Endeavour 38 Sailboat Review, Specs, and Listings

Design and Construction

Valentijn shaped the hull with a soft-V forward section flattening into a nearly flat bottom amidships, which he used to widen the keel’s footprint and add stability, while the aft sections remain flat and full with straight diagonals anchor. The keel sections themselves came from systematic testing done on America’s Cup contenders, and the deeper of the two optional keels—5 feet 7 inches against the original 4-foot 11-inch shoal profile—was laid out to sharpen windward performance. The hull is built from GRP around a 3/4-inch Klegecell core, the inner and outer skins at least 1/4 inch solid glass on the bottom, and interior bulkheads glassed in as structural members. A 3/8-inch plate-steel frame sits in the bilge and is heavily bonded with woven roving, while a large steel grid is glassed into the hull and carries the mast compression frame down to the keel. Keel areas, maststep, chainplates, and engine beds were given a special steel structure for stiffness. Endeavour’s chief engineer described the boat as built to last at least 12 to 15 years, though the builder doubted organic materials would survive that long.

Rig and Handling

The sloop rig uses extruded 6061-T6 aluminum spars with anodized coatings, a mast stepped through the cabin top onto the steel grid, and all halyards run internally in pre-stretched jacketed Dacron. Standing rigging attaches to chainplates with adjustable turnbuckles—upper and intermediate shrouds as stainless straps through heavy bulkheads, lowers as tie rods. A high-lift skeg-mounted rudder gives hands-off tracking and ease of steering through a pedestal system with stainless cables and a radial quadrant on a solid stainless post anchor. With a 703-square-foot sloop rig and an I of 51 feet, the aspect ratios were chosen for maximum performance per square foot of canvas; writing in yachtdatabase.com, reviewers rated her as significantly over-rigged relative to peer designs, and a 135-percent genoa lifts the SA/D to about 20.2.

Accommodations

Below, the aft-cockpit layout is wood-built with a teak-and-holly sole over plywood bonded to the steel grid, all subsole wood sealed in polyester. The main cabin places the galley to starboard with a large settee forward, while opposite a double berth tucks under the cockpit with a drawable curtain. The nav station sits just forward of that berth and faces an L-shaped settee around the table. A main bulkhead at the mast carries rigging load and divides the forward head with separate shower stall from the hanging lockers, vanity, and forepeak V-berth. Six berths, 6 feet 4 inches of headroom, 15 screened opening ports, and six deck hatches give the interior light and airflow.

Electrical and Systems

The DC side runs on two parallel 12-volt batteries with color-coded wiring and crimped junctions; AC is 115-volt shore-fed at 30 amps. Below-waterline metal is bonded with green 8-gauge copper to a common ground. Fuel is 30 gallons in aluminum aft, 34 center-cockpit; water is 76 and 70 gallons respectively in two tanks, with a 12-gallon holding capacity split across two. Base power aft was a Yanmar 3-HMF diesel at 30 horsepower, with a 40-horse 3-JHE option, while the center-cockpit base was a 44-horse Yanmar 4-JHE.

The Verdict

The Endeavour 38 is a thoughtfully engineered mid-1980s cruiser: a cored, steel-reinforced hull carrying a large sloop rig on a stable, medium-displacement platform with a practical two-cabin interior. She is more cruiser than racer in light-air speed, but her structure and ballast profile suit extended coastal and offshore work.

Pros