Compass 29 Buyer's Guide
The Compass 29 is a New Zealand–built fibreglass cruiser designed in the mid seventies by Gunter Heuchmer and Don Lees, with a few hundred examples produced. For a shopper scanning the used market, she presents as a compact long-keel cruiser whose documented strengths are steadiness and self-contained accommodation rather than speed, and whose known issues are notable chiefly by their absence from the record.
Layouts on the Used Market
The Compass 29 is documented with 4+2 berths, a galley, and a toilet facility below, and the headroom is reported as above average for the type. That configuration defines the used-market interior: a compact but standing-headroom cruiser layout suited to coastal living, with the berth count indicating convertible settees or pipe berths alongside two principal bunks. No alternative layout or factory plan is recorded in the source material, so buyers should expect consistency of the original accommodation scheme rather than multiple production variants.
Equipment and Common Upgrades
On the Australia used market the Compass 29 commonly carries a bimini, autopilot, dodger, and is commonly fitted for circumnavigation. The documented mechanical base is an inboard diesel — either a Yanmar at 15 hp or a Nanni at 18 hp, both with shaft drive — and the rig is a masthead sloop with period sheet dimensions of 10 mm diameter throughout. Beyond those commonly fitted items, the source record lists no further owner upgrades as prevalent, so any additional electronics or sail inventories should be read as individual-boat variation rather than market norm.
What to Inspect
The documentation records no documented structural defects, osmotic issues, rigging failures, or systemic faults for the Compass 29. The only caveats present are inherent rather than defective: calculated engine maximum speeds of 5.1 knots (Yanmar) and 5.6 knots (Nanni) fall below the 6.4-knot theoretical hull speed, and the capsize screening value of 1.91 carries a truncated source conclusion. A buyer's inspection should therefore focus on ordinary age-related wear of the fibreglass hull, lead long keel, shaft-drive machinery, and the documented 10 mm sheet rigging, with no design-specific known issue to flag beyond the source's clean record.
Availability and Buyer's Takeaway
The Compass 29 is typically found on the Australia market. For the shopper, the takeaway is a compact cruiser of verifiable steadiness — ballast ratio above 86 percent of peers, slimmer and heavier than most — with above-average headroom and a documented clean fault record.
- Confirm whether the boat carries the Yanmar 15 hp or Nanni 18 hp shaft-drive diesel
- Verify bimini, dodger, autopilot, and circumnavigation fit-out as commonly fitted in this market
- Inspect hull, keel, and 10 mm rigging for age wear only — no documented design defects
- Expect the original 4+2 berth, galley, toilet layout with above-average headroom
Price & volume trends
Monthly asking-price and listing-volume trends for the Compass 29. The line shows the median ask each month; the bars show how many listings appeared.
Monthly breakdown · 3 rows
| Month | Listings | Median ask | Δ vs. last mo. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 26 | 3 | $14,087 | — |
| Feb 26 | 2 | $18,405 | +30.7% |
| Jun 26 | 1 | $10,619 | -42.3% |
Where they're listed
Compass 29 listings appear across 1 country. Australia has the most listings with 6.
Country view
6 listings · 1 country| Country | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | $15,892 | 6 | 1 | 100.0% |
Comparable models
Similar length, displacement, and era. Open a row to compare that model's market page.
Similar boats to compare
4 similar designs| Model | LOA | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Westerly Konsort 29 | 28.83' | $ 17,517 | 67 | 12 |
| Hallbery Rassy 29 | 29.2' | $ 43,284 | 56 | 11 |
| Moody 29 | 29.53' | $ 16,908 | 37 | 8 |
| Compass Yachts 29You are here | — | $ 15,892 | 6 | 1 |