Bristol 43.3 Buyer's Guide
Shopping the used market for a Bristol 43.3 means chasing one of fewer than 100 Hood-and-Empacher cruisers built with a centerboard keel. These are not common boats, and the buyer who finds one is looking at a solid-laminate 43-footer with a shoal-draft trick up its keel and a documented rig inventory that makes pre-purchase planning straightforward.
Layouts on the Used Market
The 43.3 was built with a cutter rig and a stub/centerboard keel shoal and deep draft profiles, drawing about 4.5 feet board-up for shallow marinas and roughly 10 feet board-down. Tankage runs to 120 gallons of diesel and 160 gallons of water, and the propulsion is a single inboard Westerbeke diesel. No alternative interior layouts are described in the available material, so expect the standard cruising arrangement the numbers imply rather than a choice of owner layouts.
Equipment and Common Upgrades
On the used fleet, radar, autopilot, and chartplotter are commonly fitted, forming the core navigation cluster a buyer should expect to find working or recently updated. Beyond those, the brief records no often-seen or occasional upgrades, so any further gear is individual to the hull. The practical takeaway is that a 43.3 without a functioning chartplotter-and-autopilot pairing is a boat whose electronics have been neglected relative to her peers.
What to Inspect
The 43.3 carries no structural defects or recurring equipment failures in the available material, so the inspection is a confirmation of sound condition rather than a hunt for a known weak point. Verify the centerboard pivot and trunk for free movement and dry bedding, confirm the solid fiberglass hull shows no impact damage below the waterline, and check that the Westerbeke diesel starts clean and holds cooling pressure. The through-bolted hull-deck joint should be examined for weeping or corrosion at fasteners. Because no known faults are listed, a surveyor's red flag on this model is more likely a hull-specific event than a fleet trait.
Availability and Buyer's Takeaway
These boats turn up in the United States. For a shopper, the short checklist is: confirm centerboard operation, survey the solid hull for repairs, run the Westerbeke under load, and verify the chartplotter and autopilot are current. A clean 43.3 is a scarce heavy cruiser worth serious consideration.
Price & volume trends
Monthly asking-price and listing-volume trends for the Bristol 43.3. The line shows the median ask each month; the bars show how many listings appeared.
Monthly breakdown · 1 row
| Month | Listings | Median ask | Δ vs. last mo. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 25 | 1 | $132,500 | — |
Comparable models
Similar length, displacement, and era. Open a row to compare that model's market page.
Similar boats to compare
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bristol 35.5 | 35.5' | $ 38,450 | 40 | 8 |
| Dufour Classic 43 | 43' | $ 86,928 | 33 | 3 |
| Slocum 43 | 42.5' | $ 105,000 | 27 | 2 |
| Contest Yachts 43 | 42.65' | $ 185,446 | 13 | 4 |
| Little Harbor 53 | 52.67' | $ 375,000 | 9 | 8 |
| Shannon 43 | 43.83' | $ 177,000 | 8 | 1 |
| Hinckley Sou'wester 42/43 | 42.75' | $ 250,000 | 6 | 2 |