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Seastream Sailboats

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

Model ↕Listings ↓Year Built ↕LOA (ft) ↕Beam (ft) ↕Draft (ft) ↕Disp. (lbs) ↕Hull ↕Designer ↕Rig ↕Keel ↕
Seastream 347 for sale197834 ft11 ft6.23 ft15,000 lbsMonohullIan AndersonKetchFin
Seastream 431 for sale198143.63 ft14.11 ft6.23 ft31,526 lbsMonohullIan AndersonCutterFin

Seastream sailboats: a design line built by a rotating cast of yards, then by one

Seastream traces back to a single designer's series rather than a single production line. Ian Anderson began the SeaStream range in 1978, drawing ketch-rigged cruisers that, for most of the brand's history, were not built under one roof: independent GRP yards around the English south coast laid up the early Mark I and Mark II hulls to his plans, and only from the mid-1990s did the operation consolidate into an in-house yard at Falmouth, working under Anderson's direct supervision. A 2001 change of ownership then reshaped the brand again, adding a lightweight, carbon-and-epoxy Performance range alongside the existing heavy-displacement Classic boats - a new direction cut short within a few years when its owner died before the flagship of that range was finished.

Origins and ownership

Ian Anderson was born in Shepton Mallett, Somerset, and served a three-year apprenticeship with yacht designer Fred Parker in Poole, working on top R.O.R.C.-rules racing yachts; Parker himself recommended that Anderson spend time at Camper and Nicholsons in Southampton to broaden his experience. Anderson then took a job as yard manager for George Hurley in Richmond Walk, Plymouth, building Silhouette-class sailboats, and the pair went on to build a range of Hurley yachts that grew in size through the 20, 22, 24 and 30. While working for Philips and Sons the shipbuilders in Dartmouth, Anderson designed the Felicity as a Silhouette replacement - reportedly drawn on a piece of plywood laid across his bed at the Boatel in Dartmouth - and around 300 were built. Leaving Hurley, Anderson went on to design and build the SeaStream series himself, beginning in 1978.

Seastream stayed under Anderson's own management until 2001, when British entrepreneur Chris Matthews acquired the Falmouth-based boatbuilder. Matthews's investment brought a new sales office in Southampton and the purchase of a Palma-based telecommunications business alongside the expanded Performance range, but his tenure was brief: Matthews died in a helicopter crash just before the completion of the Seastream 650, the range's flagship, halting a planned second hull. By 2004, the Somerset County Gazette reported that Penryn-based Seastream International - the corporate identity built up under Matthews's ownership, distinct from Anderson's original 1978 design line - described itself as having a twelve-year history of sailing-boat construction and employed 15 people at modernised production facilities on the Kernick Industrial Estate in Penryn.

The designers

Anderson remained Seastream's core designer throughout, but the Performance range brought in outside partners. Yachting Monthly reported that the Seastream 520 and 650 were developed with Ed Dubois, with Dick Young joining the Dubois-Anderson team to draw a distinctive interior for the 650; on the 650 specifically, the Somerset County Gazette credited the hull design to Dubois Naval Architects and the interior layout and fittings to Dick Young Design. Ian Anderson died on 15 March 2013.

Construction through the eras

Anderson's approach to Seastream put build quality before profit, and the Owners Association credits his fastidious nature for a standard of best practice it calls rarely matched by yards today. For most of the run, that quality came from subcontractors rather than an Anderson-owned yard: Mark I and Mark II hulls came out of independent builders including Wilson Manning on the Hamble, Southern Boatbuilding Company in Woolston - where joinery was sometimes finished by Rival Yachts - Solent Shipyard on the Itchen, and Camus Marine near Oban. Only from the mid-1990s did later Mark III hulls move to being built and completed in-house at Falmouth under Anderson's direct supervision, rather than being farmed out to those outside yards. The 2001 Performance range marked a further construction shift, moving Seastream into light hulls built in epoxy materials using carbon fibre - a different build method from the Classic range's original glassfibre construction.

