Bavaria 43 Cruiser Sailboats for Sale

Layouts on the Used Market

Owner three-cabin layouts are the more common on the used market, but both are available. The standard plan places the owner forward with an ensuite, two guest cabins aft, and a second head aft serving those mirror-image cabins. A movable longitudinal bulkhead between the aft cabins allows reconfiguration into one large and one small cabin, and the settee can drop to a vast double with an optional pedestal. Ex-charter examples are common, so wear in the saloon and the aft cabins should be expected even when cosmetics read well.

Equipment and Common Upgrades

Most boats on the market carry a chartplotter, autopilot, inverter, furling main, bimini, AIS, air conditioning, heating, bow thruster, and radar as commonly fitted gear. Often-seen additions include solar, an asymmetric spinnaker, electric winches, teak decks, a cockpit shower, and a life raft. For buyer consequence, the power-and-energy cluster matters most: inverter and often solar support extended anchoring, while a bow thruster eases close-quarters handling given the 1.85-meter standard draft. Canvas and sail handling usually show a furling main and bimini; navigation is covered by chartplotter, AIS, radar, and autopilot. Comfort items such as air conditioning and heating are common, with a cockpit shower often seen. Less common owner upgrades — a watermaker, lithium batteries, or a short-handed setup — appear only on some boats and should be treated as bonuses rather than expected.

What to Inspect

The structural story is the place to focus a survey. The hull is constructed with hand-laid glass below the waterline and a foam core above, with the bow reinforced with Kevlar, and the builder describes 35mm of laminate around the keelbolts with ten locknutted keelbolts and epoxied steel backing plates anchor. Rigging loads pass through tie-rods to a stainless ring frame glassed into the hull grid, so check chainplate tie-rod terminals and the ring frame for corrosion or movement. Confirm the keelbolts are intact and the locknuts undisturbed, and inspect the standard 1.85-meter fin keel or the 2.10-meter lead option for prior groundings. The Volvo Penta engine (40 hp standard, 55 hp on some) should be run up to the relaxed 2,500 rpm cruise the test boat showed, listening for the quiet operation owners noted.

Availability and Buyer's Takeaway

Typical markets for the Bavaria 43 Cruiser are the United Kingdom, United States, Netherlands, Greece, Croatia, and Australia. For a buyer, the short checklist is: confirm layout (owner three-cabin more common; movable aft bulkhead present), verify the keelbolt and ring-frame structure in survey, confirm the commonly fitted electronics and climate gear are operational, and budget for a less-common watermaker or lithium upgrade only if specifically needed.