Hinckley Sou'wester 59 Buyer's Guide
Shopping the brokerage market for a Hinckley Sou'wester 59 means entering the rarefied end of the large cruiser world: only 16 were built between 1982 and 2001, and every example is a semi-custom vessel rather than a repeated production run. McCurdy & Rhodes drew the design as a center-cockpit cruiser, and the boats remain out of production today. A buyer should understand the layout variants, the equipment clusters that matter, and the few documented construction points before committing.
Layouts on the Used Market
Owner three-cabin arrangements are the more common configuration seen on the resale market, though both layout types do appear, and ex-charter examples are not unusual. The standard interior provides three private cabins with berths for eight, a private aft owner's suite with its own companionway to the cockpit, and a main salon with a C-shaped settee and ample light. Reference material also describes bow single cabins, two aft double-berth cabins, a port-side U-shaped galley at the forward ladder, a starboard navigation station, and two heads. The centerboard trunk influences the sole profile but enables 6.5 feet retracted draft for shallow coves.
Equipment and Common Upgrades
A short-handed setup and a furling main are commonly fitted to these yachts, reflecting their manageability by a small crew. Beyond those, buyer-consequential systems tend to cluster in a few areas. For power and energy, later hulls carry a high-capacity watermaker and often a generator-backed air conditioning and heating loop such as Espar heat with reverse-cycle A/C. For sail handling, electric winches and an electric headsail furler are typical, with a tri-radial gennaker or spinnaker appearing as an owner upgrade. Navigation and safety frequently show an autopilot, chartplotter, radar, and AIS as less common but valuable additions.
What to Inspect
The principal construction point to verify is the hull material of the specific example: earlier Sou'wester 59 hulls were built predominantly of fiberglass, while the final builds adopted a vacuum-bagged Kevlar and carbon composite structure with a patented process, which changed weight and durability characteristics. Confirm which camp the hull belongs to, as it affects both survey expectations and any future repair strategy. The centerboard allows operation between 6.5 and 12.5 feet of draft, and this range should be confirmed against the specific hull's configuration since that system is central to the boat's dual-purpose cruising claim.
Availability and Buyer's Takeaway
These yachts are found on the used market in the United States. For a shopper, the checklist is short and pointed:
- Confirm whether the hull is fiberglass or Kevlar-carbon composite
- Confirm the centerboard draft range of the specific hull
- Verify the three-cabin owner layout versus other arrangements
- Check electric winch and furler function for short-handed use
- Review climate systems (heat, A/C, watermaker) on later hulls
Price & volume trends
Monthly asking-price and listing-volume trends for the Hinckley Sou'wester 59. The line shows the median ask each month; the bars show how many listings appeared.
Monthly breakdown · 5 rows
| Month | Listings | Median ask | Δ vs. last mo. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 25 | 3 | $449,000 | — |
| Apr 26 | 2 | $550,000 | +22.5% |
| May 26 | 2 | $437,500 | -20.5% |
| Jun 26 | 1 | $55,000,059 | +12471.4% |
| Aug 26 | 1 | $325,000 | -99.4% |
Where they're listed
Hinckley Sou'wester 59 listings appear across 1 country. United States has the most listings with 9.
Country view
9 listings · 1 country| Country | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $479,000 | 9 | 2 | 100.0% |
Comparable models
Similar length, displacement, and era. Open a row to compare that model's market page.
Similar boats to compare
6 similar designs| Model | LOA | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hinckley Yachts Sou'wester 51 | 51.16' | $ 514,000 | 27 | 11 |
| Oyster Yachts 54 | 53.92' | $ 631,340 | 15 | 3 |
| Discovery Yachts 55 | 54.79' | $ 688,588 | 14 | 8 |
| Southerly 49 | 49.57' | $ 406,920 | 12 | 3 |
| Hinckley Yachts Sou'wester 59You are here | — | $ 479,000 | 9 | 2 |
| Frers Bluewater 56 | 54.08' | $ 1,690,000 | 8 | 2 |