Cheoy Lee Clipper 48 Ketch Buyer's Guide
The Cheoy Lee Clipper 48 Ketch is a Luders-designed cruiser built in China by Cheoy Lee Shipyard, with only 20 examples afloat from 1979 20 units built. For a buyer on the used market, that scarcity shapes every search: these are not boats you stumble across, and each one carries the individuality of its three available interior layouts and the occasional schooner rig swap.
Layouts on the Used Market
Three interior plans were offered from new. The Plan A arrangement sleeps nine, which tells you how much living space the 13 foot beam and 34 foot waterline create below. The B and C plans replace some of that berth count with a circular settee, a conversation-friendly salon that many cruising couples prefer over maximum bunks. A used buyer should confirm which layout a given hull carries, since the difference changes both resale audience and day-to-day life aboard. The schooner rig was a factory alternative to the standard ketch, so a surveyed boat may show either a 1,182 square foot ketch or a 1,390 square foot schooner sail plan.
Equipment and Common Upgrades
Equipment expectations stay general, but the boat's 200 gallon water and 100 gallon fuel tanks set the baseline for self-sufficient cruising. Buyers should focus on energy and power clusters — a generator and watermaker are the consequential additions that turn the native tankage into real range. Sail-handling canvas such as a dodger and bimini, plus a rebuilt winch set, matter more than stereos or galley dishes. Navigation has moved well past the period suite, so expect to budget for a modern instrument cluster if the owner upgrade is missing.
What to Inspect
No quantified structural or systems issues appear in the available material. A buyer should still treat the solid fiberglass hull and attached rudder of the long-keel configuration as the primary survey subjects, confirming keel-to-hull integrity and rudder stock condition as with any 1979 fiberglass cruiser. The three-layout interior means verifying structural bulkheads around the circular settee if present, since that arrangement loads the salon differently than the berth-heavy Plan A.
Availability and Buyer's Takeaway
No regional market data was supplied, so availability cannot be characterized by area. For the buyer, the takeaway is straightforward:
- Confirm which of the three layouts the hull carries
- Verify ketch or schooner rig and matching sail inventory
- Survey long keel, solid hull, and attached rudder carefully
- Check original 200 gal water and 100 gal fuel tank condition
- Budget for power, watermaker, and navigation upgrades as needed
Price & volume trends
Monthly asking-price and listing-volume trends for the Cheoy Lee Clipper 48 Ketch. The line shows the median ask each month; the bars show how many listings appeared.