2008 Chantier Wauquiez centurion 40s — USA

A 2008 Wauquiez Centurion 40S in the USA, asking $149,000 through Matt Malatich, CPYB. The Centurion line is what Wauquiez of northern France staked its name on — performance cruisers built heavier and finished better than the production yards attempt — and the 40S is Berret-Racoupeau's drawing of the brief: 40.5 ft on 12.6 ft of beam, vacuum-infused hull, deep keel, balanced spade rudder. Practical Sailor's verdict on the type: fast, comfortable, well constructed — and happier on coastal runs and short offshore passages than mid-ocean.

Two notes. We hold no sister ship, so whether $149,000 is keen for a Centurion 40S has no benchmark on our shelf. And the listing says 2008 against the 2003–2007 run we record for the model — likely a late hull sold as a model year, but ask the broker rather than assume.

What the shelf does place is the premium. The mid-2000s production cruisers around this length ask $90,000–$100,000, so the Wauquiez carries a $49,000–$59,000 premium — money that buys build, not length. That trade runs right through our monohull shelf; the model's market record is on its model page.

If speed is the half of the brief you actually want, the 2006 Pogo 40 at Marseille is the undiluted version — a first-generation Class40, two years older, $24,800 less:

Where the question is what the money looks like without the yard premium, the 2004 Hunter 41 Deck Salon at Hilton Head Island is the same length for $59,105 less:

And if the build-first argument is the one that lands, the ladder continues up — the 2001 Hylas 49 in Grenada, nine more feet of hand-finished bluewater boat, at $349,000:

But if the middle path is the point — fast enough to race, built to keep, priced under the ladder above it — this is the one to survey first: