Winga sailboats for sale

Buying a used Winga: a designer's name standing in for a company history

Buying a used Winga means buying into a designer's lineage more than into a manufacturer's track record. The yard behind the name, Winga Marin, was a Gothenburg-area shipyard in Sweden that no longer operates, and no founding date, closing date, ownership history, or production totals for it are documented anywhere -- there simply isn't a company record here for a boat's history to lean on. What is documented instead is the work of one naval architect, Rolf Eliasson -- also known for his Nimbus and Aquador designs -- who came to the yard on the strength of an international design-competition win in the mid-1970s, and whose own bibliography lists six Winga sailboat designs in all. With no company track record to fall back on, condition and provenance on the individual hull in front of you matter more than the badge does.

Navigating the lineup

Only one Winga model, the 87, has a documented profile: it was Eliasson's first commission for the yard, and in a later interview with the Swedish sailing magazine Praktiskt Båtägande he judged it well ahead of most motorsailers of its day, built to sail meaningfully better than the auxiliary-rigged double-enders that dominated the category at the time. That first success is also what turned a single commission into an ongoing relationship: the collaboration went on to cover five further Winga designs by Eliasson's own account, though none of those are individually documented here. Shoppers looking at a Winga outside the 87 should treat the designer's established reputation, not a per-model track record, as their reference point, and check the full model directory on this page for what's actually available under the Winga name.