Hallberg-Rassy 352

The Hallberg-Rassy 352 is a 10.54 m centre-cockpit cruiser built in Ellös, Sweden, from 1978 to 1991, with 802 hulls completed. Olle Enderlein drew the hull and Christoph Rassy the deck and interior. It was the first 35-footer to combine a below-deck walk-through to an aft cabin with the yard's signature windscreen and conservative lines, and it became a substantial sales success that defined the Hallberg-Rassy formula for the following decades.

The 352 arrived in 1978 as the Enderlein–Rassy partnership's replacement for the aft-cockpit Rasmus and Monsun designs. It was progressively improved rather than relaunched: the deck was raised twice (around 1980 and 1986) to gain headroom, the Volvo Penta MD21 gave way to the turbocharged 2003T in late 1984, the galley and companionway ladder were reworked in 1984–85, and larger hatches and skylights appeared around 1986. Production ended in 1991 when the Frers-designed HR 36 took over the slot.

The hull is hand-laid solid GRP with glassed-in longitudinal stringers and an iron ballast keel moulded in and fully encapsulated. The keel is a long fin with a cutaway forefoot, and the rudder hangs on a full-depth skeg with a 40 mm bronze stock. The deck is a 25 mm PVC-cored sandwich, joined to the hull by overlapping laminate, with a laid teak deck. The masthead sloop rig came from Seldén in single-spreader standard and double-spreader tall versions; the 1987 standard specification lists a 25 m² mainsail and 27.5 m² working jib, with a 39 m² genoa on the Scandinavia package.

From forward: a gas and chain locker, a two-berth forecabin, a passage with two hanging lockers to starboard and a large heads with a shower-stall sole to port, then a saloon with an L-shaped settee and straight settee (both 2 m berths) and a U-shaped galley aft. The walk-through past the engine on the starboard side leads to a two-berth aft cabin with its own hanging locker and escape hatch. Headroom is 1.89 m in the saloon on later boats.

The 352 was never sold as a Mk I / Mk II: the builder's own archive describes a single model 'progressively improved over its years in build', and the hull mould was unchanged, so the catalog treats it as one model and lists the tall rig, cutter rig and hardtop as options. A buyer should nevertheless read the year: post-1986 boats have the second deck raise, the bigger hatches and the 2003T engine, and late boats are almost all tall rig. The hardtop boats with the deeper cockpit are the one variant that changes the layout (no walk-through), but so few were built that they do not warrant a separate model.

Yachting Monthly quoted a £45,000–£85,000 range, with price tracking year and rig. Check the deck-to-hull teak, hatch and window seals, the age and condition of the standing rigging (8 mm wire, 5/8 in rigging screws), and whether the engine is the earlier MD21B or the later 2003T. Later boats have more headroom, better galleys and larger hatches; standard-rig early boats are noticeably slower in light air.