2021 Cruisers Yachts 38 GLS review

Big bowriders are big business in North America. This style of upscaled entertainers is carving out a niche because some people realise they really don’t want a large liveaboard motor yacht if all they need is a comfy weekender.

It’s where boats such as the Cruisers Yachts 38 GLS shine. At 11.4 metres long, it’s big enough to offer lots of premium above-deck living space, but with the convenience of below-decks accommodation so that the weekend doesn’t have to end when the sun goes down on Saturday night.

Cruisers Yachts is a premium US motor yacht maker, building a range of products stretching from a 10-metre bowrider-styled dayboat right up to an 18-metre liveaboard flybridge cruiser.

Launched in late 2019, the 38 GLS is the newest model in Cruisers Yachts’ range of fibreglass boats. The company, based on the shores of Lake Michigan in North America’s spectacular Great Lakes region, has been hand-building boats since the very early 1900s.

Available in both inboard and outboard configurations, the inboard version of the Cruisers Yachts 38 GLS was launched last year as the most progressive model yet. 

It’s so box-fresh that the Port Phillip Bay-based test boat we’re jumping on is the first one sold outside North America.

Melbourne-based Aussie Boat Sales, the official distributor for Cruisers Yachts in Australia, lands the Cruisers Yachts 38 GLS priced from around $730,000 in standard configuration.

The most outstanding feature of this boat is the large bow lounge accessed via the starboard side of the saloon space.

Cruisers Yachts isn’t alone in building a bowrider reaching such grand proportions. US-based rival Sea Ray also plays in these waters with boats such as the new SLX 400.

Cruisers Yachts is a premium US motor yacht maker, and the Cruisers Yachts 38 GLS’s list price of $730,000 reflects this.

Extras included in this boat run to the range-topping 430hp MerCruisers paired with Axius joystick controls including autopilot; engine saltwater protection; 4.4kW genset, extended hydraulic swim platform; full canvas covers; hardtop clears; foredeck shade cover; stainless steel anchor; Sureshade cockpit awning; deluxe cockpit seats; cockpit washdown system; cockpit electric grille; icemaker; SeaDek flooring; underwater lights; 28-inch saloon TV; centrifuge head with overboard discharge; Simrad electronics package; extended bow seat filler cushion; and ceramic hull coating.

The ceramic hull coating helps come washdown time, sloughing off water and salt with ease.

Other options available, but not on our test boat, include a matte grey South Beach Edition with contrasting interior; a VHF radio; central vacuum system; separate mid-berth TV; a fuel conditioning system; and an anchor washdown system. 

Cruisers Yachts is a business with its roots in building Great Lakes boats. While its boats are still hand-built, and use timber stringers, the company uses the latest resin infusion processes that produce high-quality components that are stronger, lighter and more consistent than those produced by open moulding.

All major deck components are foam-cored to reduce overall weight, as well as helping to minimise noise and vibration.

Cruisers Yachts’ attention to detail is such that all through-hull openings are finished in solid laminate, and all stanchions are mounted on plates to firmly fix them in place.

To improve hull rigidity, the Cruisers Yachts 38 GLS’s stringers are fitted with liners that run up the deep freeboard hull sides, which along with the bulkheads also helping to increase strength and rigidity. The deck and hull are precision-overlapped and fastened every 3.0 inches, or about 8.0cm.

Wooden beams are used to give strength to the sheer shelf.

Attention to detail is a Cruisers Yachts highlight; the outer hull is sanded back by hand before the bottom paint is applied to improve the finish. It’s expensive and time-consuming, but at this end of the market it’s a distinct point of difference.

The Cruisers Yachts 38 GLS hull uses a rather steep 21-degree variable deadrise – quite deep for a cruiser, but in spec with a performance-oriented boat – designed to handle rough conditions.

Access to the sound-dampened engine room is via an electrically opening hatch built into the cockpit floor. Once open, it’s easy to get in and move around.

Cruisers Yachts has its own stainless steel, aluminium and timber workshops, producing all the Cruisers Yachts 38 GLS’s fittings and cabinetry in-house.

All cabling is 10-strand copper, and aviation-style joiners protect connections. Panels for the electrical switchboards are also laser-etched in-house and are bespoke to each boat built depending on the options fitted.

The 946-litre fuel tank is wrapped in foam to help temperature-stabilise its contents.

This model stands alone in the Cruisers Yachts line-up because it has a fold-down platform built into the starboard side of the cockpit.

The Cruisers Yachts 38 GLS is an open-cockpit design with a targa-style T-top. It uses its generous 3.8-metre beam to full effect, creating a surprising amount of space.

An impression of quality starts as soon as you step aboard the big swim platform attached to the boat’s open transom. The Sea-Dek soft-step swim platform includes drop-down steps to help with reboarding or launching a paddle craft, and a retractable stainless steel boarding ladder.

A pressurised handheld freshwater shower head is tucked into the port side coaming, as is a separate, protected shore power locker.

Backing onto the swim deck is a huge forward- and aft-facing sun lounge with storage below set to port and with a backrest that can rotate through 90 degrees to provide more seating. The hardwearing two-tone stitched vinyl cushions, featuring two-stage foam to make them more comfortable, are made in-house by sailmakers based at Cruisers Yachts.

The aft-facing seats also have a controller for the twin USB port Rockford Fosgate audio system, with two speakers mounted alongside the companionway through to the cockpit.

The fact the seatback can rotate to a right angle, and the direction of the speakers make sense once you realise they face the Cruisers Yachts 38 GLS’s biggest party trick; the beach door, a drop-down sidedeck to starboard that greatly increases the size of the aft cockpit.

Deploying or stowing the beach door is at the press and hold of a button. A low gate can close off access to the aft section when underway.

The forward part of the sun lounge faces into the cockpit, and on our test boat features a custom-made teak table shaped so that it doesn’t interfere with people walking past to access the rear of the Cruisers Yachts 38 GLS.

Forward of this, the space is dominated overhead by a large fibreglass hardtop, available either in white or the contrasting black of our test boat. Our test boat also has an optional electrically deployed Sureshade cloth awning that extends rearward to provide more sun shelter, supplementing the soft sunshade mounted inside the T-top.

To starboard is a Corian-topped wet bar with an under-counter fridge, an infill for the sink to expand the benchtop space, and a mains-powered barbecue grille powered via an optional 4.0kW onboard diesel generator.

An aft-facing bench sits behind the forward-facing pilot’s seat. 

The skipper’s bench is tall and wide enough for a couple to sit side-by-side without touching elbows, and equipped with a flip-down armrest and flip-up squab to make standing at the helm more comfortable, and a teak footrest. An optional icemaker is built into its base.

Our boat features the optional Simrad electronics package with twin flush-mount 12-inch touchscreens laid out on a wide blacked-out dash that has room to go much bigger. The height-adjustable sports steering wheel is low-set but comfortable, and the throttle controls and joystick for manipulating the Cruisers Yachts 38 GLS around the marina are both in easy reach.

Our boat is also equipped with Bennett trim tabs to help bring the boat’s tall bow down while underway, and a windlass with a quick freefall mode to help set the stainless steel anchor.

There are air conditoning vents located on both sides of the dash to supplement the natural airflow over the low, wide two-piece windscreen that wraps around both sides – in our case supplemented with clears to create a space enclosed on three sides – and the skipper even has a wireless smartphone charging station.

The dash’s switchgear is controlled via an array of backlit anodised buttons, with symbols supplementing words to help with marking and hitting the right switch on the fly. Counterintuitively, the horn button is the furthest one away from the helm, though.

Access to the bow is via a stainless steel handrail-framed companionway built into the port side of the cockpit.

There is a low wind blocker that folds flush into the coaming, and a section of the windscreen folds back onto itself to provide full walking headroom. The size, height and width of the glass panel is such that it’s a little heavy and cumbersome to open and close – you wouldn’t want to do it with windage while underway.

The vast bow lounge is a big feature on the Cruisers Yachts 38 GLS. On other boats of this size, the area would be given over to something like a sunbed, which isn’t a very user-friendly option for more than, say, a couple of people.

Instead, we have a large, open space that seats up to eight people in comfort. The versatility is supplemented by a table that can drop into the centre to create a large sunbed, fold-down armrests, headrests and fold-down tables with in-built stainless steel cupholders.

The seats are expertly finished and supremely comfortable thanks to squabs that are initially soft, but then supportive.

Foot-level lighting creates a nightclub atmosphere, as does another controller for the Rockford Fosgate audio system and another pair of speakers.

This boat’s owner has opted for the bow sunshade, a vast expanse of cloth that covers from the trailing edge of the windscreen to almost the edge of the bow lounge.

The spaces beneath seats double as storage voids, with large-opening doors providing plenty of space.

Accommodation

Access to the accommodation space is via a central companionway that splits the helm station and the bow lounge access.  It features a lockable sliding door on the exterior, and a separate sliding screen door inside it to help with natural airflow.

Three teak steps open up to a naturally lit U-shaped lounge built into the bow with a teak table. An infill cushion, stored aft, fills in this space to create a double berth, and a TV faces the lounge space. There’s also an optional convection microwave oven mounted overhead, and space for a second fridge.

To starboard of the stairs is the wet head featuring a flushing toilet, sink, opening porthole and a pressurised freshwater shower.

Aft of the stairs is the full-beam master suite, featuring a double bed with access from each side. A deep storage alcove lines one side, with lift-up cupboards providing more storage space.

While the bathroom and companionway provide full standing headroom, the bow lounge robs the bow lounge of some height, while the cockpit floor makes the master bed a crawl space to get in and out.

This is a big boat. Long and beamy, from the pilot’s seat it looks like a vast amount of real estate to move around.

However, reach for the joystick and the boat seems to shrink around you. Mercury’s Joystick Piloting system is instinctive and easy to use, allowing the operator to make small, precise movements to nudge in and out of tight berths.

It even has a one-press virtual anchor built into the base of the controller. Push it, and the Cruisers Yachts 38 GLS will hold station against current and wind, locking on the spot as the engines roar and growl independently of the controls.

Grab the joystick again, or the steering wheel and control is handed straight back to the skipper. Even the main throttle control is smart, allowing the skipper to hand control of both engines over to a single throttle lever.

The first boat in Australia pretty much ticks most of the choices on the options list. That includes a power upgrade to a pair of 8.2-litre 430hp MerCruiser petrol engines fitted to Bravo sterndrives.

Port Phillip Bay was its usual self on our test day, with a low, close-set swell rolling in from the south east. While our photography boat struggled in the conditions, bouncing from wavetop to wavetop, the Cruisers Yachts 38 GLS thrived, punching through the swell like it wasn’t there.

That’s the benefit of a deep-vee, with the GLS’s hull easily carving a path through the water. 

Performance

*Both engines

Maximum range based on 90% reserve for 235L fuel tank: 109nm @ 4000rpm

The downside to that deep vee is that the Cruisers Yachts 38 GLS takes a bit of effort to get up on the plane. It’s a boat that likes to go fast, which is exactly what the MerCruisers help it to do.

At speed, the Cruisers Yachts 38 GLS shrinks down around you again, feeling light and lithe from the wheel. Forward vision, once trimmed up, is excellent all-around.

Those big MerCruisers at full noise sound the part, providing a great soundtrack as they rumble in unison.

Cruisers Yachts talks up the sport-focused balance of the 38 GLS, and it doesn’t disappoint on that account, either. Tip it into a turn with the power on and it leans in like it’s a sports boat, resting heavily on its chine to grip the water.

One of the downsides to a deep vee boat is stability at rest. However, the Cruisers Yachts 38 GLS’s wide beam and its distinct chines provide good stability at rest. A gyroscope is available if you ever feel it isn’t stable enough.

Hybrid boats that blur the line between sports boats and bluewater cruisers definitely have their place in the market.

This is a boat that will suit someone who doesn’t need the extra features of a large cruiser, but wants the space to entertain anyone who steps aboard.

This is a perfect boat for jumping aboard to, say, motor into Melbourne’s CBD to step ashore to watch a night game of footy. You don’t need to rush back home once the final siren sounds, and you have a great space to entertain friends for the post-game analysis.

It’s the perfect boat if you’re a casual rather than hardcore boater.

Priced from: $730,000 

Price as tested: $845,000

Supplied by: Aussie Boat Sales