# Hughes Sailboats



## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Has anyone heard of a Hughes sailboat. We have seen one listed in our local paper, a Hughes 38. Any help?


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## Guest (Jul 11, 2001)

I owned a Hughes quarter tonner back in the 1970''s and I am reasonably familiar with Hughes as a company. Hughes was a small Canadian boat builder started in the 1960''s. They originally produced a line of boat designed by founder Howard Hughes (not that Howard Hughes) Later they were bought by US Steel and the linbe was retooled as Hughes Northstar. The Hughes Northstar boats were designed by Sparkman and Stevens and included a whole line of interesting and reasonably well built boats. I thought the boats were nicely detailed and well thought out. 

Most of the Northstar boats were designed to be early IOR era racer cruisers which had both good and bad design features but being biased toward being race boats they became obsolete pretty quickly. 

At some point US Steel left the company and the boats were retooled toward a more cruising oriented bias. This also was a mixed blessing as the weights of the boats went up and sailing abilities went down. 

There were several boats that might be listed as Hughes 38''s so it is hard to comment on the specific boat that you are looking at other than to say that in general Hughes built substantially better constructed boats than was the average. One of the Hughes 38 models actually shared the hull design with the Hinckley Competition 38 and the glass and gelcoat work was so good at Hughes that Hinckley chose to have Hughes actually so the hull and deck laminations. 

Good luck,
Jeff


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## wherever (May 7, 2001)

I Have been living and sailing solo aboard my hughes 31''. I have travelled the great lakes, East coast and bahamas in almost every weather condition imaginable and couldn''t be happier with the boats design. before purchasing her last year I looked at several of these boats, there is an ongoing abundance of them in southern Ontario.one area to look at before purchasing one of these is the cabin top as many have a plywood core wich often become soft due to deck leaks. An article on the refit of a Hughes 31'' can also be found in a recent cruising world magazine, I think March,april or may. also "Fatty Goodlander" who cruises his hughes31 wrights regularily for cruising world magazine.Hope this information is of some help


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## wherever (May 7, 2001)

please pardon my eror, both the article in cruising world and fattie''s boat are hughes 38''s not hughes 31''s.


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## Pub911 (Oct 25, 2007)

*I own a Hughes 38 aka NorthStar 38*

And I love it. I use it for coastal cruising. Great for 2-12 people depending on the day. I have 7 years of experience with the boat. Reply if you have specific questions.


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## T37Chef (Oct 9, 2006)

Pub911 said:


> And I love it. I use it for coastal cruising. Great for 2-12 people depending on the day. I have 7 years of experience with the boat. Reply if you have specific questions.


Oh no dude...your gonna get your hand slapped for this...you'll see


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## Johnrb (Sep 21, 2002)

I can hear the hall monitor coming, carrying his big ruler.


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## sailortjk1 (Dec 20, 2005)

The Dog is gonna bite your head off!


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## SailorMitch (Nov 18, 2005)

Who can read those initial posts through all the cobwebs anyway?????


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## Pub911 (Oct 25, 2007)

Yikes, didn't see the date. My humblest apologies to the powers that be. Suffer the newbe.


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## lebara (Feb 4, 2008)

*Hughes 31 and 38*

I own a Hughes 31 and have sailed her for the past six years. This is a solid boat and has pulled me through difficult sailing conditions. My wife and I sail her in just about any codition and that is saying a lot since neither she or I are long time sailors. Our boat has a OMC saildrive, a much discussed topic on pros and cons of this type of motor, and has never let us down when we needed it. When I bought this boat a marine mechanic said " its a two stoke what can possibley go wrong with it". He was right.

The Hughes 31 impressed us so much that we are now planning on buying a Hughes 38. Our grandchildren are getting bigger and we need more room. We had the 38 surveyed and and the result was very positive. The boat is in need of some cosmetic clean up in the interior but is otherwise sound and solid. It has a Volvo Penta diesel saidrive. I like the saidrive system due to its simplicity. No long shafts to bend and seals to leak.

The Hughes line of boats appear to be a good buy. They are solidly built and are affordable. The Hughes 31 we own (for sale now) and 38 we are buying are both 1980 vitage but in many respects are sturdier then some of the new boats.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Anybody know anything about a Hughes 29.5 foot sailboat?


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

Roy-

You're really better off starting a separate thread on the boat you're asking about.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

*Hugh's sail shape*

This is our second year with a 31 foot hugh's and starting racing for the first time last year. The sail shape is lousy. It seems to "bag and wrinkle" and no amount of 
adjusting flattens it out. Does anyone have any suggestions? We would like to come in another position other thean dead last every race.


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## Jeff_H (Feb 26, 2000)

Get new sails sounds like step one.... But other than that there were several Hughes that were 31 feet. The IOR derived is marginally suited to racing under PHRF, the 31 footer that was previously produced by Columbia would be pretty hard boat to race competatively. 

Jeff


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## pirateaaron (May 29, 2009)

Set your sails up for heavy breeze(Halyard,outhaul and vang on pretty good) if you cant flatten your sail with your controls on.. the sail is cooked. It is possible that it may not even be the right sail for the boat, someone may have just found a deal on a sail that was close to the right size and slapped it on.
Also if you like the Hughes you should check out a Hughes 38. You can get some nice ones for a very reasonable price.The boat was Sparkman Stevens designed and would make a much better racing boat than the 31.


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## L124C (Oct 4, 2007)

I don't get all the posts from #6 through #10. I'm looking at a Hughes 38 in 2011 and would have been interested in any post or info, even if posted back in 2000. What do I not understand?


