Downeast
Downeast yachts for sale
The New England boat: a lobster-boat hull with a soft entry, a warm deckhouse and enough sheer to look right on a mooring in Padanaram.
Downeast boats come from the Maine lobster boat: a fine entry that parts a head sea instead of slamming into it, a long waterline, a single level from the cockpit through the deckhouse, and a semi-displacement hull that will cruise economically in the high teens or push into the high twenties when you ask it to.
They are the most New England kind of boat there is, and that is not only a matter of looks. The layout suits the way people actually use a boat here — a run out to the Vineyard for lunch, a couple of nights aboard in Cuttyhunk or Newport, a shoulder-season day in October when an open boat would be miserable. The deckhouse is heated, the visibility is good, and the boat is quiet at cruise.
Most are single or twin diesel inboards, which means an engine room rather than outboards on a bracket: more space aboard, longer service intervals, more involved maintenance. Sizes that make sense for one couple start around 32 feet and the type runs well past 50.
Who it suits
- Cruising New England, where weather and shoulder seasons are the point.
- Couples — these are boats two people can run without help.
- Owners who want to be inside and warm, not under a T-top.
- Anyone who cares what the boat looks like on its mooring.
Where we work
Where they belong
This is the type most at home in the waters Guard Yacht Group works — Marion, Mattapoisett, Woods Hole and Newport in the summer, and an easy Intracoastal passage south if you want to keep using it.
Builders
The yards we know in this class
The downeast yards Guard Yacht Group knows and works with. They differ more than the shared silhouette suggests — jet drive versus shaft, cored composite versus cold-moulded, single versus twin — and which one is right depends mostly on where you keep the boat.
Common questions
What people ask before they buy
- What is a downeast boat?
- A downeast boat is a cruising powerboat drawn from the Maine lobster boat: a sharp, fine bow, a low sheer running aft, a single-level deckhouse and cockpit, and a semi-displacement hull. The result is a boat that rides softly head-to-sea, cruises efficiently in the high teens to low twenties, and is comfortable in the cool, short-chop conditions of New England.
- Are downeast boats good in rough water?
- In the conditions they are designed for, yes — a fine entry and weight forward make them notably soft and dry going into a head sea, which is what Buzzards Bay and Nantucket Sound serve up most afternoons. They are not deep-V offshore boats; in a big following sea a semi-displacement hull wants a lighter hand than a planing hull does.
- Can a downeast yacht be used in Florida as well as New England?
- Easily, and a lot of them are. The shallow draft and modest air draft suit the Intracoastal Waterway, and an enclosed, air-conditioned deckhouse is as welcome in a Florida August as it is in a Massachusetts October. Guard Yacht Group works both ends of that run.