Eventide 26 Buyer's Guide
The Eventide 26 you meet on the used market is almost always a home-built or professionally finished Maurice Griffiths bilge-keeler from the 1957 plans onward, its hull in marine ply, wood, steel, or GRP rather than a production-line boat. Because the design was never mass-produced, every used example reflects its builder's choices as much as the original plans — which makes a careful, individual survey more important than a model-wide assumption.
Layouts on the Used Market
Most used Eventides show the usual four-berth cabin with galley and chart table arranged in one of several configurations, sitting under a coachroof that is almost an extended doghouse and supported by raised sidedecks for remarkable interior volume. Above deck the cockpit commonly seats up to six, and the 8-foot beam gives room both inside and out. Some boats follow the original gaff rig with mainsail, topsail, staysail and jib; others have been converted to a Bermudan rig with triangular mainsail and genoa. Bilge-keel and fin-keel versions both appear, the latter drawing more water and the former built to sit upright on a trailer or foreshore.
Equipment and Common Upgrades
Period boats left the plans without self-tailing winches, roller furling, autopilot, GPS, or solar panels, so a buyer should expect manual sail handling and paper navigation unless an owner upgraded. The most consequential used-market changes cluster around balance and rig: many owners have added a short bowsprit to improve balance, and a Bermudan conversion trades gaff windage for easier windward work. Beyond that, canvas and sail-handling refreshes and basic navigation updates are the upgrades that matter; stereos and galley trinkets are incidental.
What to Inspect
Two design omissions should be confirmed on any candidate: she will not right herself promptly from a capsize, and it lacks a watertight bulkhead to isolate a leak or collision. Also check the rig and helm behavior — Yachting Monthly noted she can carry serious weather helm in a blow, often addressed by the owner-fitted bowsprit. Plywood and clinker hulls in particular deserve close scrutiny for planking and fastening condition given the amateur-build prevalence.
Availability and Buyer's Takeaway
Examples surface wherever Griffiths' plans traveled. For the shopper, the short checklist is: confirm hull material and build quality, verify rig type and any balance modifications, inspect for the missing self-righting and bulkhead protections, and budget for modern navigation and sail-handling upgrades. An active owners' association and available plans make ownership support unusually strong for a custom-built 26-footer.
Price & volume trends
Monthly asking-price and listing-volume trends for the Eventide 26. 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. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 26 | 1 | $2,647 | — |
Where they're listed
Eventide 26 listings appear across 1 country. United Kingdom has the most listings with 1.
Country view
1 listings · 1 country| Country | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | $2,647 | 1 | 0 | 100.0% |
Comparable models
Similar length, displacement, and era. Open a row to compare that model's market page.
Similar boats to compare
2 similar designs| Model | LOA | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Westerly Centaur 26 | 26' | $ 6,777 | 8 | 4 |
| Eventide 26You are here | — | $ 2,646 | 1 | 0 |