Davidson 28 Buyer's Guide
Shopping the used market for a Davidson 28 means stepping into a design that deliberately ignored the IOR rulebook in favour of a simple, solid, roomy family cruiser. Laurie Davidson drew her in 1974 for Dave Blundell, and the class has since spread across New Zealand and Australia — the latter building her for years as the Cavalier 28. For a buyer, the key is understanding which version and which build path a particular boat represents.
Layouts on the Used Market
The early New Zealand hulls, through number 50, were completed with timber and ply decks and cabins by amateur builders, while later boats could be had with a GRP balsa deck and cabin that Blundell widened slightly for more interior room. The constant interior theme is a starboard-side galley running most of the cabin length and a port dinette, with the heads in its own compartment forward of the mast and a uniform 1.8 metre headroom. Australian Cavalier 28s started as exact copies and later grew to 30 feet with an inboard rudder, so length and rudder type separate the two production lines at a glance.
Equipment and Common Upgrades
Most boats shipped with a Bukh 10 or similar diesel mounted under the cockpit, a compact and serviceable setup for a 28-footer. The as-designed four-headsail inventory points to owners who carried interchangeable foresails rather than a single genoa, and the conservatively sized keel-stepped masthead rig has proven adaptable to later sail plans. Because nearly all hulls were finished by amateurs, the level of secondary systems — wiring, tankage, and interior joinery — varies widely and should be judged boat by boat rather than as a class standard.
What to Inspect
Blundell stated the design has no weaknesses when built to specification, apart from the occasional rudder failure, and those failures were usually traced to owners not following Davidson's foil drawings. Check the outboard balanced rudder and its pintle hung stern attachment against the original plans before purchase. Age-related osmosis is now showing up after a good early run, so a survey of below-waterline gelcoat and laminate is warranted. The lead keel's seven 15 mm through-bolts into solid glassed kauri floors are a structural anchor worth confirming for tightness and sealing.
Availability and Buyer's Takeaway
The Davidson 28 remains a pragmatic used buy: a stiff, manoeuvrable masthead rig with full ends and a roomy, galley-forward cabin. Inspect the rudder against Davidson's drawings, test for osmosis, and confirm keel-bolt integrity. Prefer a boat whose amateur finish matches a careful owner, and recognise that the Cavalier 28 lengthening and rudder move mark a distinct later Australian variant.
Price & volume trends
Monthly asking-price and listing-volume trends for the Davidson 28. 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. |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 26 | 1 | $5,320 | — |
Where they're listed
Davidson 28 listings appear across 1 country. New Zealand has the most listings with 1.
Country view
1 listings · 1 country| Country | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Zealand | $5,320 | 1 | 0 | 100.0% |