Slocum Yachts for Sale

Slocum was a Taiwan built cruising boat rather than a shipyard with a sign over the door. The designs are Stan Huntingford's, the Vancouver naval architect whose Rafiki and Passport hulls came out of the same period, and the boats were laid up at Hai O Yacht Building Corp under the supervision of the American importer Cruising Yachts International. The 43, a heavy canoe stern cutter of about 28,000 pounds on a fin keel and skeg hung rudder, ran from 1981 to 1990 and reached roughly sixty hulls, some of them in pilothouse form. The 37, a refined version of Huntingford's Rafiki 37, came later and only nine were finished. Hulls and decks were hand laid to American Bureau of Shipping scantlings, with cored decks and, on the 37, an Airex cored hull.

Buy the boat, not the badge. There is no company behind the name, no parts counter and no warranty, and there has not been since 1990, so everything hangs on the survey and on what the last three owners spent. The good news for an American buyer is that these were built for the United States market from the start rather than converted to it, so the systems are normally 120 volt 60 hertz and the hardware is what a domestic chandlery stocks, and any Slocum here cleared customs decades ago. Check what every buyer of a Taiwan built cruiser of this vintage checks: water in the deck core, the bedding under the teak, chainplates and their knees, the rudder shoe, and the state of the original tanks and wiring. A well kept 43 is a serious offshore boat for the money. A neglected one is a refit.