Nauticat 33 Motorsailer Guide, Specs and What to Pay

The Nauticat 33, the boat that gave a Finnish yard its name

Search for Nauticat today and you will find a revived company in Latvia, but the story starts with one boat. According to the builder's own history, local sailors asked the Siltala family in 1966 to build a comfortable 10 meter motorsailer with a proper wheelhouse that could cope with the Baltic. Finnish engineer V. Aarnipalo drew the Nauticat 33, and its hull deliberately echoed the sturdy Scandinavian fishing boats that work those waters. Sailboatdata dates the first boats to 1967.

The model was so successful that Siltala later renamed the whole company Nauticat Yachts, in 2005. Sailboatdata counts 1,160 hulls between 1967 and 1996, while Yachting Monthly puts the total at some 1,100 over 31 years. Either way it is one of the most produced motorsailers ever built. In 1997 the yard replaced it with the Nauticat 331, which had a completely new hull and deck. Nauticat Yachts Oy went bankrupt in 2018 and a Latvian group revived the brand in 2022, offering owner support and archive searches for older Nauticats.

Mk I or Mk II, wooden wheelhouse or GRP, long keel or fin

The single most useful thing to know when shopping for a Nauticat 33 for sale is which generation you are looking at. Yachting Monthly breaks the production into clear phases, and the hull number tells you most of what you need.

Rarely were two boats identical, since the yard happily personalized layouts, so treat these as guidelines rather than rules. Later and fin-keeled Mk II boats are the most sought after in the US, partly because they sail noticeably better and partly because there is no wooden superstructure to rot.

• Mk I, hulls 1 to about 440 (before 1977): long shoal-draft encapsulated keel and a wooden wheelhouse.
• The next 59 boats kept the wooden wheelhouse but added the raised poop deck with a second, outside helm.
• Mk II from 1979 (hull numbers 500 onward): all-GRP construction including the wheelhouse.
• From 1982: a deeper fin keel and skeg-hung rudder offered as an alternative to the long keel.
• Late boats: some with a taller mast and a proper molded cockpit on the aft deck.

Life in the wheelhouse and below

The wheelhouse is the reason people buy this boat. A centerline wheel sits ahead of an eye-level instrument console with engine controls at hand, and there are wipers on all forward-facing windows plus a clear hatch overhead for checking mainsail trim. Behind the helm a small table with an L-shaped settee doubles as a dining spot, with a pilot seat opposite. Entry is through sliding side doors, which Yachting Monthly warns make the boat vulnerable if one is left open to breaking water, and getting in from leeward when heeled is awkward because the side decks beside the wheelhouse are narrow.

Down a few steps aft is the owner's cabin with a 2.1 m (6 ft 10 in) offset double and an en suite head and shower on most boats. Forward of the wheelhouse is the dinette-style saloon, a linear galley with a deep sink, tall fridge and gimbaled cooker, then the main head opposite a hanging locker and a forecabin with V-berth or two singles. Headroom is about 6 ft or more, and the 450 liter (about 119 US gallon) water tank lives under the saloon sole. The almost constant beam through two-thirds of the hull gives an interior volume that, in its day, few 33 footers could match.

Sailing a 17,000 lb ketch: what to expect

Be realistic about the sailing. Sailboatdata lists 17,250 lb displacement, 5,150 lb of ballast and 475 sq ft of sail on a masthead ketch rig, a sail area to displacement ratio of just 11.4. Yachting Monthly notes the ballast ratio is only about 29 percent, so the boat is not as stiff as its bulk suggests. The long-keel version feels tender in gusts over 20 knots on a reach and is happier under jib and mizzen alone. It needs a solid Force 4 to really get going, and tacking in light air may mean backing the headsail.

The fin-keel boats from 1982 are stiffer, tack more readily and carry less weather helm thanks to the semi-balanced rudder. Both versions heave to well and track straight. The overall verdict from testers and owners is a solid motorsailer that cruises at around 5 knots under sail, with one Thailand-based owner reporting 5 knots in 15 knots of wind and roughly 7 knots motorsailing at 1,500 rpm with main and mizzen set.

Power usually comes from a 4.1 liter, 90 hp Ford Lehman diesel under the wheelhouse sole, turning a fixed three-blade prop. It accelerates the boat quickly and gives instant steerage, but prop walk and the high windage of the topsides make close-quarters handling a skill to learn, and several owners have fitted bow thrusters. The same owner said the Lehman pushes his boat comfortably at hull speed of about 8 knots.

Tankage, range and the liveaboard upgrades owners make

Fuel capacity varies with the boat's history. One documented 1979 boat and one retrofitted late model both carry two 300 liter stainless tanks, and the latter owner quotes a 600 mile range under power. Do not assume that figure for any boat you view; ask for the actual tank sizes and their age.

Owners of these boats tend to stay for years, and the upgrades they report form a sensible checklist: bow thruster, holding tank, lazyjacks or in-mast and behind-the-mast furling, diesel heating for shoulder seasons, extra house batteries with solar and wind charging, LED lighting and refrigeration improvements. One US owner on Lake St. Clair lists hydraulic steering without feedback and headsail sheets that run up to winches on the wheelhouse roof as the boat's main annoyances.

Where a Nauticat 33 survey earns its fee

Two surveyors interviewed by Yachting Monthly gave a consistent picture. Many Nauticat 33s have suffered osmotic blistering and dry laminate below the waterline. Decks are balsa cored and usually teak covered, and water entering through the teak screw holes rots the core, leaving soft, compressible areas especially at the forward and aft ends of the superstructure. Replacing a teak deck is expensive, so check every plank, the caulking and the fastenings.

The other recurring fault is mast compression. Ben Sutcliffe-Davies reported several boats with inadequate support under the deck-stepped mast, including rotted bulkheads and deck compression of more than 10 mm. Leaking windows can also wreck the internal joinery, and early boats with timber wheelhouses need a careful look for rot. The good news is that the structure is massive, and Nick Vass argues that repowering a Nauticat is often more sensible than refurbishing a lighter yacht.

Buying and running one in the US

Most Nauticat 33s were sold in Europe, so the US market is thin and good boats are scattered across the Great Lakes, New England, the Pacific Northwest and the Chesapeake. Expect to travel, and use a surveyor who knows teak-decked cored boats. A realistic budget for slip, insurance, haul-out, engine service and the steady upkeep of teak and varnish is about $9,000 to $20,000 a year. Add reserve funds for deck work, osmosis treatment or a repower, any one of which can run well into five figures.

The buyer who will love this boat values shelter and comfort over pointing ability: a couple who want to cruise year round in cold or wet climates, live aboard, or motorsail to a schedule. Racers and light-air purists should look elsewhere.