Fountaine Pajot Salina 48 Sailboats for Sale

Designed by the Berret-Racoupeau studio — the same office behind Fountaine Pajot's largest flagship designs — the Salina 48 carries its nearly 49 feet of length in a hull form tuned for volume without abandoning sailing performance. The elevated helm station delivers the situational awareness of a flying bridge while keeping the helmsman in easy reach of both the cockpit and the side decks, a feature that experienced passage-makers tend to appreciate the longer they own the boat. The rigid cockpit roof and aft sun platform over the davits are original design features that make liveaboard life genuinely comfortable rather than aspirationally so.

Layouts on the Used Market

The Salina 48 was offered in three- and four-cabin configurations, with both turning up in brokerage inventories. The three-cabin layout is the more commonly encountered option on the used market, favored by owners who valued larger, more private staterooms over maximum berth count — a reasonable priority on a boat sized for long-term cruising rather than charter rotation. Four-cabin examples do appear and are worth consideration for buyers planning to run guests or offset costs with occasional charters, but expect the interior feel to be tighter in those secondary cabins. The saloon, oriented athwartships to exploit the catamaran's exceptional beam, reads large regardless of which hull layout is paired with it and remains one of the more sociable gathering spaces in this size class.

Equipment and Common Upgrades

Boats from this generation of bluewater catamarans tend to arrive on the used market heavily provisioned for extended passage-making, and the Salina 48 is no exception. Solar panels, autopilot, and a chartplotter are essentially standard fitments you should expect to find on any seriously-used example. Radar, a watermaker, AIS, and a life raft are also commonly fitted, reflecting the offshore ambitions of the typical previous owner. Electric winches appear frequently, as do an inverter, hot water system, and some form of cockpit bimini beyond the original rigid roof.

Heating systems turn up often enough to suggest that many boats have spent time in higher latitudes — the Mediterranean in shoulder season, the Pacific Northwest, or northern Europe — and a washing machine is a surprisingly common find, one of those liveaboard practicalities that owners tend to add early. Owners who have taken the boat seriously for extended cruising frequently upgrade to a freezer, and air conditioning units are a periodic addition on boats that have spent significant time in tropical anchorages. Teak deck overlays, lithium battery banks, and asymmetric spinnakers represent a higher tier of owner investment that does appear on the market but is less universal. Dinghy davits — which span the hulls aft and double as a sun platform — are a factory-original feature, though EPIRB fitment should be verified as current and registered regardless of what any listing states.

What to Inspect

The Salina 48 represents a period in Fountaine Pajot's production when the builder was deliberately competing on interior volume, and buyers should approach structural inspection with that in mind. Hulls on large production catamarans from this era can develop osmotic blistering below the waterline, and a professional survey with moisture readings across both hulls is non-negotiable. Pay particular attention to the bulkhead-to-hull bond points and any areas around chainplate attachment — these are high-stress zones on any catamaran that sees genuine offshore use.

The deck hardware and rigid cockpit roof structure warrant close examination; the one-level walkabout design means the cockpit, aft deck, and saloon connections carry significant foot traffic and load over the boat's life. Inspect the gelcoat and any teak overlay for delamination or water ingress, particularly at seams and around deck fittings. Engine rooms in twin-engine catamarans deserve systematic review — inspect the shaft seals, raw-water impellers, and fuel systems on both engines independently, since service histories often concentrate attention on whichever engine gave trouble rather than both equally.

The watermaker membrane and UV exposure on solar panels should be checked against service records; these are high-cost items that may have been deferred on boats used hard over many seasons. Rigging age matters here — a Berret-Racoupeau design at this size carries significant rig loads, and standing rigging that has completed extended bluewater passages without replacement should be assessed carefully, with particular attention to the chainplates, furling systems, and any running backstay arrangements. Electrical systems on older bluewater catamarans accumulate layers of owner additions; trace the DC distribution carefully and verify that any lithium battery upgrades were integrated with appropriate battery management systems.

Availability and Buyer's Takeaway

The Salina 48 enjoys meaningful brokerage presence across the primary cruising markets, with examples regularly appearing in France, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and Panama — the latter reflecting the catamaran trade route through the Caribbean and Pacific. European inventories skew toward boats with Med and Atlantic miles; Pacific and Antipodean listings tend to represent boats further along in circumnavigation careers or settled into long-term cruising life in island chains. Buyers on either side of the Atlantic should have reasonable access to examples without needing to commit to a transatlantic delivery.

For a buyer ready to move, the Salina 48 is a competent and spacious bluewater platform with a strong resale ecosystem and an owner community experienced enough to have worked through most of the surprises. The inspection checklist that matters most:

• Commission a full professional survey with moisture readings on both hulls
• Verify rigging age and condition, including chainplates and furling gear
• Confirm engine service histories on both engines independently
• Test all watermaker, solar, and electrical systems under load
• Check bulkhead-to-hull bonds and structural integrity at all high-load points
• Review EPIRB, life raft, and safety equipment for current certification
• Confirm battery bank type and verify BMS integration if lithium has been fitted
• Inspect any teak deck overlays for delamination or standing water ingress