Oyster 45 Sailboats for Sale

Layouts on the Used Market

Owner three-cabin layouts are the more common on the used market, but both are available, and ex-charter examples are common. The standard arrangement gives an aft master stateroom with double berth and private head, a V-berth double forward, and a guest stateroom with upper and lower bunks sharing a head. The Deck Saloon profile raises the deckhouse subtly with wraparound tinted glass, and the saloon spans the full 14-foot beam with an L-shaped dinette to port and nav station to starboard.

Equipment and Common Upgrades

Commonly fitted equipment on the used fleet includes heating, a furling main, bow thruster, radar, AIS and chartplotter. Often seen are inverter, spinnaker, electric winches, autopilot and life raft. A frequent owner upgrade cluster covers power and energy — lithium batteries appear as a less common improvement over the original Varta house bank — while comfort additions such as a watermaker or freezer sit in the occasional-upgrade bracket. The original Selden two-spreader masthead rig with Hood Seafurl and full-batten main is usually intact; simplified solo-handling rigging is an owner-level modification rather than standard.

What to Inspect

The hull is a solid, stringer-reinforced GRP layup to Lloyds-approved specs with a balsa-cored deck sealed by Sikaflex and bolted on a turned flange, so check the deck-to-hull joint and balsa core for any history of moisture. The standard keel is a lead "High Performance Bulb" on a heavily reinforced stub, externally fastened, and the rudder is a foam-filled blade on a stainless stock behind a stainless skeg — both keel-stub and skeg unions deserve close survey. The Volvo MD22 with saildrive sits amidship and is reached from the galley or starboard wetlocker; confirm saildrive seal condition. Fuel and water tanks are fiberglass beneath the saloon sole and should be sounded for integrity.

Availability and Buyer's Takeaway

Typical markets for the Oyster 45 include Antigua and Barbuda, the United Kingdom, Spain, Malaysia and Portugal. For a buyer, the short checklist is: verify the deck core and hull-to-deck bond, survey the bulb-keel stub and skeg-rudder stock, confirm saildrive service history, and assess whether the fitted layout is the more common owner three-cabin version or ex-charter. Expect a well-found example to carry heating, furling main and bow thruster as baseline, with lithium and watermaker as negotiable upgrades.