Review of Nauticat 38
Basic specs.
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Both the hull and the deck is made of hand laid fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of hand laid fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season.
The interior is like many other boats made of mahogany. Mahogany belongs to the hardwood species, known for being water-repellent and resistant to decay. It has an attractive wood grain and holds wood polish and varnish well.
The boat is equipped with 4 cabins, 7 berths, a galley, 450.0 liter fresh water capacity and toilet facility.
The Nauticat 38 is equipped with a ketch rig. A ketch rig is generally considered easier to handle, because the sails are smaller, and because it can sail on most points to the wind with one sail completely taken down for repair or while reefing. The sail configuration of a ketch allows for better comfort and stability when sailing downwind or on a broad reach.
Full keel
The Nauticat 38 is equipped with a long keel. A full keel provide a better directional stability than a similar boat with a fin keel; on the other hand, better directional stability means also that the boat is more difficult to handle in a harbour with less space.
The keel is made of iron. Many people prefer lead keel in favour of iron. The main argument is that lead is much heavier than iron and a lead keel can therefore be made smaller which again result in less wet surface, i.e. less drag. In fact iron is quite heavy, just 30% less heavy than lead, so the advantage of a lead keel is often overstated.
The boat can only enter major marinas as the draft is about 1.80 - 1.90 meter (5.91 - 6.21 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.
Nauticat 38 may be equipped with an inboard Ford Marine diesel engine at 80 hp (59 kW). The speed is 9.0 knots.
The transmission is a shaft drive. A shaft drive will in the long run require less maintenance than other types of drive e.g. a sail drive.
The fuel tank, which is made of stainless steel, has a capacity of 600.0 liters (158 US gallons, 131 imperial gallons).
Sailing characteristics
This section covers widely used rules of thumb to describe the sailing characteristics. Please note that even though the calculations are correct, the interpretation of the results might not be valid for extreme boats.
What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?
The capsize screening value for Nauticat 38 is 1.54, indicating that this boat could - if evaluated by this formula alone - be accepted to participate in ocean races.
What is Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed?
The theoretical maximal speed of a displacement boat of this length is 7.4 knots. The term "Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed" is widely used even though a boat can sail faster. The term shall be interpreted as above the theoretical speed a great additional power is necessary for a small gain in speed.
The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level.
The immersion rate for Nauticat 38 is about 210 kg/cm, alternatively 1179 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 210 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm.
Alternatively, if you load 1179 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.
Sailing statistics
This section is statistical comparison with similar boats of the same category. The basis of the following statistical computations is our unique database with more than 26,000 different boat types and 350,000 data points.
What is Motion Comfort Ratio (MCR)?
The Motion Comfort Ratio for Nauticat 38 is 46.1.
What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?
The l/b ratio for Nauticat 38 is 3.36.
The ballast ratio for Nauticat 38 is 30%.
What is Displacement Length Ratio?
The DL-ratio for Nauticat 38 is 387 which categorizes this boat among 'heavy cruisers'.
Maintenance
When buying anti-fouling bottom paint, it's nice to know how much to buy.
The surface of the wet bottom is about 36m2 (387 ft2).
Based on this, your favourite maritime shop can tell you the quantity you need.
Note: If you use a paint roller you will need more paint than if you use a paintbrush.
If you need to renew parts of your running rig and is not quite sure of the dimensions, you may find the estimates computed below useful.
| Usage | Length | Diameter | ||
| Jib sheet | 11.4 m | (37.5 feet) | 14 mm | (0.55 inch) |
| Genoa sheet | 11.4 m | (37.5 feet) | 14 mm | (0.55 inch) |
| Mainsheet | 28.6 m | (93.7 feet) | 14 mm | (0.55 inch) |
| Spinnaker sheet | 25.1 m | (82.4 feet) | 14 mm | (0.55 inch) |
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