Sovereign 18 (Sovereign 5.0 Meter)

Description

The Sovereign 18 is an American trailerable sailboat designed as a compact daysailer and pocket cruiser, suitable for solo or family use on small lakes, bays, or coastal waters. It features a fiberglass monohull with a fin keel and transom-hung rudder for stable, responsive handling, a narrow beam for easy trailering, and a fractional sloop rig for light-air performance and simplicity. The design prioritizes portability with a low displacement/length ratio for quick acceleration and a moderate ballast ratio for stiffness in gusts, though it's slightly underpowered in heavier winds. The Sovereign 18 was designed by the Sovereign Design Group and built starting in the early 1980s by Custom Fiberglass Products (later Coastline Marine) in the United States. It emerged during the trailerable sailboat boom of the 1980s, as a slightly larger sibling to the Sovereign 17, targeting beginners and recreational sailors with its lightweight, easy-to-launch construction. Production was low volume (exact numbers unknown, estimated <200 units), ending in the early 1990s. The hull shares tooling with related models like the Sovereign 17 and Adventurer 17, emphasizing affordability and fun in protected waters. The Sovereign 18 and Sovereign 5.0 Meter are the same sailboat. The Sovereign 18 is the imperial designation (18 ft LOA), while the Sovereign 5.0 Meter is its metric equivalent (approximately 5.18 m LOA, often rounded to 5.0 m in marketing). This dual naming was common for export models during the 1980s trailerable sailboat boom, with identical hull, rig, and specs.