Symbol Yachts for Sale

Symbol was founded in 1982 by Jimmy Cheng, an experienced builder, at Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan, and made its name by going the other way from its neighbors: while the Taiwanese yards were building sailboats and slow trawlers for export, Symbol built semi displacement planing hulls, the first production builder on the island to do so. The line ran roughly 39 to 90 feet across Classic, Sundeck, Pilothouse, Trawler and Motoryacht series, most of it semi custom, and from 1998 Jack W. Sarin, the Seattle naval architect behind a great deal of Pacific Northwest motor yacht design, became the yard's exclusive designer. Boats from the Sarin period onward are the ones most often praised, the 50 and 56 pilothouse and raised pilothouse in particular, which give a full walkaround interior and a helm with real sightlines on a hull that will cruise rather than plod.

These are Taiwanese boats built largely for American owners, so the specification is usually already right for here: 120 and 240 volt 60 hertz electrics, American engines and hardware sourced for the US market. Confirm it on the individual boat rather than assuming, because Symbol also sold into Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong, and a boat imported from any of those may be 50 hertz. What a survey has to find is the wood. Taiwanese yards of this era used a lot of teak and a lot of plywood in places that never see daylight, so check the decks for soft spots and core saturation, the stringers and engine beds for rot, window and hatch frames for leaks, and the tanks, which on older Taiwan boats are the item most likely to be finished. Exterior teak is beautiful and is a permanent bill. We could not confirm that the yard is still building, and the brand has never had a real service presence in Florida, so plan on independent support: any competent yard here can work on a Symbol and the parts are generic rather than proprietary, but there is nobody to call about a warranty.