Hinckley 35 or 38 -- any thoughts?

[RAGNAR]

Hello,

We're thinking of buying either a Hinckley 35 or 38 (sloops.)

Does anyone have any thoughts that could guide our choice?

A little about us to fine tune the discussion:

-- We live in the NY Metro area (we'd move anywhere within Metro to make owning and/or working on the boat easier/less costly.)

-- We understand and love the differences between these designs and more modern vessels.

-- We appreciate the advantages and disadvantages of buying a well cared for boat.

-- We're handy, but understand that there are projects that are best left to the pros.

-- We tend to hold on to things for a looong time -- probably because we buy with a "form and function are one" mentality, love learning about and executing maitenance and upgrade work, and research everything to death.

-- We do want offshore capability in our next vessel but, let's face it, taking months off at a time isn't something the two of us can do regularly -- not yet!

Our thanks in advance.

RAGNAR

[camaraderie]

Ragnar...I'm not sure what it is you want advice on since you have said you appreciate the differences on a lot of stuff. So at the risk of covering stuff you know...
1. I'd go for the 38. Designed to stand up to weather better and more space. 6ft. draft should not be much of an issue in LI sound and environs.

2. I would personally advise you to get one from the 60's before they used a fully cored hull. Yes...all their boats are well built but as JeffH has pointed out, FRP does age and get more brittle over long times and 40 year old boats with cored hulls would worry me.

3. You should carefully have the engine checked out. We have two friends that purchased older Hinckleys and had significant engine problems hich were quite costly to resolve. Hopefully you'll find one where re-powering has be done in the not to distant past.

Welcome aboard and good luck with the hunt!

[paulk]

I've heard that the 38 is actually a reasonably quick sailer, and would certainly offer more cruising comfort in the cabin. There's a Pilot 35 in our harbor - nice, but a bit shy on space below.

[RAGNAR]

Thank you both.

Camaraderie, I apprerciate your FRP point -- shame, but facts are facts.

paulk, less space in that 35 than a Contessa 32?

RAGNAR

[RAGNAR]

I just got off the phone with the great people at Hinckley.

Apparently, there have been delamination issues with the 38s, but they're no big deal. (As an example of the lack of severity, I was told that recently, an independent surveyor advised a recent buyer to ignore the delamination on his boat. Like the precious owner, who held on to the boat for 20+ years, the new owner has chosen to let things be.)

Repairing the 38's delamination, it usually affects three areas, costs about $5K plus paint (~$15K, total.)

For the record: All 28 38s were cored.

I was also told that a pristine 38 was about to be listed on the Hinckley Brokerage site, so eyes up.

As for me:

Upon hearing that I was considering a 38, a friend put the June 2004 issue of Yachting World in my hands. (The issue features a piece on the B40.)

After some research, it's looking like I'll be postponing purchasing unit l can swing a B40 MkIII sloop.

My thanks to all who have helped Re this issue.

[Jeff_H]

I guess I need to ask are you buying a boat to sail or to look at. Boats like the Hinckley Pilot and Bermuda 40 are beautiful boats to look at but miserable boats to sail in any kind of objective way. They were wet, rolly and slow, and compared to better designs of that era, next to useless in light air and a pain in the butt in heavy going. Assuming that you are not looking at an restored and updated version, even the build and hardware quality, while very good for that era, was not all that great on any objective basis. Accomodations were small as compared to designs even of that era, no less boats of later periods.

By the Hinchley 38 I assume that you are refering to the late 1960's early 1970's Hinckley Competition 38, which was an S&S designed 38 footer. The hulls and decks were actually built by Hughes Boatworks in Canada and the boats finished at Hinckley. (Hughes also built a version of the boat marketed under thier name as well) I am really surprised that the Hinckley version has a cored hull. That would have been very early for a cored hull and I don't think that the Hughes version was cored. Hughes was using some foam coring in the decks around that time (I had a Hughes Northstar quarter tonner from that period which if I remember correctly had foam cored decks.) Anyway, the Competition 38 was a much nicer boat to sail and a much more versitile design than either of the other two boats. Still not worth the absurd sums that they want for these boats, but still much better boats than the other two. One word of caution on the Comp 38 is that they were originally built with a trim tab (second rudder) on the trailing edge of the keel and on the one that I knew best, this proved problematic.

With all due respect, I would suggest that you actually get out and sail on these boats yourself so that you get a sense of how they sail. I would also suggest that you try to get out sailing on some of the higher quality boats from the next couple generations such as a Wauquiez 38, Little Harbor 38, Baltic 39, Swan 391 or even a Palmer Johnson 40. I think that you will find the sailing ability of these boats and their ease of handling to be a revelation, and the price a real bargain.

Respectfully,
Jeff

[Cruisingdad]

Boy Jeff, tell us how you really feel. That is one of the rare occasions I have seen you slam a boat.

Crap. I was going to trade in my Catalina 400 for one too. Guess I better stick with the 400. (Smile).

- CD

[petmac]

Jeff,
The Pilot is a great sailor.They love to go to weather and are very seakindly.I have owned mine for 10 years. She was the first Pilot to have a carbon fiber spar.We've raced her with success and cruised her extensively. Yes they lack in space,but they are very comfortable.They are also beautiful boats. I am reluctently selling mine at this point in time because I have bought a B40 Mark III sloop. She is the dinette model and we plan to take her on an extended cruise south in the near future.
Cheers,
Peter M
PS Hughes did not make the Hinckley 38 hull and deck. I was told this by a fellow who worked in the Hinckley glass shop in the early 1970's.

[Sailormann]

My thoughts ? Hinckley ?? I'm jealous !! Can't think much past that ....

[petmac]

Sailormann..a displaced maritimer. Where are you from. I'm a maritimer as well.I went down the road as well but returned home almost twenty two years ago.