Irwin 38 mkii

Don S/V ILLusion · Jun 4, 2026

Don’t want to offend Irwin owners but…the best, most knowledgeable and experienced marine surveyor I know refuses to survey Irwins.

shemandr · Jun 4, 2026

I sailed an overnight ocean passage on one in the 90's and we thought it was a pretty good boat. I was not tuned into build quality at that time.
This was a week or so before "The November Hurricane" swept the East Coast. That was also known as the "Perfect Storm." There was a big swell running off LI, with long wave periods. The boat handled the swell with ease. I liked sitting on the aft deck in a folding chair and watching the swells. It felt safe.
If memory serves me the water tank is below the floor boards and the owner had to have a custom tank fabricated - probably out of Monel. He was smarting quite a bit about that. It also needed re-power which is a manageable risk for the OP.

Project_Mayhem · Jun 6, 2026

Irwin 37 Used Boat Review - Practical Sailor

A lot of boat for the money—the Irwin 37 is a comfortable and impressive weekender but lacks sailing performance finesse.

www.practical-sailor.com

"Virtually everyone from whom we elicited information on the Irwin 37 either dismissed as unimportant or derided her performance under sail. She seems a classic example of the all-too-common cruising boat that does everything better than handle as a sailboat."

shemandr · Sunday at 6:15 AM

I wouldn't argue with most of the article's points. But PS clearly doesn't like Irwin. Fine. I think Irwin understood its customers. And that windward performance wasn't important to them.

Project_Mayhem · Sunday at 9:55 AM

shemandr said:
I wouldn't argue with most of the article's points. But PS clearly doesn't like Irwin. Fine. I think Irwin understood its customers. And that windward performance wasn't important to them.

I agree that the author has a bias against Irwins. It's the quality issues that are a bit concerning

dLj · Sunday at 10:49 AM

Well, I wasn't going to add anything in this thread but I may have something to add ... Take it with the proper grain of salt - I only looked at a handful of them.

Back when I was looking at a lot of boats for various reasons, I did look at a number of Irwins. My conclusion at the time was you need to assess the specific boat you are looking at, as you should do with any boat purchase. Some seemed to be pretty decent boats, some had issues that I would advise find another boat. I wouldn't discard looking at an Irwin just based on name, but rather you should look at the specific boat you are looking to buy.

dj