Design and Construction
Ho Hsing F.R.P. Co. Ltd. built both the hull and deck in solid fiberglass. The boat’s 37-foot-7-inch LOA and 12-foot-1-inch beam give her a length-to-beam ratio of 3.10. She displaces 20,000 pounds and carries 8,300 pounds of lead ballast, for a ballast ratio of 42 percent.
Her displacement-to-length ratio of 279 places the design in the “heavy cruisers” category, giving her the mass and stability profile of a boat intended for sustained passages rather than light-air sprinting. A capsize screening value of 1.78 and motion comfort ratio of 33.1 further reinforce that bluewater-oriented character.
Loaded draft ranges from 5.51 to 5.81 feet, depending on condition. That’s shallow enough to clear most marina entrances.
Rig and Handling
The Island 38’s masthead sloop rig carries 681 square feet of sail area on the ISO reference rig. This produces a sail-area-to-displacement ratio of 14.8, rising to 17.7 with a 135 percent genoa. Yachtdatabase’s review notes that she has more rig than only 42 percent of comparable sailboats, indicating that she is slightly underrigged.
Wetted surface is about 419 square feet, and the theoretical hull speed for a displacement hull of this length is 7.6 knots.
The standing and running rigging dimensions are fully specified. The three halyards—for the mainsail, jib/genoa, and spinnaker—are each 108 feet long and 1/2 inch in diameter. The sheets range from 37.6-foot jib/genoa sheets to a 93.9-foot mainsheet, all at 0.55-inch diameter. Shorter 1/2-inch control lines serve the cunningham, kicking strap, and clew outhaul.
Machinery, Tankage, and Accommodations
The specification block lists a single 42-horsepower diesel driving one shaft, along with 80 gallons of diesel capacity and 110 gallons of water. The immersion rate is about 1,340 pounds per inch of sinkage, indicating how the boat sits in the water as those tanks fill or empty.
The available material doesn’t describe the number of berths, head layout, or galley plan.
Verdict
The Nantucket Island 38 is a conservatively rigged, heavily ballasted Taiwan-built cruiser from the early 1980s. Her design emphasizes stability and passagemaking rather than speed. The known specifications are thorough on the hull, rig, and tankage but silent on the interior and service history, which is typical of the undocumented used fleet.
Pros
- Solid-fiberglass hull and deck from a known Taiwan yard
- Heavy-cruiser displacement and a 42 percent ballast ratio for offshore stability
- Full rigging specifications documented for original-equipment reference
- Loaded draft shallow enough for most marina access
Cons
- Slightly underrigged relative to peer sailboats
- No interior arrangement or service history described in the available sources
