Dufour 455 Grand Large Sailboats for Sale

Layouts on the Used Market

Owner three-cabin versions are the more common on the used market, but both three- and four-cabin arrangements are available. Dufour offered the 455 with three staterooms and two heads as standard, or an optional fourth cabin, and the three-cabin test boat carried a single master forward with private head and stall shower plus two aft cabins. A centerline technical space between aft cabins houses the engine and batteries, and the master stateroom sits about five feet farther aft than on the Performance 44, giving better motion at anchor and isolation from the chain locker. Ex-charter examples are common, so verify cabin wear and salon joinery condition against the Moabi mahogany specification rather than assuming light use.

Equipment and Common Upgrades

Most boats on the market carry a bimini, furling main, autopilot, electric winches, chartplotter, and heating as standard cruising kit, with a liferaft and radar often present. Power and energy systems frequently include a generator and a 12-volt house bank with generator start; a bow thruster and AIS are often seen, reflecting extended cruising use. Canvas and sail handling commonly show a spinnaker and teak decks, while a code zero and cockpit shower appear on many listings. For buyer consequence, prioritize the electric primary winches and the windlass, since these define short-handed usefulness; a watermaker, solar, or dinghy davits are less common owner upgrades rather than factory fitments.

What to Inspect

The production hull leaves a miniature bilge sump, a quirk of the efficient layout that complicates bilge water management and deserves a manual pump check on survey. The hull itself uses NPG gelcoat backed by NPG resin in the skincoat as an osmosis barrier, so a surveyor should still sound the gelcoat and check for blistering despite the claimed protection. Keelbolts are tied into the grounding system by a massive stainless-steel bonding strap, and the internal grid supporting the cast iron keel is reinforced with Twaron; inspect the backing plate and chainplate area where the single stainless-steel chainplate meets the cabin trunk. The balsa-cored infusion deck should be tested for soft spots, particularly around the glued teak overlay where no bungs exist to mask early delamination.

Availability and Buyer's Takeaway

These yachts turn up across Türkiye, France, Italy, French Polynesia, Sweden, and Ireland. For a buyer, the practical checklist is short: confirm the three- versus four-cabin count and ex-charter history; exercise the electric winches, windlass, and saildrive; sound the balsa deck and NPG hull for osmosis; and measure the bilge sump's drain path. A 455 with a healthy grid, quiet Volvo, and intact Moabi interior remains a strongly equipped cruiser at any reasonable condition level.