The best balanced set of design numbers in the whole search, with the tallest cabin, for under $20K.
Photo: Thunderbird Yacht Sales listing, North Saanich BC (YachtWorld). Editorial/review use — licensing to be confirmed before commercial launch.
Price
$19,314 asking (North Saanich BC, Oct 2026)
Length
42' 3" LOA / 30' 0" LWL
Weight
19,000 lb displacement
Capacity
80 gal fuel / 70 gal water · headroom 6'6" (sailboatdata)
Drive
Inboard diesel (verify on survey)
Best for: A tall sailor who wants a full-keel Vancouver-built offshore boat and can handle a delivery from BC.
The good
Full keel, 42% ballast, Comfort 34, CSF 1.70, SA/D 17: heavy enough to be kind, canvassed enough to move.
Sailboatdata lists headroom at 6.5 ft, the tallest verified figure in the article.
Spencer's 44 and 53 have circumnavigation records; the 42 is the same builder and designer.
The bad
Only 26 built: no owners' forum, no parts bin, and few comparable sales.
It is in British Columbia, so either a coastal delivery or an import.
We could not pull the listing detail page, so condition and engine are unverified.
The honest take
A 42-footer is the top of what we would call comfortable single-handing, but a masthead sloop with a furler and a full keel that steers itself is as easy as 42 feet gets. The numbers are the best here; the unknown is the boat itself. Go see it with a surveyor.
The Pact
We'll always be honest about gear. The good and the bad.
Most reviews you read only tell you what's great about a product. Ours tell you what's wrong with it too — where it fails, who shouldn't buy it, and when the cheaper option is the smarter one.
Every verdict comes from actually fishing the gear, not reading a spec sheet. When we get it wrong, the correction runs as loud as the original take.
The good and the badWe tell you what's wrong with a product, not just what's right.
Real water, real testingVerdicts come from actually fishing it — not a press release.
Argue with usEvery take is open for fire — here, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. We read all of it.