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## longjonsilver (Oct 18, 2014)

did you ever buy the hughes 38?


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## longjonsilver (Oct 18, 2014)

there is a Hughes 38 for sale in Sackets Harbor in NY. Ive noticed some interesting details in the description.

"Additional Information
Trim Tab with control at Wheel"

AND

"Sails & Rigging
Rod Rigging"

i thot that only the Hinckley version had the trim tab. Perhaps some Hughes 38s had them as well? Or perhaps this is a trim tab on the rudder?

Anyone hear of a Hughes 38 with ROD rigging?

jon


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## bljones (Oct 13, 2008)

longjonsilver said:


> there is a Hughes 38 for sale in Sackets Harbor in NY. Ive noticed some interesting details in the description.
> 
> "Additional Information
> Trim Tab with control at Wheel"
> ...


Many of the early Hughes 38s had a trim tab.










the rod rigging wouldn't surprise me. the boat's old enough to have been rerigged at some point in the past.

It looks to be in good shape.


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## krisscross (Feb 22, 2013)

longjonsilver said:


> Or perhaps this is a trim tab on the rudder?


That is the more likely case, IMO. Trim tab on the rudder with control on the wheel.


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## longjonsilver (Oct 18, 2014)

thats the boat
thanks
jon


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## miatapaul (Dec 15, 2006)

krisscross said:


> That is the more likely case, IMO. Trim tab on the rudder with control on the wheel.


actually the trim tab is on the back of the fin keel. I looked at a Cal 36 that had one (it had a small tiller to control it). It made the back of the keel act as a second rudder. It was to beat a rule and I believe the rules were adjusted quickly and they were dropped. You can see it on the back of the keel in this drawing (Hinkley 38, but same hull, out of the same mold)










I would not be surprised if most of them are corroded solid by now after all they are almost 50 years old and by all accounts were of little value.


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## Jeff_H (Feb 26, 2000)

miatapaul said:


> actually the trim tab is on the back of the fin keel. I looked at a Cal 36 that had one (it had a small tiller to control it). It made the back of the keel act as a second rudder. It was to beat a rule and I believe the rules were adjusted quickly and they were dropped. You can see it on the back of the keel in this drawing (Hinkley 38, but same hull, out of the same mold)
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The Hinkley version came into being when a small syndicate from Manhasset Bay decided to have around a dozen built. It was the same syndicate which had the Hinckley pilot and Bermuda 40 designed and built, and many of the survivors also were involved in developing the Brewer 12.8. Within that syndicate were people like Richard DuMoulin and Harrold Oldak, both of whom were involved in the America's cup of that era. Oldak was involved in developing some of the early rod rigging fittings used on America's cup boats. He had used rod rigging on his Pilot 35.

The trim tabs were very effective in enough wind. Set properly they basically created lift and just about eliminated leeway. It was very eirie to sail next to one as it would seem to be moving sidewards upwind. It wasn't of course, but compared to your boat's leeway it appeared that way.

They also allowed some balancing of the helm, but it came at the price of increased drag and so really was only used in a decent breeze.

Jeff


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## longjonsilver (Oct 18, 2014)

here is a photo of the Hinckley Competition 38. the trim tab can be seen just forward of the jack stand in the last photo.
1970 Hinckley 38 Sail Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com


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## longjonsilver (Oct 18, 2014)

Jeff_H said:


> The trim tabs were very effective in enough wind. Set properly they basically created lift and just about eliminated leeway. It was very eirie to sail next to one as it would seem to be moving sidewards upwind. It wasn't of course, but compared to your boat's leeway it appeared that way.
> 
> They also allowed some balancing of the helm, but it came at the price of increased drag and so really was only used in a decent breeze.
> Jeff


Two things: It seems that the trim tabs are like a flap on an airplane wing; they create lift AND drag. Perhaps the trim tab should be set at a smaller angle in light air than in heavy air; less lift but also less drag. Thots?

Secondly, on a, say, starboard tack, should the trim tab wheel be set to starboard or port? Im guessing trim tab on port on starboard tack, but i really dunno.

jon


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## Cappy joe (Dec 6, 2014)

My first boat was a Hughes 25 -a pretty decent classic style little boat. I traded it, along with you much money for a newer style boat with "wheel" steeering, interior teak, and poor quality. When the new smell wore off, I was at once in want of my old Hughes -tiller and all!

Cheers


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## SloopJonB (Jun 6, 2011)

longjonsilver said:


> here is a photo of the Hinckley Competition 38. the trim tab can be seen just forward of the jack stand in the last photo.
> 1970 Hinckley 38 Sail Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com


I have a pretty good opinion of Hughes boats but Yowza! none of them, even heavily customized, ever looked remotely like that.

P.S. keel trim tabs are a stupid complexity for little more than a theoretical benefit. Banning them or penalizing them out of existence was a very wise move on the part of the powers that be (or were).


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## Faster (Sep 13, 2005)

SloopJonB said:


> I have a pretty good opinion of Hughes boats but Yowza! none of them, even heavily customized, ever looked remotely like that.


That's no Hughes, that's a Hinckley ! Pretty boat, nice interior...


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## SloopJonB (Jun 6, 2011)

Yeah, but isn't that one of the ones built on Hughes mouldings?


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## longjonsilver (Oct 18, 2014)

SloopJonB said:


> Yeah, but isn't that one of the ones built on Hughes mouldings?


yessiree


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