By Rich

Hinckley has taken our baby out of the shed and put on her new name graphics! The rig is set to be stepped in the next week or so. We couldn’t be more excited as we draft a list of items to drive up for the move aboard in the third week of June.

By Rich

We are gearing up up for our late June arrival in Maine to start the 2023 summer season aboard our new baby: Sabre 38 MKII #12, Blue Moon! First on my short list of gear to upgrade: her ground tackle! She came with a 35lb CQR anchor, 75 feet of chain, and 150′ of brand new rode. Not bad, but for ground tackle I won’t settle for less than the absolute best I can get! We LOVE to be at anchor and enjoy it all the more if we can feel snug and secure in big winds.

The majority of Sabres born during Blue Moon’s era were delivered with CQR anchors, so hers is likely original. Our Sabre 42 came with a 45lb CQR, so I have a lot of experience with this design. Today the CQR is considered something of an antique compared to more modern designs like the Rocna, although I think the armchair internet “experts” often exaggerate the differences in performance between various anchor designs. To hear the online pundits tell it, CQR users should run for a marina if the forecast exceeds 10 knots of wind, while Skip Novak is happy to ride out a gale with his:

By Rich

I finally bought a Sabre 38 MKII, the boat I decided was my ideal all the way back in 1994 while I was still in college. The story of how and why I chose the 38 MKII – and why haven’t owned one before now – begins over a decade before that, in the early 1980s, before the Sabre 38 MKII had even been designed.

When I was a small child, my parents bought our first family boat – a brand new Pearson 36 which was newly delivered in the early / mid 1970s. She was later traded in for a new Pearson 40 my parents had built in 1979. The 36 was a very nice sailing boat and very stylish, but not ruggedly constructed. The Pearson 40 was also marketed as a raceable cruiser, but my parents were sold on the promise of its expanded open-ocean capabilities. Unfortunately the blue water sales pitch exceeded the boat’s capabilities, as we discovered the hard way.

By Rich

By Rich

The paperwork just got finalized. She’s ours! Hinckley is getting to work taking the rig down so she can be tucked away indoors for the winter.

By Rich

...deep fin keel! Just like the ones they used to make … “

By Rich

We love the name Riesling but we’d really like to make Hull #12 our own with our own name. What did we decide on, you ask?

Complete this sentence: a boat this perfect only comes along once in a …

By Rich

Here she is! A 1988 Sabre 38 MK II hull #12. New Yanmar engine, electronics, hatches, portholes and plumbing. Deep draft fin keel. Recent sails. Stored indoors at Hinckley over the Maine winters for the last 10 years and 100% Hinckley maintained and refurbished. The stars have aligned for us! Full details on her listing here.

By Rich

Tuesday I took a one-day dive bomb trip to Maine (traveling Monday and Wednesday to and from) to sea trial the Sabre 38 we have a contract on. We are waiting on the surveyor’s list of recommendations but generally the trial went well. I don’t want to jinx anything by revealing exactly which boat she is so I will just tease with some photos showing some of my favorite design elements of the boat until everything is finalized. Based on the way she handled during the test sail in only 4 knots of wind, I will say this: a deep draft Sabre 38 MKII will be my next boat either way – let’s see if it all works out and this one is my next true love!