Cabo Rico 38 Buyer's Guide, Specs and Market Values

A cruising yacht born in a Costa Rican car plant

Few production sailboats have an origin story like the Cabo Rico 38. John Schofield started building powerboats in a corner of the British Leyland assembly plant near San Jose, Costa Rica, in the 1960s, with the first boats out the door in 1965. By 1971 he had turned to sail with the Tiburon 36 ketch, drawn by Bill Crealock, and in 1977 that design grew into the Cabo Rico 38.

The boat became the backbone of the company for nearly 30 years. Cabo Rico opened a sales office in Fort Lauderdale in 1983, Canadians Fraser and Edi Smith bought the factory and the Florida company in 1987, and the pilothouse version premiered in 1989. Practical Sailor counted about 190 boats around 2001 and noted none had been built in the previous three years, so the total is roughly 190 to 200. The factory closed in 2009 and the Florida company went bankrupt in 2010, so every Cabo Rico 38 for sale today is a brokerage boat.

For pop culture fans, Sonny Crockett is seen aboard a 38-foot Cabo Rico in the pilot episode of Miami Vice, before the series moved him to the Endeavour St. Vitus' Dance. Brokers still mention the pilot in listings, and it is the rare case of a bluewater cutter with a Hollywood credit.

Crealock's lines and the numbers behind them

Crealock drew boats for people who intended to cross oceans: a springy sheer, a long bowsprit, a cutaway forefoot and a full keel carrying the rudder. The hull measures 38 feet, with a 29 foot 3 inch waterline, 11 feet 6 inches of beam and 5 feet of draft, and the bowsprit adds to that at the dock. Published displacement is about 21,000 pounds with 7,800 pounds of ballast.

Practical Sailor calculated a displacement to length ratio of about 375 and a sail area to displacement ratio of 16.3. In plain English, this is a moderately heavy boat with a medium sail plan, built to carry stores and water rather than to win beer can races. Those ratios agree with the 21,000 pound figure, and cruising boats loaded for a passage weigh more again.

That moderate draft is a quiet advantage. Five feet opens up the Bahamas, the Florida Keys and the Chesapeake in a way that most 6-foot offshore boats cannot match.

How the cutter rig behaves at sea

The keel-stepped cutter rig is the heart of the boat's offshore reputation. A staysail on an inner stay gives a small, strong, well-placed sail for heavy air, and the yankee or genoa on the headstay provides the power. With the main reefed and the staysail up, a Cabo Rico 38 stays balanced in conditions that would have a masthead sloop crew wrestling the helm.

Owners in Practical Sailor's survey rated speed as average in light air and fast in stronger wind, and several reported catching boats that were supposed to be quicker once the breeze filled in. The full keel tracks well and the rudder does not stall into uncontrolled round-ups, but it will not point as high as a fin-keel boat and it is slow in light air when fully loaded for cruising.

• Displacement to length ratio around 375
• Sail area to displacement ratio about 16
• Cutter rig with a staysail ideal for heavy weather
• Draft about 5 feet

Iron or lead, teak or nonskid, early or late

Cabo Rico improved the boat steadily, so the year matters. Early boats carry iron ballast and laminates of alternating mat and woven roving. The last 40 to 50 boats switched to lead, poured in seven separate castings and glassed over, and later laminates used 1708 and 1808 fabrics with vinylester resin in the outer layers to resist blisters.

Teak decks were offered for years, then dropped. Practical Sailor noted that the expansion and contraction of teak loosens bungs, letting water into the plywood beneath, and it estimated around $25,000 to repair a rotted core. Late boats with molded fiberglass nonskid avoid the issue entirely. The hull-to-deck joint, bedded in 3M 5200 and through-bolted on 6-inch centers, is rarely a problem.

Early boats also have a few build quirks surveyors know to look for: hard-to-reach stanchion bolts, bulkheads not always fully secured, and through-hulls that were not bonded. Teak cockpit soles screwed into plywood can rot too. None of these are deal breakers, but they belong on the survey list.

Seven layouts, solid teak and a mast through the table

Cabo Rico offered seven accommodation plans for the 38 and would build a custom variation for the right customer, so no two interiors are quite the same. Early brochures show a V-berth forward (or an offset double on Plan B), head and hanging locker, a saloon with settees and a centerline dinette, a U-shaped galley in the port quarter and a double berth to starboard of the companionway. Later plans turn that starboard quarter into a small aft stateroom.

Joinery is all hardwood and plywood, with no fiberglass interior pan, and the sole is solid teak and holly. That gives excellent insulation and lets you reach almost any part of the hull for repairs, which matters to anyone planning to cross oceans. In later boats Cabo Rico moved the engine forward under the galley and dinette, freeing space aft and moving weight toward the middle of the boat. If you find one with that arrangement, it is the better layout.

The one universal compromise is the keel-stepped mast, which passes through the dinette table. It is solid, and you stop noticing it after a week.

Tankage that suits real passages

Practical Sailor lists 65 gallons of fuel and 190 gallons of water, carried in non-integral fiberglass tanks, while sailboatdata.com shows 55 and 150 gallons as original equipment. Either way, water capacity is unusually high for a 38-footer and one reason the boat has such a strong following among long-distance cruisers.

Early boats used the Perkins 4-108, later boats a 56 hp Yanmar, and one owner reported a 70 hp Nissan-built Chrysler diesel. Most early boats have been repowered by now. Check engine mounts, exhaust routing and the shaft log, and look at whether the replacement engine is a good fit for the space before assuming a repower is a plus.

Cabo Rico 34, 42 and the rest of the family

If you are browsing Cabo Rico yachts for sale, you will see other models alongside the 38. The Cabo Rico 34 and 36 are smaller Crealock designs with the same character and lower prices, a good choice for a couple who does not need the 38's extra volume. The 40 and 42 were drawn by Chuck Paine and are a bit more modern under the water. The 45, 47 and 56 sit at the top of the range, and the yard also built Cambria cruiser-racers and Northeast motorsailers.

For most buyers the 38 is the sweet spot. It is common enough that you can compare several boats, small enough to handle as a couple, and large enough to carry the stores and water for an ocean crossing.

Owning a Cabo Rico 38 today

Plan on $8,000 to $18,000 per year for a typical slip, insurance, haul-out, bottom paint and routine maintenance, with more if the boat still carries exterior teak that you pay someone to varnish. Insurers like the build quality but will ask for a recent survey on any boat more than 25 years old.

Cabo Rico 38s have historically held value well. A boat that cost $115,000 new in 1981 was priced at $299,000 base by about 2001, and that steady rise kept early buyers whole. Today the market is thinner, but well-kept examples still sell for strong money because there is nothing quite like them being built anymore.