Sailart 18 Buyer's Guide
Shopping the used Sailart 18 means looking at a 5.30 m German-built daysailer produced from 1997 to 2018, a foam-cored trailerboat with a wing keel meant for one to four sailors on inland and coastal water. Its appeal on the brokerage market is the combination of genuine unsinkability and a sporty rig in a package a small car can launch.
Layouts on the Used Market
Every Sailart 18 shares the same core plan: a wide cockpit with outhaul straps for crew weight, a large stern locker under two watertight hatches, and a two-person cabin with an opening-window superstructure. The sleeping surface is 200 by 161 cm measured at shoulder height and carries 79 cm of room over the berth, so the interior is usable for weekending afloat rather than merely a cuddy. Because the builder offered the boat as a single-handed daysailer up to a small-crew regatta variant, used examples differ mainly in deck hardware and sail inventory rather than hull layout.
Equipment and Common Upgrades
The most consequential optional gear centres on propulsion and offwind sail handling. The factory optional drive is a 3 HP electric motor of 9 kg, charged by solar panels built into the boat, which matters for buyers because it removes fuel system worries but depends on panel condition. A carbon-fibre boom was available to strip weight, and the gennaker flying from a fixed nose could be managed by a top-down furler or a retrieval sock, with an optional recovery trumpet for fast stowage. A 25 m² gennaker or 20 m² Code Zero defines the offwind upgrade path; a used boat without one loses much of the design's speed character.
What to Inspect
The unsinkable claim rests on epoxy-foam fill under the forward cockpit and bow plus two buoyancy chambers, so check those chambers and the watertight cockpit hatches for past flooding or repair anchor. The rudder blade sits in a cassette and should lift in one motion; verify it is not cracked or seized. The furling jib system lives below deck in the anchor locker — confirm it operates and the locker seals. With three crew required on the rail to hold a gennaker in 20-knot gusts during testing, inspect the gennaker nose and any top-down furler for load wear anchor. The stainless stern plates take the swim ladder and motor bracket, so look for corrosion or elongation there.
Availability and Buyer's Takeaway
Typical markets for the Sailart 18 are inland as well as coastal waters for 1 to 4 sailors. When viewing a candidate, check: foam buoyancy and hatches intact; rudder cassette free; jib furler below deck serviceable; gennaker hardware and solar-charge motor functioning; cabin windows opening and berth structure sound.
Price & volume trends
Monthly asking-price and listing-volume trends for the Sailart 18. The line shows the median ask each month; the bars show how many listings appeared.
Monthly breakdown · 1 row
| Month | Listings | Median ask | Δ vs. last mo. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 26 | 1 | $12,779 | — |
Where they're listed
Sailart 18 listings appear across 1 country. Germany has the most listings with 1.
Country view
1 listings · 1 country| Country | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | $12,779 | 1 | 1 | 100.0% |
Comparable models
Similar length, displacement, and era. Open a row to compare that model's market page.
Similar boats to compare
3 similar designs| Model | LOA | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swift Craft 18 | 18' | $ 3,785 | 11 | 5 |
| Beneteau First 18 | 18.04' | $ 19,661 | 6 | 3 |
| Sailart 18You are here | — | $ 12,810 | 1 | 1 |