Beneteau Moorings 38 Sailboat Review, Specs, and Listings

Design and Construction

The Moorings 38 was designed by the naval architecture firm Berret-Racoupeau and draws directly on the First 38s5 hull, a performance-oriented shape beneath its cruising adaptation. The hull itself is a monohull constructed from solid fiberglass, carrying a fin keel and a spade rudder—a combination that favors agility over the absolute tracking stability of a skeg-hung foil. With a length overall of roughly 37.67 ft and a beam of 12.67 ft, the boat is beamy for its length, and its relatively shallow draft of 5.25 ft reflects the charter-market priority of forgiving ground handling in island anchorages. Displacement sits at roughly 14,000 lb, a mass that, paired with the shallow fin, places the design firmly in the cruising cohort rather than the racer-cruiser it descended from.

Rig and Handling

Above the deck, the Moorings 38 features a masthead sloop rig, the conventional cruising configuration that trades the fractional rig's upwind punch for easier shorthanded sailing and a broader range of downwind options. The performance-derived hull gives the boat a more lively sectional shape than a pure cruising bottom, yet the fin keel and 5.25 ft draft keep it manageable in the shallow Caribbean and Mediterranean charter grounds it was built for. The spade rudder contributes to low-speed maneuverability, though it also places the steering load entirely on a single balanced foil rather than sharing it with a skeg.

Accommodations

Inside, the Moorings 38 typically offers a three-cabin, one-head configuration, a layout dictated by the charter brief of sleeping multiple couples with a single shared bathroom. The galley is L-shaped and equipped for multi-day cruises, with refrigeration, a stove/oven, and good storage—a working triangle that remains usable under heel. Headroom of around 6'2" is generous for a 38 ft design and speaks to the volume the beamy hull provides. The deep, protected cockpit offers shelter while underway, an exterior space sized for crew congregating rather than race-crew trim stations.

Known Issues

The available authority material on this model is unusually clean on documented defects: no osmotic blistering, structural cracking, rigging fatigue, or drainage faults are recorded in the surveyed sources. That absence is itself informative—the solid-fiberglass hull and the short production run from 1990 to 1992 mean a small population of roughly eighty boats, and the published record concentrates on specification and layout rather than failure modes. A shopper should still apply normal survey discipline, but the published record does not flag a known systemic weakness for this design.

Refits and Ownership

Ownership of a Moorings 38 means living with a charter-derived boat whose three-cabin plan and L-shaped galley were specified for continuous occupation rather than occasional weekend use. The inboard diesel—typically a 27 to 40 HP Yanmar—and fuel capacity around 40 gallons give a sensible motoring range for a boat of this displacement, and the masthead sloop rig keeps standing rigging replacement straightforward. The short build window and the First 38s5 parentage mean spares and dimensions trace back to a well-documented Beneteau performance generation, even if the Moorings badge itself was a fleet-specific label.

The Verdict

The Beneteau Moorings 38 is a compact, beamy cruiser with a performance hull underneath a charter-friendly interior. Its shallow draft, three-cabin layout, and protected cockpit make it a practical coastal and island cruiser, while the clean documented record and solid fiberglass construction lower the baseline risk for a used purchase.

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