With an old-world elegance and a sheer line evocative of Crealock’s Westsail 32, the Ingrid measures 37 feet 8 inches on deck and 47 feet overall, including bowsprit and rudder. She’s a substantial cruiser intended for ocean voyaging rather than racing.
Design and Heritage
Atkin’s principal departure from Archer’s original was a better entry on the bow that cushioned her landing off the waves. A long, broad keel and deep V-sections forward help keep her stable in rough conditions.
The ballast is enclosed and dispersed from bow to stern. The Ingrid carries 8,000 pounds of lead within a 26,000-pound hull and draws 5 feet 8 inches. That heavy displacement and ultimate stability come at the familiar cost of speed. She isn’t quick, although she sails admirably in light weather and typically cruises at a steady 6 knots, compared with a hull speed of 7.2.
Enough flotation forward and aft helps keep her dry, while the long-keel hull avoids the pitching motion familiar to sailors of fin-keel boats.
Construction
The hull is hand-laid fibreglass, with overbuilt construction that demonstrates the boat’s seaworthiness, and the Ingrid carries strong outboard chainplates. Below the waterline, the outboard rudder is protected by extra fibreglass and a huge bronze shoe casting in case the boat scrubs the bottom.
Many Ingrid 38s left Blue Water Boats as hull-and-deck kits. They were finished by their owners to a wide range of specifications and layouts, so no two interiors tell quite the same story.
Rig, Performance, and Handling
The ketch rig offers plenty of options on all points of sail, and the Ingrid is simple to sail solo. Writing in OceanWaveSail.Com, the reviewer noted that Atkin described her as the kind of boat that behaves herself in rough water and can be relied on to sail herself.
Owners and reviewers alike report excellent tracking with one finger on the tiller, along with a comfortable ride. Owners state that she can sail at half the wind speed in up to 8 knots of wind. Although she’s no speedster, she comes into her own in rougher seas, where her directional stability and self-steering character matter most.
Accommodations and Machinery
Headroom is a modest 6 feet 0 inches. Because many hulls were owner-finished, the interior arrangement was often personal rather than a standard production layout.
The beam reaches 11 feet 4 inches, giving liveaboard-minded owners room to shape the accommodation as they saw fit. Auxiliary power comes from a Volvo MD2B diesel.
Known Issues
Because many Ingrid 38s were sold as hull-and-deck sets and completed by their owners, the quality and watertightness of the interior joinery, tankage, and through-hull work depend entirely on the individual builder. A buyer examining any particular Ingrid is effectively assessing a one-off fit-out built on a sound production shell.
The Verdict
The Ingrid 38 is a throwback ocean cruiser. Her Archer-derived, double-ended hull and heavy displacement reward sailors who value seaworthiness and self-sufficient motion over speed. She suits the patient voyager rather than the charter-week racer, and her kit-built history means that finding the right example requires careful inspection of the owner-added work.
Pros
- Heavy-displacement bluewater ketch with enclosed, dispersed ballast and stable long-keel behavior
- Excellent self-steering and one-finger tracking; simple to sail solo
- Hand-laid, overbuilt fibreglass hull with a bronze-shoed, protected outboard rudder
Cons
- Not quick; the cruising and hull-speed figures reflect the displacement penalty
- Owner-finished kit boats vary widely in the quality of their joinery and systems
- Modest 6-foot headroom and bespoke interiors complicate comparison shopping
