There’s a conversation happening in the sailing world that doesn’t always make the headlines. While catamarans have dominated the spotlight for the better part of a decade, something interesting is unfolding on the monohull side of the dock.
Demand is strong. Charter weeks are filling up. And the boats themselves? They bear almost no resemblance to what most people picture when they hear the word “monohull.”
How are things changing? Here are just a few examples of what we’re talking about:
- Fold-down transoms with a sink and grill built right in – this really extends the usable space on any boat compared to just a few years ago
- Large side windows that flood the saloon with natural light
- Beam pushed further forward to create interior volume that would make most NYC apartments blush
- An experience at anchor that more than one person in our world has described, unprompted, as catamaran-esque
- Add a generator, air conditioning, and a water maker as standard expectations rather than upgrades, and the picture shifts considerably
If you haven’t seriously looked at a modern sailing monohull lately, this post is for you. We recently sat down with Jay Pennington, USA Operations Base Director at our partner company Waypoints Yacht Charters, to get a ground-level view of what’s actually happening in the monohull market.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Jay has spent years running charter bases in the US Virgin Islands and overseeing operations across Waypoints’ Caribbean and East Coast fleets. He has seen more monohulls come and go than most people in the industry, and what he’s seeing right now is telling.
“In the case of monohulls, we still have high demand,” Jay told us. “Both entry-level boats for people who are just learning to sail and just got out of sailing school, and old school sailors who want to sail. This past season, all the monohulls at our Caribbean bases in St. Thomas and Tortola did 16, 17, 18 weeks of charter per season.”
In St. Thomas specifically, Jay noted that historically the fleet would see monohulls achieve anywhere from 17 to 22 weeks, with entry-level boats in the 39-to-41-foot range sometimes reaching 22 or 23 weeks. That kind of booking consistency is a real signal that there’s a segment of the sailing public that actively prefers a monohull experience, and that segment isn’t shrinking.
“Some people prefer that tranquility,” Jay explained, “as opposed to motoring from beach bar to beach bar on a big cat.”
A Different Boat Than You’re Imagining
Here’s what comes up in consultations when monohulls enter the conversation: people are picturing a boat they sailed 10 or 15 years ago. Dark below decks, small portlights, a grill hanging off one rail eating up a third of the cockpit. That boat doesn’t exist anymore, at least not in any current Dufour model.
Jay put it plainly: “If the last time you were on a monohull was 10 or 15 years ago when you got out of ASA and you were on a 39-foot boat that had maybe dockside air and an icebox, it’s a whole different world when you jump on a new boat that’s 40 or 45 feet with a generator, air conditioning, and a water maker.”
The transformation goes well beyond systems. Dufour’s current lineup has pushed the beam further forward, dramatically increasing interior volume, and wrapped it in large side windows that flood the saloon with natural light.
Jay described his old Beneteau from the 90s (“you couldn’t see outside from down below”) and contrasted it with what you find stepping aboard a modern Dufour: airy, open, with a feel he called, with some amusement, “catamaran-esque when you’re at anchor.”
The cockpit has been reimagined too. Dufour’s folding transom opens onto a proper swim platform complete with a sink and grill, leaving the entire cockpit free for guests. Headroom is up. Ventilation is better. It’s a fundamentally different experience from what the monohull’s reputation might suggest.
“People who haven’t been on one in a few years who’ve been doing catamarans might still be interested in mono. They should go take a look at one at a boat show or come charter one for a week,” Jay said. “You might be surprised.”
The Price Reality: What to Do About It
It would be incomplete to talk about today’s monohull market without acknowledging the pricing environment.
Boat prices across the board, not just monohulls, have outpaced inflation over the last six to eight years.
Jay traced the arc clearly: hurricane seasons that wiped out large portions of the Caribbean fleet, a COVID-era surge in demand for outdoor recreation, petroleum cost increases that flow directly into fiberglass construction, and labor pressures that have compounded steadily. Each factor added another step to prices that moved up incrementally and didn’t come back down.
The silver lining? Monohulls remain significantly less expensive than a comparable-size catamaran. For buyers who want to enter the market at a meaningful size, that gap matters.
And for those looking to make ownership work financially, our Business Yacht Ownership® approach deserves serious consideration. Jay outlined how it functions through Waypoints’ management program: “For the right individuals, the combination of charter income and potentially tax savings can help offset a substantial part of the cost of the boat. It can have a major impact on what the ultimate after-tax dollar cost of a boat is to an owner.”
Those potential benefits vary by location. Caribbean bases tend to generate the strongest charter revenue, followed closely by the Bahamas, with seasonal opportunities at East Coast bases like Annapolis and Newport rounding out the picture.
None of this is a guarantee, and we always recommend working with an independent financial advisor to understand how a Business Yacht Ownership® structure may apply to your specific situation. But the framework is real, and we’ve seen it make a meaningful difference for owners across our fleet.
More Than a Financial Strategy
What Jay emphasized, and what we see reflected in our own clients’ experiences, is that the Business Yacht Ownership® model offers something beyond potential cost offset: it gives you a professionally managed, well-maintained boat that’s ready when you are.
“Most people that can afford these boats, unless they’re fully retired, don’t have the time to maintain them and use them enough to justify the full cost of ownership,” Jay noted. “Being able to get on an airplane and get to the Caribbean, step onto a boat that’s professionally maintained, that’s clean, that everything for the most part is working. Beds are made, things are good to go. You go sailing with your family for a week or two. You throw us back the keys and go back to your business or your job.”
He contrasted that with the alternative: a boat sitting in a marina, used four or five times a year, “growing grass on the bottom” while not earning anything extra. The management model solves for that. And over the course of a five-year charter program, owners typically accumulate 12 to 16 weeks of personal time on the water — time that builds real familiarity with the boat’s systems, its feel underway, and what they’ll want to add before they eventually take it cruising on their own terms.
That’s not a small thing. It’s essentially a funded apprenticeship in your own yacht.
Boats Available Now
One more development worth knowing: the long wait times that defined the market a few years ago have largely eased. During the peak demand years, ordering a new boat sometimes meant waiting 18 to 24 months. That’s no longer the reality.
Jay confirmed that across the Dufour lineup, virtually every model under 50 feet (the range best suited for bareboat charter) is available for delivery this calendar year. Several boats are already in stock and could move into service immediately. For owners who want to place a boat in an East Coast base like Annapolis for summer and then deliver it to the Caribbean ahead of the winter charter season, that timeline works cleanly.
“We have availability on almost everything we sell in a really reasonable timeline,” Jay told us. “If there’s an upside to the current selling market, it’s that you don’t have to defer gratification.”
Ready to Take a Closer Look?
The monohull story in 2026 is one of genuine evolution: in design, in ownership structure, and in market opportunity. If you’re a lifelong sailor reconsidering an old assumption, or someone newer to yacht ownership still mapping out the options, we’d welcome the conversation.
Call us at 844.567.3087, explore our current Dufour inventory, or ask about Business Yacht Ownership® to learn how the ownership model works in practice. Our team is here to help you figure out if this is the right moment, and the right boat, for you
