FairKeel → Buyer's guides → Pacific Seacraft 40
1997–2007 · designed by William Crealock · built by Pacific Seacraft Corporation
Larger sister to the PSC 37, sharing design language and architectural DNA. Heavy-displacement bluewater cutter, split-underbody / semi-long- keel style form with skeg-hung rudder, an EXTERNAL lead ballast keel bolted to a fiberglass keel stub, and keel-stepped mast. Cutter rig standard. Aft-cockpit. Premium California yard build — heavy hand-laid fiberglass, bronze through-hulls, solid teak joinery, over-spec'd deck hardware. Designed for sustained offshore passage-making with greater interior volume + tankage than the PSC 37.
Check this first — two keels were offered and both are external lead castings on stainless bolts: a 6ft standard fin, and the Crealock shoal-draft bulb. Confirm which this hull has before reading draft limits or judging her to windward, and before pricing any keel work — the bolt pattern and the casting are not the same part. Whichever it is, there ARE keel bolts here and they are an inspection item.
This is a general read on the Pacific Seacraft 40 class — informed background, not a verdict on any individual boat. Condition, refit history, and how a particular hull was sailed and stored matter far more than class reputation. Use it to know what to look for; for a read on a specific listing, run a free FairKeel report on that boat.
Cutter rig loads both staysail + headsail chainplates. Bronze-bolted through structural bulkheads. Inner forestay chainplate often overlooked. Pre-2000 hulls past first re-rig interval.
Original diesel at or past end of life on 30+ year hulls. Repower history is the major price differentiator — unrepowered original = priced at end of life.
Premium-spec bronze. By year 30+, full inspection essential. Bonded electrical system condition affects corrosion rate.
Both keel options (6'0" standard fin and the Crealock shoal-draft bulb) are external lead castings by Mars Metal, bolted through a solid fiberglass keel stub on stainless bolts with backing plates bedded in epoxy. So there ARE keel bolts: inspection points are the hull-to-keel joint for a "smile" or weeping, keel-bolt / backing-plate condition and re-torque history inside the bilge, and grounding damage to the stub. Bilge water standing on stainless bolts in an oxygen-starved joint is the crevice-corrosion failure mode to ask about.
Where fitted, teak decks at or past service life on older hulls. Seam failure → core saturation. Repair/refurb/removal decision is costly regardless of path.
This guide is the class. A report is that hull. Paste the listing you're looking at and FairKeel grades every claim in it against what's known about the Pacific Seacraft 40 — where the evidence is thin, the red flags worth a second look, the costs likely to land in your first season, and whether the boat suits the plans you describe in a few short questions.
It won't read the photos or put a number on the boat — that's the $249 Deep-Dive, and for the real answer, a surveyor. It will tell you when a Deep-Dive isn't worth buying. Free, no account, usually a minute or two.
Run a free report on your listing →Other people's videos, not ours, and not endorsements — walkthroughs and reviews of this class that are worth watching before you look at one in person.
See something that doesn't look right? We'd love to know — email us about the Pacific Seacraft 40 →