2003 Corsair 36 — France

A 2003 Corsair 36 lying in France, asking $78,424 through Port Navy Service. Corsair Marine built more than 1,200 folding trimarans out of California from 1984 on — the leader of a two-yard segment it shares with Denmark's Quorning — and the 36, first hulls in 2002, was the biggest Corsair yet: the yard's step from trailerable speedsters toward a genuine cruiser. The signature survived the scaling — foam-sandwich floats on folding beams that swing 25.6 feet of beam inboard in minutes, so an offshore trimaran takes an ordinary monohull berth. This is an early hull, from the model's second year.

On our shelf the price runs the wrong way round: this is the only Corsair 36 we hold, and it undercuts the yard's own boat one size down — the 2002 F31 center cockpit in New Bern asks $86,400, roughly $8,000 more for five fewer feet. Of the ten comparable trimarans we hold, only one asks less. Two honesty notes: the listing has stood 318 days with a single broker, and we hold no condition data — we have not surveyed it, and a 36 at under-F31 money that has not sold in ten months is a boat whose answer is on the survey, not in the ad.

That F31 is the first door to try:

Where the worry is age rather than money, the model's successor answers — a 2008 Corsair 37 at Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône, five years newer, also in France, asking $118,800:

And the other yard in the segment makes its case with a 2010 Dragonfly 35 Ultimate, Quorning's swing-wing take on the same brief at three times this boat's money:

But if it is 36 feet of folding trimaran for less than 31-foot money you are after, everything turns on one survey — this is the one to see first: