2012 Pogo 12.50 — Peakes Boatyard, Trinidad and Tobago

A 2012 Pogo 12.50 lying at Peakes Boatyard in Trinidad, asking $235,000 through yachtsite.com. The model is Finot-Conq's cruising translation of what Pogo Structures had learned building Class40s: 39.96 ft of hull carrying 14.76 ft of beam, weight kept off the boat, the volume pushed aft where a shorthanded ocean racer wants it. It was recognised straight away — European Yacht of the Year 2012, performance-cruiser class. The yard's signature is in the subtractions: plain finish, no teak ballast, speed offered as the comfort.

Two honesty notes. We hold no other 12.50 to price this one against, so we cannot tell you whether $235,000 is keen for a 2012 hull. And the listing gives no condition report and no equipment detail — including which keel it has. The 12.50 was sold with a deep fin or a swing keel, and that choice changes the draft, the cruising ground and the value. Ask that first.

On price it sits high and openly so: the conventional 40-footers of the 2000s on our bluewater shelf ask a fraction of it. You are paying for passage time, and for a hull lying outside the European market where these normally trade — budget delivery either way.

The cheaper door to the same thinking is the 2006 Pogo 40 at Marseille, the racing hull this one was drawn from:

Where the opposite instinct leads is the 2008 Wauquiez Centurion 40S, a foot longer and already in US waters:

And if it is the current generation of the yard you want, the 2019 Pogo 36 at Marina del Rey is newer money:

But if the 12.50 is the boat you actually want, nothing else here does its job — this is the one to survey first: