Boating World Article on 38 Mediterranean
BW StaffFebruary 1, 1992
— Author: BoatingWorld Staff
Every Mediterranean 38 has more than 30 years of boat building expertise built into every hull. By keeping the company small (only four salaried employees), selling direct (no dealers) and building just two boats per month, every boat is the personal product of corporate chairman Dick Valdes and company president John White. “It’s my retirement company,” Valdes said. “We build boats for the pleasure of it and take our time to do it right.” And it shows inside and out, in all the places boat buyers seldom look and where few other price-conscious boat builders even make the effort. Valdes has been building boats since 1958, when he started Columbia Yachts, which grew into the world’s largest builder of sailboats and ultimately was acquired by the conglomerate Whittaker Corp.
In the mid-1970s, he started Lancer Yachts, which was acquired by Bally Corp. In 1985, Valdes joined Mediterranean Yachts president John White, who founded the company that same year. White had been building commercial fishing boats and custom pleasureboats for International Custom Marine since 1973 at the same Santa Ana factory that now houses Mediterranean. With Mediterranean Yacht Corp., Valdes and White say they are in the boat business to enjoy themselves and “to make a living.” The company produces just one model: the twin engine, convertible Mediterranean 38. From this one hull and a list of 135 options, Valdes and company can offer a boat with an enclosed flybridge, half-tower, second stateroom and galley-up configuration, or a number of other versions to customize the basic boat to an owner’s needs.
To purposely deemphasize price as the main reason for buying a Mediterranean 38, the builder’s sales literature urges would-be buyers to compare the quality of the Mediterranean 38 with the toughest competition: Bertram, Hatteras, Viking, Ocean, Phoenix and Tiara. So what is it that Valdes and White are most proud of after building boats for so long? Mainly, it’s finish and detail. Perhaps the best example of the nearly fanatical attention to finish, evident throughout the boat, is the engine room, located in the saloon bilge. Since the boat is constructed with a full length molded fiberglass liner set into the hull, the engine room is a seamless, high-gloss, pearl gray chamber housing two engines painted white and adorned with chromed fittings by Mediterranean. Shiny, aluminized mylar soundproofing covers the overhead and bulkheads, reflecting the gleaming engines and adding to the overall neat-and-clean quality of the space. Finding dirt or spilled oil would be so easy in this space that grime should never be a problem. In the engine room, as throughout the boat, fiberglass moldings are used extensively to house equipment and to create built-in facilities. Battery boxes are molded into the engine room liner and covered with hinged, latching lids. The holding tank is housed in a molded shell provided with a cutout that serves as a sight gauge for the translucent tank. Dams have been molded in the liner beneath the engines to form rounded, easily cleaned drip pans for each engine. Numerous flush inspection and access hatches have been installed in the fiberglass stringers and sections of the liner covering the bilge. Hoses enter and exit the liner through smoothly cut holes, filled and faired with clear silicone sealant. Hoses, tubing and electrical wires neatly line the engine room, and wiring is attached and routed in orderly paths across the overhead.
With the 450 gallon fuel tank athwart, aft of the aft engine room bulkhead, and the optional auxiliary generator in the cockpit bilge, the engine room is unusually spacious, with plenty of room between and outboard of both engines. The Mediterranean 38 is available in a variety of gasoline and diesel engine options which provide performance in the 30 to 40 mph range. Performance with five engine options has been tested and documented, and the data is available from Mediterranean Yachts. The soundproofing package on our diesel test boat was so effective that we could easily converse at idle across the saloon, and at 2,400 rpm, you need not strain your voice to talk to the helmsman when standing near the lower station. Style and comfort Styling of the Mediterranean 38 is conservative Euro-style, with elliptical portlights, dark tinted glass and raked superstructure. The boat tracks well and has a solid feel to it, despite its relatively modest displacement that is the result of balsa core construction above the waterline. Visibility from the lower helm is exceptional and it reportedly is a dry boat in heavy seas. Moving around on the boat at cruising speeds is easy, thanks to a stable hull, plenty of well-placed handholds, spaciousness and rounded corners.
The Mediterranean 38 offers a centerline queen-size berth in a forward master stateroom. The second stateroom option has a double berth in a port stateroom opposite the head that is to starboard and just aft of the master stateroom. In the standard, galley-down layout, the galley is to port, opposite the head. If the second stateroom option is chosen, the galley is moved up to the saloon where it replaces the standard bar at the port, forward end of the saloon. A lower helm is installed at the forward end of the starboard saloon, against the saloon/head partial bulkhead. A convertible settee and table are at the aft port saloon opposite the starboard entertainment center. Throughout the boat, everything is thoroughly and thoughtfully finished. Behind drawers and lockers is a molded facing, fabric covering or cedar liner. The master stateroom berth is mounted on a molded plastic pedestal with built-in stowage for life jackets and safety equipment. In the head, the water closet is housed in a custom molded enclosure. The saloon opens onto a sunken, self-bailing cockpit adequate for serious sportfishing. A port side ladder leads to the flying bridge, which can be configured for either sportfishing or cruising. In the sportfishing version, the helm console is set far enough aft for the skipper to easily see the cockpit, and passenger seating is forward of the helm. In the cruising version, the helm is to port, forward against the flybridge coaming, and a generous U-shaped settee is to starboard.
The saloon features a molded-in rod storage cabinet which is finished with a molded liner so no raw edges or unfinished material can be seen, even in this remote space. While at the Mediterranean yard, we inspected five Mediterranean 38s built between 1986 and November 1991. On each vessel, Valdes pointed out detailed improvements from one boat to the next, illustrating each one with a personal anecdote about why each one was made. Speaking of the handy overhead grabrail near the lower helm, he said, “On a rough trip to Catalina, we discovered there was nothing to hang onto near the helm station, so now that rail you’re holding onto is standard on every boat.” He pointed out a handrail added to the flybridge ladder, new engine air intake hull vent covers on the latest model, an improved stainless steel casting for the cockpit, a better latch for a cockpit deck locker and a nifty new latch to hold open the head door. The Mediterranean 38 is a tour de force in production fiberglass boat building and a study in how to continuously make a good boat better. For a lesson in boat finish and detail from two of the masters, ask Valdes and White to show you a Mediterranean 38 — and be ready to take notes.
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