Yarmouth sailboats for sale

Buying a used Yarmouth: work out which boat it is first

"Yarmouth" describes two completely unrelated boats, so before comparing condition or price, work out which one a listing actually is. A 1911 Solent one-design racing keelboat and a GRP motor-sailer from the 1980s or 2010s share only a place name — nothing about rig, construction, era, or builder carries over between them, and a listing that says only "Yarmouth" tells you almost nothing on its own.

Which era to target

If the listing is a Yarmouth One Design, it's a small, well-documented class: designed by Henry Longmore at J Samuel White's yard in Cowes, built by two identified Isle of Wight yards, Theo Smith and Woodnutts, through the 1910s and 1920s, with a surviving fleet associated with the Royal Solent Yacht Club. If it's a Yarmouth 22 or 23, it's a shared-hull motor-sailer pairing from Gordon Wyatt and David Freeman, offered in two clearly differentiated variants: the inboard-diesel Classic, CE marked Category B offshore, and the outboard-powered Sprite, CE marked Category C. Published accounts disagree on where these motor-sailer hulls were actually built — one Sailing Magazine piece credits the Yarmouth Boat Company on the Isle of Wight, another credits Neil Marine in Sri Lanka — so verify build origin from the boat's own papers rather than assuming it from the model name.

What to inspect across the range

On the Yarmouth 22 and 23, Practical Boat Owner has flagged a build-year distinction worth checking before adding or moving deck hardware: only later boats have plywood running the full width of the deck core, so an earlier boat may have solid backing only in the spots where the original fittings sit, with foam everywhere else underneath. Ask which generation of deck you're looking at before assuming a fitting can go wherever you'd like it.

Navigating the lineup

Once you know which Yarmouth you're looking at, the rest follows from era and variant rather than brand: a One Design is bought for its class pedigree and club association, a 22 or 23 for its motor-sailer layout and CE category. The full model directory on this page separates the entries; use it to confirm which one is actually for sale before comparing anything else.