Lancer 29-3 Buyer's Guide
Shopping the brokerage market for a Lancer 29-3 means looking at a C&C Design cruiser built by Lancer Yachts in the United States from 1977 through 1981, and renamed the Lancer 30 in 1982. Most boats you meet will carry the later name on the title, so a thorough search covers both badges. She is a 28.67-foot fiberglass monohull with a fin keel, a skeg rudder, and a 10-foot beam — a compact coastal cruiser, not a passage machine.
Layouts on the Used Market
The 29-3 is a masthead sloop with a plumb transom and raked stem, drawing 5.17 feet on the standard fin keel or 4.17 feet on the optional shoal keel. Below, the cabin gives 72 inches of headroom and a 24-gallon fresh water tank. The layout is a cruiser brief: compact, with the volume you would expect from a 10-foot beam, suited to weekends and sheltered-water cruising rather than extended liveaboard use.
Equipment and Common Upgrades
On the used market, heating, a dodger, an autopilot, and a chartplotter are commonly fitted, and these are the items worth checking for condition rather than treating as absent. For a buyer, heating extends shoulder-season use, a dodger keeps the companionway dry, and an autopilot paired with a chartplotter turns short-handed coastal hops into manageable work. The original propulsion was a well-mounted outboard or an optional Yanmar diesel of 8, 12, or 15 horsepower, with a 15-horsepower gasoline alternative also seen — confirm which sits in the boat you inspect, as it shapes noise, fuel, and winterizing habits.
What to Inspect
The known construction points are straightforward: a fiberglass hull with a raked stem, plumb transom, and skeg-mounted rudder, built on a fin-keel or shoal-keel plan. Verify the hull-to-deck interface and the rudder skeg for stress, and confirm the outboard well or engine bed matches the stated drive. The optional shoal draft keel should be measured against the 4.17-foot figure if claimed, since standard and shoal versions differ by a foot of draft and change grounding behavior.
Availability and Buyer's Takeaway
These boats are found in the United States. For a shopper, the takeaway is simple: confirm the name on the title (29-3 or 30), check for the commonly fitted heating, dodger, autopilot, and chartplotter, verify the engine type and the keel draft, and inspect the skeg rudder and hull joints. A sound example is a manageable coastal cruiser with C&C lines and a flexible power plan.
Price & volume trends
Monthly asking-price and listing-volume trends for the Lancer 29-3. The line shows the median ask each month; the bars show how many listings appeared.
Monthly breakdown · 3 rows
| Month | Listings | Median ask | Δ vs. last mo. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 25 | 2 | $20,450 | — |
| Jan 26 | 1 | $21,900 | +7.1% |
| Jun 26 | 1 | $7,000 | -68.0% |
Where they're listed
Lancer 29-3 listings appear across 1 country. United States has the most listings with 4.
Country view
4 listings · 1 country| Country | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $18,950 | 4 | 1 | 100.0% |
Comparable models
Similar length, displacement, and era. Open a row to compare that model's market page.
Similar boats to compare
5 similar designs| Model | LOA | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sadler 29 | 28.42' | $ 17,593 | 69 | 12 |
| Hallbery Rassy 29 | 29.2' | $ 43,466 | 59 | 13 |
| BENETEAU First 29 | 29.67' | $ 21,988 | 34 | 4 |
| Westerly GK 29 | 29' | $ 12,466 | 8 | 3 |
| Lancer Yachts 29-3You are here | — | $ 18,950 | 4 | 1 |