Lines and generations

Seastream's early production settled into 34-foot and 43-foot models, which the Owners Association credits with good seakeeping ability and extremely high build quality. The line grew during the Falmouth, in-house era: the Owners Association's fleet register notes that the 465 went into production right after the last Mark III 43 hulls were completed, extending the same construction approach to a larger hull. By 2001, Yachting Monthly described that established Classic range - the 34, 43, 445 and 465 - as standing alongside a new Performance range of 520 and 650 cruiser-racers, unveiled already in-build at the Southampton Boat Show and due for delivery in the summer of 2002; the magazine also reported that Seastream had a yacht of more than 65 feet on the drawing board at the time, envisioned as a first step toward the superyacht market. Only one Performance-range flagship was ever finished: the Seastream 650 Manatea, conceived as a competitor to production yachts from Oyster and Swan, was left incomplete when Matthews died, then finished by Oyster Yachts in 2005 - after which Oyster destroyed the mould, leaving Manatea the only Seastream 650 ever built.

Who Seastream is for

Seastream suits a buyer drawn to a design pedigree that predates the yard's brand consistency: a single designer's cruising line, refined over more than two decades, whose early hulls carry the individual character of whichever independent yard happened to build them, and whose later Falmouth-built Mark III hulls offer more uniform construction under Anderson's own eye. That range has also earned a reputation for distance work - sailboat-cruising.com reports that many Seastream 43 owners have sailed the boat across oceans or around the world. The brief Performance-range chapter under Chris Matthews sits apart from that story: with only the 650 ever completed, it represents an aborted direction rather than a buyable line, leaving the Classic range's 34, 43, 445 and 465 as Seastream's real body of work.

Frequently asked questions

01Who designed Seastream sailboats, and when did the line begin?+
Yacht designer Ian Anderson began the SeaStream series in 1978, after a three-year apprenticeship with Fred Parker in Poole working on top R.O.R.C.-rules racing yachts, a spell at Camper and Nicholsons in Southampton that Parker recommended, and years as yard manager for George Hurley building Silhouette-class boats and a Hurley range that grew through the 20, 22, 24 and 30. Anderson designed and built the SeaStream series himself, putting build quality before profit, and remained the brand's designer until his death on 15 March 2013.
02Were all Seastream hulls built by the same yard?+
No. Through the Mark I and Mark II era, roughly the line's first two decades, hulls were laid up by independent subcontracted GRP yards working to Anderson's design, including Wilson Manning on the Hamble, Southern Boatbuilding Company in Woolston, Solent Shipyard on the Itchen, and Camus Marine near Oban. Only from the mid-1990s did later Mark III hulls move to being built and completed in-house at Falmouth, under Anderson's own direct supervision.
03What is the difference between Seastream's Classic and Performance ranges?+
The Classic range - the 34, 43, 445 and 465 - comprised heavy-displacement cruising yachts built to Anderson's original glassfibre approach. The Performance range, launched in 2001 under new owner Chris Matthews, moved Seastream into light hulls built in epoxy materials using carbon fibre, adding the 520 and 650 as cruiser-racers designed with Ed Dubois and, for the 650's interior, Dick Young.
04Who owned Seastream, and how did that change the brand?+
Ian Anderson ran Seastream under his own management from 1978. In 2001, British entrepreneur Chris Matthews acquired the Falmouth-based boatbuilder, opened a new sales office in Southampton, bought a Palma-based telecommunications business, and launched the Performance range alongside Dubois and Anderson. By 2004 the resulting company, Seastream International, described a twelve-year history of sailboat construction and employed 15 people at Penryn's Kernick Industrial Estate - a corporate identity distinct from Anderson's original 1978 design line.
05What happened to the Seastream 650, the Performance range's flagship?+
The 650, named Manatea, was designed by Dubois Naval Architects with an interior by Dick Young Design, and was intended as a competitor production yacht to Oyster and Swan. Owner Chris Matthews died in a helicopter crash just before it was finished, halting a planned second hull; Oyster Yachts completed Manatea in 2005 and then destroyed the mould, leaving it the only Seastream 650 ever built.