Tartan 41 Sailboats for Sale

Layouts on the Used Market

The original 41s carried plain, not opulent interiors thoughtfully arranged for racing, with full headroom of 6'2" even in the forward cabin. The bubble-shaped deckhouse spans half the main cabin and provides 6'7" of headroom, while the galley and nav station sit at 6'4". Most boats used plywood with teak veneer on main bulkheads and plywood furniture with plastic laminate and teak trim. Behind the galley and nav station is the "aft state-room," a hole-like space typically used for sail storage when racing, and the quarter-berth compartment resembles a coffin. The original 60-gallon pressure water tank has usually been augmented by now. On most boats the aft end of the deckhouse has an additional opening hatch installed, and the deck layouts follow typical S&S functionality with properly positioned leads and adequately sized winches.

Equipment and Common Upgrades

A dodger and chartplotter are commonly fitted across the used fleet. Often seen additions include spinnaker or asymmetric spinnaker gear, hot water, radar and autopilot. Electric winches are a less common owner upgrade. The boats were originally equipped to the standards of their day with Barient 32 primaries and Barient reel halyard winches, and most have subsequently been updated with new booms and roller furling. The original engine was a 20 hp Westerbeke diesel later changed to a Farymann, with many since replaced by larger engines; the machinery sits directly under the companionway. The original aluminum fuel tank is relatively small at 26 gallons.

What to Inspect

The early small-keel and small-rudder configuration made the boat not the easiest to handle early boats were not the easiest boats to handle, and on a close reach the boat was slightly tender with the rudder hard-pressed to generate sufficient turning moment, particularly in a puff. Several of the earliest boats were re-equipped by S&S with a lead shoe at the bottom of the keel increasing the draught by 6% and the righting moment by 8%; in 1974 S&S designed a new keel fitting the old bolt pattern, 7 inches deeper and 700 pounds heavier, adopted by most of the last 20 boats and retrofitted to earlier ones. Confirm which keel profile is fitted and whether the bolt pattern and structure show modification stress. All boats have some balsa coring with amount varying by build date, and heavy laminations made the boat 3,000 pounds heavier than designed; later boats had hull layup changes to save weight. Most 25-year-old boats show no structural problems, but verify bulkheads and deckhouse additions for water intrusion around the commonly added aft hatch.

Availability and Buyer's Takeaway

The typical market for these boats is the United States. When evaluating a specific example, the short checklist below distills the documented points:

• Identify hull configuration: reverse-transom 41, original 43-foot tooling, or 44 extension
• Verify keel type: early small keel, S&S lead shoe, or 1974 deeper bolt-on pattern
• Inspect balsa coring and bulkhead veneer for delamination given build-date variance
• Check original 26-gallon aluminum fuel tank and companionway-access engine status
• Note aft state-room and quarter-berth practical limits versus cruising needs