Paine Apogee 50 Buyer's Guide
The Paine Apogee 50 is a small-series Chuck Paine design built by Able Marine beginning in the mid-1990s. For a buyer scanning the used market, the boat presents as a purpose-built offshore cruiser with a low pilothouse profile rather than a conventional charter-style interior, and the limited production means each example repays individual inspection. Most surviving boats trace to the original series and reflect heavy offshore use.
Layouts on the Used Market
The interior is open and voluminous for the length, but the accommodation count is deliberately minimal: a large forward owner’s cabin intended for in-port use and a smaller quarter cabin for at-sea sleeping, served by a single large head aft near the companionway. A watertight bulkhead separates a forward storage garage — holding spare sails, a dinghy, lines, and ground tackle — from the owner’s stateroom, while a second watertight bulkhead with a custom door boxes in the machinery space. The pilothouse itself offers two seats out of the weather, chart stowage, and the primary instrumentation, with a lowered cockpit sole preserving headroom under a low deck.
Equipment and Common Upgrades
Boats on the brokerage market commonly carry a robust offshore inventory. Liferaft, EPIRB, AIS, radar, and Starlink are commonly fitted, alongside autopilot, chartplotter, and B&G-style performance instrumentation carried in the pilothouse. Power and energy systems frequently include lithium batteries, inverter, solar panels, and a watermaker, with a small Kubota diesel driving a large alternator and the watermaker pump directly on at least one well-documented example. For canvas and sail handling, a permanent Bimini with rigid frame, hard dodger, electric winch, and furling main are commonly fitted, and teak decks and short-handed setups appear commonly as well. Navigation and comfort commonly extend to heating, air conditioning, freezer, and often-seen hot water and cockpit shower. Less common owner upgrades include gennaker and dinghy davits.
What to Inspect
The twin masthead-stay arrangement is the central rigging caveat: with two stays each carrying roughly half the load, adequate headstay tension for heavy-air upwind sailing is impossible, and using the outer furler headsail requires rolling it most of the way to tack because of the narrow slot between stays anchor. Because the pilothouse cockpit sits low, the companionway boards at the lower level anchor must stay installed through foul weather to close off the hatchway to the main deck. The fin keel, exposed prop, and spade rudder geometry is inherently prone to line capture, so confirm the presence and condition of any line deflector and shaft cutters.
Availability and Buyer's Takeaway
These yachts are typically found in the United States. For a buyer, the checklist is short and pointed:
- Verify watertight bulkheads forward and aft are intact and doors seal
- Confirm drogue padeyes and liferaft launch hatch function in the sugar scoop
- Inspect twin-stay rig for adequate tensioning hardware despite known limitation
- Check solar, lithium, and watermaker systems for brokerage-common upgrades
- Confirm electric winch and furling gear for short-handed sail handling
Price & volume trends
Monthly asking-price and listing-volume trends for the Paine Apogee 50. The line shows the median ask each month; the bars show how many listings appeared.
Monthly breakdown · 6 rows
| Month | Listings | Median ask | Δ vs. last mo. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 25 | 1 | $370,000 | — |
| Oct 25 | 2 | $336,500 | -9.1% |
| Jan 26 | 4 | $379,500 | +12.8% |
| Apr 26 | 2 | $360,000 | -5.1% |
| May 26 | 1 | $344,000 | -4.4% |
| Aug 26 | 1 | $344,000 | 0.0% |
Where they're listed
Paine Apogee 50 listings appear across 1 country. United States has the most listings with 8.
Country view
8 listings · 1 country| Country | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $352,000 | 8 | 1 | 100.0% |
Comparable models
Similar length, displacement, and era. Open a row to compare that model's market page.
Similar boats to compare
8 similar designs| Model | LOA | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amel 50 | 54.13' | $ 1,029,246 | 52 | 18 |
| Hylas 54 | 54.08' | $ 495,000 | 44 | 21 |
| Hinckley Yachts Sou'wester 51 | 51.16' | $ 514,000 | 26 | 8 |
| X-Yachts XP 50 | 51.08' | $ 592,935 | 15 | 8 |
| Shannon 50 | 50.92' | $ 175,000 | 11 | 1 |
| Sweden Yachts 50 | 50' | $ 247,401 | 11 | 2 |
| Sabre 452 | 45.17' | $ 260,000 | 9 | 2 |
| Able Apogee 50You are here | — | $ 352,000 | 8 | 1 |