Design
Backpack 38
Designed by Dudley Dix
An 11.6 m (38 ft 1 in) demountable cruising catamaran by Dudley Dix, drawn as his take on the simple Polynesian style of cat for low-cost tropical cruising. Overall beam is 6.5 m, displacement 4,000 kg and draft 0.85 m on shallow keels. The beams lash or bolt to the hulls so the boat can be taken apart for transport. It was first planned in single-skin GRP, with plywood plans drawn for amateurs.
Dix's page says the design is no longer available and is kept only as an example of his work, and that the plywood bridgedeck and rudders were never fully detailed. A simple plywood cat of this size would still be a rough 5,000 hour project. Measured medians from build logs appear below.
What building a Backpack 38 actually takes
Medians from the build logs kept on this site, not the designer’s estimate. Nobody has logged this boat here yet, so they are empty until the first builder does.
Those medians firm up as more people log this boat.
Builds of this boat
Nobody has logged a Backpack 38 here yet.
If you are building one, yours becomes the reference: the page the next person building this boat finds when they search for it. One photo and one line is a valid first entry.
Start the first log of this boatBoats like this one
Same type, closest in length.
| Design | Plans from | LOA | Logs |
|---|---|---|---|
| RaceLine 380 | Spirited Designs | 11.7 m (38′ 5″) | 0 |
| Spirited 380 | Spirited Designs | 11.7 m (38′ 5″) | 0 |
| Synergy 38 | Spirited Designs | 11.7 m (38′ 5″) | 0 |
| Mirage | Woods Designs | 11 m (36′ 1″) | 0 |
| Skoota 36 | Bateau | 36′ 1″ (11 m) | 0 |
| Skoota 36 | Woods Designs | 11 m (36′ 1″) | 0 |