Ocean 38

hey Chuckles
my dad bought a 1989 ocean 38 5 years ago and we have used it for cruising and fishing around the southern caribbean. The boat is powered by 3208 cats 375 hp and the cruising speed is 18 knots with a top end of about 23 knots
the boat serves this purpose very well. here are a few pros and cons about the boat.
pros:
-great interior layout and well finished woodwork
-good engine room layout, with decent access to most parts of the engines
- good fuel economy, on a 150 mile trip in rough seas while cruising at 16-17kts burned only 180 gallons
- average head sea ride in big seas, once you slow down to less than 18 knots, having fished alot on a 37 bertram I could honestly say the headsea ride was not that much worse than the bertram in big seas, lets just say if you wouldnt go out in the ocean 38 you probably wont want to be out in the bertram 37

negatives

-plenty exterior teak which requires some maintenance
- following sea ride is not the best
-cockpit hatches tend to leak a bit
- trim tabs were a bit undersized, resulting in the boat running bow high. after we fitted custom trim tabs on the transom the headsea ride greatly improved

hope this helps and good luck with your decision

G Max

thanks berean, the teak removal process was fairly straight forward and then we just put a layer of glass and resin over the fiberglass deck to fill in the screw holes, then to finish the job they just applied the required primers and then the non skid coating paint. we also remade the deck hatches with a hinged down the center instead of one big hatch to make taking stuff out the starage compartments and fishboxes easier