Alajuela 48 Buyer's Guide
Shopping the brokerage market for an Alajuela 48 means chasing one of the rarer bluewater ketches afloat. Only a few were built after Raymond Richards drew the design in the early eighties for Alajuela Yacht Corp., and the molds later moved from Costa Mesa to Taiwan for the last hulls. With only a few built, any example on the used market is a low-production, double-ended 53-footer whose documentation is stronger on ratios than on creature details.
Layouts on the Used Market
The available record does not describe the 48's interior arrangement, so buyers should expect to inspect each boat individually rather than rely on a standard plan. What is documented are the provisioning figures that hint at intent: 240 gallons of water and 140 gallons of diesel support long independent cruising. The ketch rig and fin keel with skeg-hung rudder are constant across the class; the cabin itself is uncharted in the sources.
Equipment and Common Upgrades
Because the market brief is silent on fitting prevalence, no item can be called commonly fitted, often seen, or merely an owner upgrade. The one area of hard data is rigging: documented estimates give mainsail, jib/genoa, and spinnaker halyards at 41.8 m with 14 mm diameter, jib and genoa sheets at 16.4 m with 16 mm, mainsheet at 40.9 m with 16 mm, and spinnaker sheet at 36.0 m with 16 mm. A buyer should treat those as the renewal baseline, with cunningham, kickingstrap, and clew-outhaul each at 10.8 m or less in 14 mm. Beyond that, the available record notes no standard equipment or upgrade patterns.
What to Inspect
The documented known issues are geometric rather than structural. The draft is about 6.76 to 7.06 feet dependent on load, and the source states the boat can only enter major marinas — verify the specific draft of any candidate against its berthing plans. The Motion Comfort Ratio of 30.7 places it above only 34% of similar designs, a characteristic to weigh on a sea trial rather than a defect to repair. No flooding paths, core failures, or construction defects are recorded for the model.
Availability and Buyer's Takeaway
No typical markets are listed for the Alajuela 48, so regional availability cannot be stated. The buyer's checklist is short and fact-bound:
- Confirm load-dependent draft against intended marina depths
- Measure comfort tolerance on a trial; ratio is below most peers
- Specify rigging replacements to documented 41.8 m / 16.4 m lengths
- Expect a sparse, unstandardized interior record — survey per hull
Price & volume trends
Monthly asking-price and listing-volume trends for the Alajuela 48. The line shows the median ask each month; the bars show how many listings appeared.
Monthly breakdown · 2 rows
| Month | Listings | Median ask | Δ vs. last mo. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 25 | 1 | $89,500 | — |
| Jan 26 | 1 | $89,500 | 0.0% |
Where they're listed
Alajuela 48 listings appear across 1 country. Grenada has the most listings with 2.
Country view
2 listings · 1 country| Country | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grenada | $89,500 | 2 | 0 | 100.0% |
Comparable models
Similar length, displacement, and era. Open a row to compare that model's market page.
Similar boats to compare
3 similar designs| Model | LOA | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tayana 48 | 48' | $ 330,000 | 26 | 5 |
| Alajuela 38 | 46' | $ 57,500 | 12 | 4 |
| Alajuela 48You are here | — | $ 89,500 | 2 | 0 |