Tartan 37 Buyer's Guide
Shopping the brokerage market for a Tartan 37 means weighing a Sparkman & Stephens cruiser-racer that Tartan Marine built from 1976 to 1989, with 486 hulls produced. The Tim Jackett 37-footers that followed are a different boat entirely. This is a keel-centerboard design that later offered Scheel and deep-fin keels, and the used fleet splits between owner layouts and ex-charter examples that are both out there in number.
Layouts on the Used Market
Owner three-cabin arrangements are the more common used configuration, though two-cabin versions appear as well, and ex-charter boats are a frequent sight. The centerboard pennant routes up through the mast, which required a substantial mast-step beam and keeps the cabin neat below. Early main cabins carried a starboard pilot berth that was dropped by 1986 for shelves, so later hulls feel more open; the forward cabin keeps its own head access and the aft quarterberth converts to a double on most boats.
Equipment and Common Upgrades
Chartplotter, autopilot, dodger, and bimini are commonly fitted and form the baseline you can expect on a presented boat. A step up the equipment ladder often seen includes solar, inverter, lithium batteries, and hot water, with air conditioning, radar, and heating also frequent; spinnaker and AIS fall in that same often-seen group. Asymmetric spinnakers are a less common owner upgrade. For a buyer, the power-and-energy cluster—solar, inverter, lithium—speaks to a boat already set for anchoring out, while canvas and sail-handling gear like dodger and bimini matter more for comfort than passage-making potential.
What to Inspect
The balsa-cored deck is the known weak point and prone to water damage that can be costly to repair, so sound every flat surface and look for discoloration at fasteners. A number of boats show indifferent toerail bedding from the builder, a direct leak path into that core. Scuppers lack closures and sit high, above the waterline, a flooding route worth closing off when underway. The icebox tops were left uninsulated and poorly fit, and the engine box was only partially insulated—neither is structural, but both tell you how the boat was finished.
Availability and Buyer's Takeaway
These boats turn up in the United States, Panama, and Australia. For a shopper, the checklist is short: confirm keel type and centerboard operation, probe the deck and toerail for core wetness, verify scupper shutoffs, and check the louvered forward door and icebox top. A well-kept example with the inboard genoa track is the one to target.
Price & volume trends
Monthly asking-price and listing-volume trends for the Tartan 37. The line shows the median ask each month; the bars show how many listings appeared.
Monthly breakdown · 18 rows
| Month | Listings | Median ask | Δ vs. last mo. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 25 | 1 | $37,000 | — |
| Mar 25 | 1 | $29,500 | -20.3% |
| Apr 25 | 1 | $35,000 | +18.6% |
| Jun 25 | 1 | $27,900 | -20.3% |
| Jul 25 | 4 | $56,200 | +101.4% |
| Aug 25 | 4 | $45,950 | -18.2% |
| Sep 25 | 11 | $59,500 | +29.5% |
| Oct 25 | 5 | $55,000 | -7.6% |
| Nov 25 | 1 | $81,500 | +48.2% |
| Dec 25 | 2 | $34,900 | -57.2% |
| Jan 26 | 3 | $29,950 | -14.2% |
| Feb 26 | 4 | $32,900 | +9.8% |
| Mar 26 | 2 | $22,000 | -33.1% |
| Apr 26 | 14 | $54,750 | +148.9% |
| May 26 | 4 | $35,500 | -35.2% |
| Jun 26 | 9 | $34,500 | -2.8% |
| Jul 26 | 6 | $48,950 | +41.9% |
| Aug 26 | 12 | $46,000 | -6.0% |
Where they're listed
Tartan 37 listings appear across 3 countries. United States has the most listings with 69 (97.2%), followed by Australia and Panama.
Country view
71 listings · 3 countries| Country | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $47,000 | 69 | 23 | 97.2% |
| Australia | $214,476 | 1 | 1 | 1.4% |
| Panama | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 1.4% |
Comparable models
Similar length, displacement, and era. Open a row to compare that model's market page.
Similar boats to compare
9 similar designs| Model | LOA | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tartan 37You are here | — | $ 47,000 | 73 | 27 |
| Tayana 37 | 36.67' | $ 52,900 | 73 | 13 |
| Hunter 37 | 37' | $ 19,900 | 22 | 6 |
| Pacific Seacraft Crealock 37 | 36.92' | $ 67,786 | 17 | 6 |
| Moody 37 | 37' | $ 66,301 | 17 | 1 |
| Sunbeam 37 | 37.57' | $ 150,321 | 13 | 3 |
| Tartan 42 | 42' | $ 89,000 | 13 | 11 |
| Gulfstar 37 | 37' | $ 21,000 | 11 | 3 |
| Swan 37 | 36.5' | $ 80,205 | 6 | 2 |