Hughes 38 Owner's Updates - Hughes 38 Sailing

Briens H38

Email i received from Brien: The boat’s hull serial number plaque is missing. That is a mystery! I assume it is a 69 or 70 vintage H38-2 or a later North Star. Is there any way to tell? The boat arrived with five sails: 1 x main sail, 1 x main storm sail, 1 x 115% Genoa head sail, 1 x 75% Genoa head sail, 1 x storm head sail and a dinghy.

I stripped most of the dead gelcoat from the hull. The hull became very dry last summer after the gelcoat was removed. I re-surfaced the hull below the waterline with two coats of West System Epoxy mixed with 422 Barrier Coat Additive. I painted the hull with two coats of Interlux Fiberglass Bottomkote. I relaunched her in late August. When she was lifted in the fall the hull below the waterline was still bone dry.

The decks of the boat are truly old and tired. This summer I will resurface the decks with Interlux Primekote to hide thousands of gelcoat spider cracks and then paint with Epifanes 2-part Polyurethane Epoxy. I used Primekoate the same way on my last boat and it is a miracle product for hiding spider cracks in gelcoat! The hull above the water line had been previously painted with a roller. Proper repainting with a gloss finish will have to wait for another year. The boat looked very tired when I bought her but she will sparkle again! The Atomic 4 has an electronic distributor, started immediately and is in fine working order.

I have a 23″ SS Anchor Roller from Kingston Anchors to install so I can mount my 45 lb CQR. I plan to add a 48v system. I bought and paid for 16 LiFeP04 100Ah cells that are on their way from China and should arrive by May.

The way I could acquire such a boat as this h38 was to pay less for an older, unequipped boat and upgrade it a little at a time. Having few choices of boats to look at in the 38′ range, I bought her sight unseen despite a surveyor telling me not to buy it, and I first saw her when she arrived by truck! I knew the risks. I knew I didn’t have a choice. I also knew that I could fix just about anything. One fortunate consequence of buying in 2020 is that the value of this boat may have increased substantially. In 2020, there were 24 pages, or more, of sailboats for sale on Kijiji. Lately I have seen only a page or two of sailboat ads.

B and K who sold the boat to me were very accommodating, very trusting and very considerate. I think I was very very lucky and the boat was not as bad as the surveyor said. Cosmetically, it looked bad but the rigging is flawless and looks almost new. I refinished and repainted the mast. The mast and spreader lights work and the boat even has a hot water heater!

Jon, thank you for your hughes38.com website! I have spent many hours studying and learning from it.

Brien

SV Mayaluga

Yes – she’s the one from the movie “˜Adrift”. She’s quite the pretty little thing, and has had lots of love. Her sails are all tanbark red, and genoa and jib are both hank ons. She has a pretty cool history. A Canadian couple sailed her to Fiji over the years, and the film company scouted her there. After the film she was sold to another guy in Fiji, then to an Aussie in Fiji who then sailed her to Australia amidst the pandemic (he got to quarantine at sea), then exactly a year later we got our hands on her! We’ve got big dreams, so we’ll see how far we get.

Jenna

SV Serena