Design and Construction
Under Hanseyachts ownership the Dehler 38 line moved away from the older laminated monocoque hull-to-deck joint toward a glued and bolted junction, and the SQ itself is built by vacuum injection with a sandwich laminate using a balsa core and vinyl ester resin anchor. Laminated bulkheads, a GRP floor assembly, and a bonded deck-hull round out the structure. The deck plan tilts a bit toward racing efficiency in the view of one tester, yet the yard's own design group laid out an interior that still reads as a cruiser anchor. Larger hull windows, two extra Perspex wedges in the superstructure, and revised surfaces make the saloon noticeably lighter than earlier iterations, while the main bulkhead and wet-cell partition are finished in Skai with thin transverse-seamed upholstery.
Rig and Handling
The SQ's signature is its squaretop or fathead mainsail, which adds roughly five square metres of area through a diagonal headboard batten and, per ORC measurement reported by YACHT, yields an average 28 seconds per nautical mile over the conventional pinhead rig anchor. To carry that wide head without overloading the rig, the yard widened the spreader angle from 23 to 27 degrees and shifted the jibs 25 centimetres aft, reducing the backstay system so the stern stays are only trim aids rather than structural. The fathead version needs double flying backstays run on 1:2 tackles at the transom, and its forerunners use lever clamps and flip-flop blocks so they can be worked from either the mainsheet or genoa winches. The standard fractional sloop carries a SA/D of 20.85, the square-head option 23.23. A single deep blade rudder and twin wheels give a direct, pleasant helm that builds usable pressure under about 10 knots of true wind, and testers found the boat manageable even single-handed.
Accommodations
Buyers choose between a single quarter cabin to starboard or paired port and starboard aft cabins, the latter requiring passage through the head to reach the port stateroom anchor. Forward is a double berth, with the sleeping area nudged aft to clear space for service batteries beneath. The standard layout omits a nav table in favor of two cabins and a large port-side locker, though a fixed or sliding table option can build a small dinette; alternatively the nav station faces aft to port using the settee as a seat, or it can be deleted for an extra-long settee. Wood finishes run to teak, oak, or mahogany, with acacia, walnut, or striped floors, and the bathroom door can close off the entire wet cell.
Known Issues
The fathead rig's backstay forerunners share deck real estate with the gennaker gear: YACHT noted the clamp lever collides with the block that deflects the loaded gennaker sheet, and the builder was addressing that conflict anchor. On the port side, the aft winches are shown wound counterclockwise against the starboard convention, a detail worth checking against the actual deck when handling systems are assessed.
Refits and Ownership
Standard equipment from the yard includes a folding prop, bowsprit, spring cleats, teak cockpit floor, anchor windlass, 160 Ah AGM batteries, and the folding helmsman footrests — surfaces about 70 by 40 centimetres that fold from the floor-box lids and let the helmsman stand at a 15-to-20 degree angle with little fatigue. The swim ladder, cockpit stowage, and ventilation were all revised on the SQ. Around half of SQ customers to date chose the fathead version, so a used boat's rig should be read as a deliberate choice rather than an outlier.
The Verdict
The Dehler 38 SQ is a considered performance-cruiser step beyond the 2013 Dehler 38, trading some cruising convention for a squaretop rig that genuinely accelerates the hull per ORC data while keeping the beamy, voluminous deck and saloon that make the platform livable. Its construction and layout show a yard thinking about the helmsman, with twin wheels, forward traveler, and folding footrests. The port-quarter access through the head and the gennaker-sheet clash on the fathead rig are the compromises a buyer should weigh.
Pros
- Squaretop mainsail delivers a measured 28 sec/Nm speed gain over the pinhead rig
- Vacuum-infused balsa-core vinyl-ester construction with bonded deck-hull
- Light, well-windowed saloon with flexible nav-station or settee choices
- Twin-wheel, deep-blade helm described as direct and single-handable
Cons
- Two-quarter-cabin layout forces port stateroom access through the head
- Fathead backstay forerunners collide with loaded gennaker sheet deflection block
- Port aft winches shown wound opposite to starboard convention
