Aloha 30 Buyer's Guide
Shopping the brokerage market for an Aloha 30 means looking at a scarce late-1980s Ron Holland cruiser-racer built by Ouyang Boat Works in Whitby, Ontario, with roughly 100 to 150 examples produced before 1989. She is a 30-foot fractional sloop often found rigged as a masthead, with an aft cabin and a light-displacement hull meant for coastal racing and day sailing. Buyers should weigh her hand-laid construction and limited cruising provisions against the responsiveness that defines the design.
Layouts on the Used Market
Every Aloha 30 shares the same essential plan: a fin-keel, spade-rudder hull of 29.97 feet overall, 26.05-foot waterline, and 10.08-foot beam, with an aft cabin and sufficient space for weekend overnights. The 6,800-pound displacement and 2,960-pound lead ballast give a 43.5 percent ballast ratio, so the used boats you meet will feel stiff and quick rather than voluminous. Because production ran only from 1986 to 1989, you are not choosing between early and late generations — just between individual upkeep histories of a short-run design.
Equipment and Common Upgrades
On the used market, a spinnaker is commonly fitted, which matters for buyers who want the 563-square-foot downwind sail the rig was measured for. An autopilot is also commonly fitted, useful given the boat's coastal-racing focus where short-handed trimming helps. A chartplotter is likewise commonly fitted, bringing modern navigation to a 1980s hull. Beyond those, most other gear should be assessed as owner-installed rather than assumed; the buyer's real task is verifying the condition of the fractional or masthead rig and the sail inventory, not counting factory options.
What to Inspect
The Aloha 30's hulls were hand-laid with up to 20 fiberglass layers at the waterline and decks of balsa-cored fiberglass, so inspect the deck core for moisture intrusion where through-fittings or winch mounts penetrate the end-grain balsa. The hull-to-deck joint was chemically bonded and through-bolted on four-inch centers; check that bond line and bolts for any separation that would signal structural movement. Because the builder used a clam-shell lamination rather than chopper gun, look for consistent laminate thickness and prior repairs that honored the original schedule.
Availability and Buyer's Takeaway
The Aloha 30 typically appears in the United States and Canada. For a buyer, the short checklist is: confirm the aft-cabin layout and weekend suitability, verify the spinnaker/autopilot/chartplotter fitment if those matter, and survey the balsa deck core and hull-to-deck joint closely. She rewards a careful inspector with a light, responsive Holland cruiser-racer from a brief but well-built production run.
- Confirm deck-core dryness at all penetrations
- Check hull-to-deck joint bond and bolt spacing
- Verify rig configuration (fractional vs masthead) and sail inventory
- Assess capacity against intended coastal use
Price & volume trends
Monthly asking-price and listing-volume trends for the Aloha 30. 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. |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 25 | 1 | $8,557 | — |
| Aug 25 | 1 | $6,000 | -29.9% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beneteau First 30 (Mauric) | 29.36' | $ 79,661 | 44 | 12 |
| CS Yachts 30 | 30' | $ 24,499 | 27 | 5 |
| Judel/Vrolijk J/30 | 29.83' | $ 14,500 | 26 | 9 |