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Oceanic Sailboats

Explore Oceanic sailboats and the details behind each model. If you are shopping for a Oceanic sailboat, we keep an eye out for Used Oceanic Sailboats.

Model ↕Listings ↓Year Built ↕LOA (ft) ↕Beam (ft) ↕Draft (ft) ↕Disp. (lbs) ↕Hull ↕Designer ↕Rig ↕Keel ↕
Oceanic 463 for sale198646 ft12.83 ft5.8 ft33,500 lbsMonohullJack SavageMasthead SloopFin
Oceanic 301 for sale196730 ft15.33 ft2 ft9,520 lbsCatamaranBill O'BrienKetchMultihull
Oceanic 431 for sale198042.92 ft13 ft5.62 ft27,500 lbsMonohullTed BrewerCutterLong
Oceanic TX—196618.37 ft7.15 ft2.95 ft1,653 lbsMonohullJean-Jacques HurbulotFractional SloopCenterboard
Oceanic 38—198237.83 ft11.92 ft5.5 ft18,750 lbsMonohullTed BrewerMasthead SloopFin

Oceanic sailboats: two unconnected design lineages behind one name

"Oceanic" on a used-boat listing does not identify a single builder. It names two unrelated design lineages that happen to share a word for the sea: a British multihull pioneer's motorsailer and catamarans, and a designer's steel-and-glass cruising line built under the fuller name "Pan Oceanic."

Origins and ownership

Bill O'Brien was born in Dublin in 1920 and grew up on a farm in the Irish town of Carlow. After serving as an RAF rear gunner in Egypt during the Second World War, he moved to Hampshire to work in the aircraft industry at Hamble, where the company set up a boat section. There he designed and launched the Jumpahead catamaran class, originally drawn in 1946 and launched as a class with support he sought from the Prout family to help get catamaran racing started in the UK in the 1950s. His first production cruising catamaran, the 22-foot Shamrock, was built by Hawker Siddeley Hamble Ltd, where he worked as a naval architect. He then started his own company selling the Bobcat, a popular family cruising catamaran built in 8-metre and 10-metre sizes, and more than 200 were sold. The GRP Oceanic 30-foot motorsailer, a popular ocean voyager, came from O'Brien's board, as did the individually named catamaran Oceanic Anneliese -- the boat that carried the Swale family around the world via Cape Horn between 1971 and 1974. One of O'Brien's last designs was the Amazon, also a GRP catamaran.

The designers

Ted Brewer, a lifelong sailor with more than 260 yacht designs to his credit, is the second name behind the word "Oceanic" -- though not directly. Brewer's own site credits "Pan Oceanic," not plain "Oceanic," among the roughly twenty production builders that have built his designs. Listings for boats from that line commonly shorten the fuller name to "Oceanic" alone.

Who Oceanic is for

A buyer looking at an "Oceanic" boat is looking at one of two different things: O'Brien's small motorsailer and catamaran designs out of the British multihull-pioneer scene, or a Pan Oceanic cruiser carrying Brewer's design credit under a shortened name. Which one is in front of them depends on the hull, not the word on the transom.

Frequently asked questions

01Is "Oceanic" a single boatbuilder?+
No. The name spans two unconnected design lineages. One traces to Bill O'Brien, a British multihull-pioneer designer whose board produced the GRP Oceanic 30-foot motorsailer and an individually named catamaran, Oceanic Anneliese. The other traces to designer Ted Brewer, whose own site credits the fuller name "Pan Oceanic" -- not plain "Oceanic" -- among the production builders of his designs; listings commonly shorten that name to "Oceanic" alone.
02Who designed the Oceanic 30 motorsailer?+
Bill O'Brien. Born in Dublin in 1920 and raised on a farm in Carlow, Ireland, he served as an RAF rear gunner in Egypt during the Second World War before moving to Hampshire to work in the aircraft industry at Hamble, where the company set up a boat section. The GRP Oceanic 30-foot motorsailer, a popular ocean voyager, came from his board.
03What is the connection between "Oceanic" and "Pan Oceanic"?+
Ted Brewer's own site lists Pan Oceanic among roughly twenty production builders that have built his designs -- not "Oceanic" on its own. Brewer, a lifelong sailor with more than 260 yacht designs to his credit, is the designer behind that line; listings for these boats often drop "Pan" and shorten the name to "Oceanic."
04What other boats did Bill O'Brien design besides the Oceanic 30?+
O'Brien designed and launched the Jumpahead catamaran class -- originally drawn in 1946 and launched with support he sought from the Prout family to help start catamaran racing in the UK in the 1950s. His first production cruising catamaran, the 22-foot Shamrock, was built by Hawker Siddeley Hamble Ltd, where he worked as a naval architect. He later started his own company selling the Bobcat, a family cruiser built in 8-metre and 10-metre sizes with more than 200 sold, and one of his last designs was the Amazon, also a GRP catamaran.
05Has a boat from this lineage made a notable ocean passage?+
Yes. The Swale family sailed around the world via Cape Horn between 1971 and 1974 aboard their catamaran, Oceanic Anneliese, a Bill O'Brien design.