ShearWater 45 Buyer's Guide
Shopping the brokerage market for a Shearwater 45 means looking at a Dudley Dix-designed, Cape Town-built cruiser that earned Cruising World's top cruising honors in 2001 and was offered in either cutter or staysail schooner rig. These are serious voyaging boats with a mid-engine layout and a traditional wood-accented interior, and the used fleet reflects both the owner and ex-charter sides of that story.
Layouts on the Used Market
Owner three-cabin arrangements are the more common layout seen on the resale market, though two-cabin versions are also available, and ex-charter examples are common. Every version keeps the mid-engine placement with the U-shaped galley above the machinery, so the practical upside of easy maintenance and a safe working galley carries across the fleet regardless of cabin count. Compact sleeping cabins in either layout trade berth room for larger living spaces, a point worth weighing if you cruise with a full crew.
Equipment and Common Upgrades
Teak, air conditioning, and heating are commonly fitted, speaking to the boat's warm-climate liveaboard brief, while inverter, freezer, and autopilot are also commonly found and matter most for off-grid passage life. On power and energy, the commonly fitted inverter and freezer mean a buyer can expect reasonable independence from shore power if the house bank is healthy. For canvas and sail handling, electric winches and an asymmetric spinnaker or spinnaker are commonly fitted, easing short-handed sail changes on a boat whose sail plan runs past 1,100 square feet. Navigation is well covered on most examples with radar, chartplotter, and AIS commonly fitted, giving a modern cockpit picture on a traditionally styled hull.
What to Inspect
The keel is a lead casting bolted to a molded GRP stub that forms a large sump for collection of bilge water, so any survey should confirm the sump and bilge paths are clean and the stub-to-hull bolted keel joint shows no weeping or corrosion. The deck is a balsa-cored GRP sandwich and the hull an Airex-cored sandwich. The mid-engine galley-over-engine layout gives excellent access, so use that access to verify mounts and the bilge sump forward and aft of the machinery.
Availability and Buyer's Takeaway
The Shearwater 45 turns up in the United States and France. For a buyer, the short checklist is: confirm rig choice and whether the schooner's reach-biased performance fits your grounds; verify the keel stub sump and core condition; check that the commonly fitted electrical and navigation gear is functioning; and decide between a more common three-cabin owner boat and a common ex-charter example with heavier use history.
Price & volume trends
Monthly asking-price and listing-volume trends for the ShearWater 45. 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. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 25 | 2 | $189,990 | — |
| Sep 25 | 1 | $179,900 | -5.3% |
| Apr 26 | 2 | $66,421 | -63.1% |
| May 26 | 1 | $189,900 | +185.9% |
| Jun 26 | 3 | $179,900 | -5.3% |
| Aug 26 | 1 | $179,900 | 0.0% |
Where they're listed
ShearWater 45 listings appear across 2 countries. United States has the most listings with 6 (75.0%), followed by France.
Country view
8 listings · 2 countries| Country | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $179,900 | 6 | 4 | 75.0% |
| France | $66,421 | 2 | 0 | 25.0% |
Comparable models
Similar length, displacement, and era. Open a row to compare that model's market page.
Similar boats to compare
5 similar designs| Model | LOA | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outremer 45 | 44.95' | $ 660,000 | 48 | 8 |
| Sweden Yachts 45 | 46.42' | $ 318,811 | 23 | 6 |
| Swan 45 | 45.37' | $ 319,779 | 14 | 1 |
| ShearWater 45You are here | — | $ 179,900 | 8 | 4 |
| Salona 45 | 44.45' | $ 108,008 | 8 | 2 |