With modest displacement for its length, the Athena 38 was aimed squarely at comfortable tropical and coastal cruising rather than offshore racing.
Design and Construction
The hulls are molded from a multifoam core-fiberglass-resin structure. Foam in the stern, transom, and forward areas makes the boat unsinkable.
Perry’s design review identified the sculpting at the hull-and-deck intersection as the design’s most interesting feature. The sheerline tucks inward with a large, soft radius before stepping up to the true deck level. At the swim steps, the hulls end in another highly sculpted detail.
Below the waterline, low-aspect, 3-foot-deep keels are paired with nonstructural, sacrificial components intended for accidental grounding. Bridgedeck clearance appears to be 28 inches, a critical dimension for the boat’s behavior in a seaway.
Rig, Sailing, and Motoring
The Athena 38 carries a fractional sloop rig on a deck-stepped Z-Spar mast extrusion. Its total sail area is 914 square feet, divided between a full-batten mainsail and genoa. The large, roached main measures 538 square feet and runs on recirculating ball-bearing cars. On the tested boat, the mainsheet led to a self-tailing Lewmar 44 winch, while an 11½-foot, double-ended traveler sat just aft of the cockpit. A ProFurl headsail-furling system handled the foretriangle.
Test sailors reported that the Athena 38 jumped to 10 knots on a beam reach across the Hauraki Gulf and tacked at close to 40 degrees.
Under power, twin 18-horsepower Yanmar saildrives drove fixed two-blade propellers. On flat water, they pushed the boat to 7½ knots at 2,600 rpm, while burning roughly four-tenths of a gallon per hour.
Accommodations
The accommodation plan is symmetrical. Four double-berth staterooms occupy the ends of the hulls, with each hull’s forward and aft cabins separated amidships by a head and shower. There is one head per hull.
The saloon spans roughly 13 feet and has average headroom of more than six feet. A pedestal-mounted, four-foot table seats six to eight, and a large horseshoe dinette and U-shaped galley define the central living area. The galley counters, however, have no fiddles.
The galley includes a two-burner, nongimbaled stove and oven beneath an opening hatch, along with a wedge-shaped, top-opening icebox. An 80-gallon fresh-water supply serves the telephone-booth-style shower.
In the hulls, average headroom is 6 feet 3 inches, increasing to 6 feet 4 inches in the master cabins. Berths measure roughly 4 feet 9 inches by 6 feet 6 inches.
Cockpit and Deck
The cockpit is a full 10 feet wide, with a 20-inch wheel mounted at the starboard bulkhead. On the tested boat, an anchor locker windlass was positioned in line with the mast.
The Athena 38 measures 38 feet 1 inch overall and has a beam of 20 feet 8 inches, giving it a length-to-beam ratio of 1.84. That beamy proportion favors living space over slender hull lines. Period reviewers also noted that the boat lay quietly at anchor, which they considered a virtue of its hull form and bridgedeck arrangement.
Verdict
The Athena 38 is a thoughtfully detailed cruising catamaran that trades racing edge for volume, comfort, and forgiving handling in a grounding. The Flahault interior and Joubert-Nivelt hull shaping make it a plausible choice for a couple or family cruising shallow waters. Its unsinkable construction and sacrificial components may also soften the consequences of a mistake or contact with a reef.
Pros
- Unsinkable, foam-filled hulls with sacrificial components for grounding
- Symmetrical four-cabin layout, with one head per hull and generous headroom throughout
- Wide, sociable cockpit and saloon, with seating for six to eight
- Quiet at anchor and economical under power at modest diesel rpm
Cons
- Galley counters lack fiddles, a drawback in any seaway
- Bridgedeck clearance of 28 inches invites pounding in short, steep seas
- Nongimbaled stove limits cooking comfort when heeled or underway
