Northshore 38 Sailboats for Sale

Layouts on the Used Market

The original NS38 arrangement places a forward double vee-berth, port dinette, shower/head and galley, starboard navigation station, and an aft quarter berth below, and the absence of a port-side quarter berth allows for a huge cockpit locker. The interior layout of the NS38 has carried over to the Northshore 380, so a used 380 will feel familiar to anyone who has stepped into an earlier boat. A full headliner moulding runs through the cabin with teak strip joining trims, and natural light filters through a forward deck hatch, a head hatch, and two cabin windows; later model boats add a hull prism each side, while the 380 standardises three cabin windows. The cockpit on both NS38 and 380 is large enough to accommodate six people in comfort, and many boats have stern seats on the pushpit for two more. An aft double berth option existed from 1990 until 1995 but only four or five were built, so it is a rare find rather than a standard used-layout feature.

Equipment and Common Upgrades

On the Australian used market, Northshore 38s commonly come fitted with autopilot, hot water, chartplotter, asymmetric spinnaker, electric winches, and dodger, while solar, freezer, and bimini are often seen. Most boats are fitted with hot and cold showers as a baseline. The auxiliary tells the build year: standard power from 1983 to 1986 was a 20hp Bukh with a shaft-mounted folding propeller, upgraded to a Bukh 24hp in 1987, then a Volvo 28hp with shaft or saildrive from 1988 until 1994, and post-1995 NS380s came with Yanmar or Nanni 29hp saildrive engines. Spars come from Yachtspars in Brisbane and are anodised, and most boats have end-boom mainsail sheeting with the traveler just ahead of the wheel, while 380Cs switched to cabin-top mid-boom sheeting. The post-1989 boarding ladder stern can be fitted to any plain-transom NS38 by ordering an infill from the factory, a refit path rather than a market-fitted standard.

What to Inspect

Documented known issues are few but worth a look. NS38s are noted for their resistance to osmosis, and post-1995 boats were sold with a five-year warranty against osmotic blistering; all Sydney Yachting Centre boats have epoxy primer beneath the original anti-fouling, so confirm which camp a candidate falls into. Post-1984 Northshore 38s and 380s are moulded using vinyl ester resin in the first layer or a full vinyl ester lay-up, a point to verify on pre-1985 hulls. The hull to deck moulding join is FRP strapped using 12-ounce cloth from stem to stern, and interior moulds and bulkheads attach with eight-ounce cloth, with all plywood marine grade or structural 'A' — check for undisclosed repair that bypasses these details. Keel bolts, nuts and washers are 316L stainless steel. A shoe fitted to the keel of some boats stiffened them up quite a bit; the taller-rigged boats were somewhat tender in stiff breezes, so assess rig height against intended use.

Availability and Buyer's Takeaway

The typical market for used Northshore 38s is Australia. All 110 Northshore 38s and 380s produced since 1983 are still sailing, so supply is the existing fleet rather than fresh import. For a buyer, the short checklist is: confirm build year against engine and vinyl ester lay-up status; verify osmosis warranty status for post-1995 hulls; inspect the 12-ounce FRP hull-to-deck strap and eight-ounce interior attachment; decide between cruising NS38/380C ease and the experienced-crew NSX38/380 Sports profile; and check whether the aft double berth or post-1989 boarding ladder infill is present or retrofittable.