Northern Bay Yachts for Sale

Northern Bay is a hull, not a factory, and that is the first thing to understand about a listing. Spencer Lincoln drew the 36 in the early 1990s for John Hutchins at Downeast Boats and Composites in Penobscot, Maine. Hutchins built 135 of them, a great many of them as hull and deck kits that other yards, and plenty of owners, finished themselves. In 2005 he sold the molds to Stacey Raymond of General Marine at Biddeford, Maine, who still lists the Northern Bay 36 as his largest boat and offers a ten year structural warranty on his own new builds. A separate Northern Bay Boats operation markets a 26, a 38 and a 48.

So two boats of the same length and year can be nothing alike, because the hull came out of one shop and the boat was finished in another. Some hulls are solid glass and some are cored with end grain balsa, and the 38 is offered in polyester or vinylester with a choice of solid laminate or a balsa or Divinycell sandwich, so the layup is a question to ask rather than assume. Before anything else, establish who moulded the hull and who finished the boat, and get that yard's name into the survey brief. A cored hull wants a moisture meter and a surveyor who knows Downeast work.