two hulls carrying the same model name can trace to different builders and different points in that ownership chain. Buying used here means treating builder-of-record and build era as facts worth pinning down before assuming "Sydney" is a single consistent production standard across the whole used market.

Which era to target

The clearest dividing line for buyers separates the original 36 from the 36CR that followed it in 2005: Sydney Yachts had Andy Dovell rework the keel and rig on the later boat specifically to sharpen handling, so a pre-2005 hull and a 36CR sail differently even though they share a common hull heritage — worth test-sailing both rather than assuming interchangeability. One-designs from the Sydney 38's original Nowra run, by contrast, come off a line that built roughly 65 hulls to ISO 9002 standards, carrying an aluminium rig rather than carbon, since carbon spars were still too costly industry-wide when the design was drawn in 1999 — worth knowing before pricing a rig upgrade. Boats from the Croatia-built era, under AD Boats since 2013, sit under an entirely different builder of record than anything from Nowra, a distinction worth confirming directly with a seller rather than assumed from the model name alone.

Navigating the lineup

The lineup splits fairly cleanly between one-designs built to strict class rules — the 38 and its "little sister" 32, both Murray, Burns & Dovell designs — and cruiser-racers built for shorthanded offshore sailing, such as the 36, 36CR, and 39CR. The 39CR shares its hull, keel, and rudder with the 38, so buyers cross-shopping those two are often weighing trim level and rig detail more than underlying structure. The full model directory on this page breaks out the complete range for closer comparison.