Cabin Cruisers for Sale

Cabin Cruisers: what to know

A boat with a bed in it. A cabin cruiser gives up deck space for a cabin, a head and a galley, which is what turns a day on the water into a weekend away.

What to check before you buy

• Damp is the enemy. Smell the cabin, press the berth cushions and look along the headliner for staining.
• Check that the head works and find out where it discharges. A holding tank that has never been serviced is a job nobody enjoys.
• Test the shore power, the battery charger and the inverter under load, not just switched on.
• On an older boat ask about the fuel tanks. Aluminium tanks under a deck corrode from the outside, and replacing one can mean cutting the deck open.
• Have it surveyed. On a boat this size and age it is the cheapest money in the whole purchase.

Common questions

What is the difference between a cruiser and a yacht?

Size, and how the seller would like it to sound. In practice a cruiser is under about 40 feet and you run it yourself. Above that people start saying yacht.

Can you sleep on a cabin cruiser?

That is the point of one. Most have a v-berth forward and a dinette that converts. A mid-cabin model will sleep four properly rather than at a squeeze.

Are older cruisers a good buy?

They are cheap to buy and expensive to own. Budget for a survey first, then for the systems: fuel, water, electrical and the head. The hull usually outlasts all of them.