Northstar 1500/35 Buyer's Guide
The Northstar 1500, also called the North Star 35, is a Canadian Sparkman & Stephens cruiser-racer built from 1974 and later developed into the Hughes 35. On the used market she presents as a 35-foot masthead sloop with a private aft cabin and a conventional fibreglass hull, a straightforward coastal cruiser for a buyer who values a known S&S layout over modern volume claims.
Layouts on the Used Market
Every example shares the same core plan: sleeping for six, a bow V-berth, two straight main-cabin settees, and an aft double to starboard. The L-shaped galley to port just forward of the companionway faces a navigation station to starboard, with the head aft of the bow cabin on the port side. Because the design is a single variant of S&S 2166 with no factory sub-models described, layout differences between boats are driven by owner refit rather than factory options.
Equipment and Common Upgrades
Boats commonly fitted in this market carry cabin heating, an autopilot, and a short-handed sail-handling setup that lets a couple manage the masthead sloop without crew. For a shopper, heating extends shoulder-season use in cooler cruising, the autopilot reduces helm time on long reaches, and the short-handed rigging — typically led aids at the cockpit — is the single most consequential comfort upgrade on a 35-foot sloop of this age.
What to Inspect
The construction record shows the Northstar 1500 uses fibreglass as the primary hull material with wood trim, a raked stem, and a reverse transom on a swept fixed fin keel and skeg-mounted rudder. Inspect the wood trim for rot at the stem and transom joints, and check the skeg rudder attachment and the fin-keel hull joint for any history of impact or repair. The original Universal Atomic 4 is a gasoline engine, so fuel-system condition and ventilation around the 20-gallon tank deserve close attention, along with the 25-gallon water system and any owner-added tankage.
Availability and Buyer's Takeaway
These boats are typically found in the United States. For a buyer, the checklist is brief: confirm the S&S 2166 lineage and North Star versus Hughes badging, verify the aft-cabin and navigation-station layout are intact, test the heating and autopilot if fitted, and survey the fibreglass hull, wood trim, and gasoline engine systems before purchase.
Price & volume trends
Monthly asking-price and listing-volume trends for the Northstar 1500/35. The line shows the median ask each month; the bars show how many listings appeared.
Monthly breakdown · 2 rows
| Month | Listings | Median ask | Δ vs. last mo. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 25 | 1 | $6,000 | — |
| Jul 25 | 1 | $10,000 | +66.7% |
Comparable models
Similar length, displacement, and era. Open a row to compare that model's market page.
Similar boats to compare
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|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Northshore 38 | 37.99' | $ 52,048 | 11 | 5 |
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