Wylie 38 Sailboats for Sale & Market Overview

The Wylie 38 is a quintessential example of West Coast performance-oriented naval architecture, born from the collaboration between designer Tom Wylie and the specialized composite builders at Westerly Marine Inc. in Southern California. Emerging in the 1980s, the model represents a shift toward the "performance cruiser" ideal, where light displacement and high-tech construction were utilized not just for racing glory, but to enhance the joy of passage-making. The hull was famously laid up using Airex foam cores and fiberglass, often vacuum-bagged—a technique Westerly Marine helped pioneer for production-level yachts. Because these vessels were built by a custom-focused yard, almost no two Wylie 38s are identical; the builder provided a standardized hull and deck, while owners collaborated directly with Wylie Design Group to tailor the interiors and rig configurations to their specific coastal or offshore ambitions.