Jeanneau TH38 Evolves Four Winns Power Cat for Weekend Cruising

A familiar powercat, now wearing a different badge

The TH38 is not trying to reinvent the compact powercat. It takes the Four Winns TH36 formula that already won people over with sharp handling, seaworthy manners, and broad appeal, then wraps it in Jeanneau styling and a more polished presentation. That matters because buyers in this segment are rarely shopping for novelty alone. They want a boat that makes weekends easy, runs with confidence, and feels like a smart use of money as well as space.

The headline change is the brand itself. Groupe Beneteau has shifted the TH powercat line from Four Winns to Jeanneau, with the TH33 and TH38 now presented under the Jeanneau flag and the TH36 being phased out. In practical terms, that is not just a decal swap. Jeanneau carries stronger recognition in European cruising circles, and that can affect everything from showroom traffic to resale conversations when a buyer is comparing compact multihulls side by side.

What changed aboard the TH38

The TH38 keeps the core idea that made the TH36 interesting, but it adds the sort of refinements that matter once you actually live with the boat. The big one is the fully enclosed windshield, which should make the helm more usable in mixed weather while preserving the central walkway. That is a smart compromise: you get more protection without turning the boat into a sealed-off command pod.

Jeanneau’s own description leans hard into the same theme, calling the TH38 a boat with generous living spaces, reassuring cruising, and functional, modular layouts. Dealer material adds that the helm can be ordered with either a full-height windscreen or a low-profile version, which gives buyers a real choice between weather protection and open-air feel. That flexibility is important on a boat like this because the same hull may be asked to do family lunches, sunset runs, and overnight trips with equal ease.

The layout still points clearly toward social cruising rather than pure transportation. You get modular sunbathing areas, an outdoor galley, and two double cabins, which tells you where the priorities sit. This is a boat built around the realities of short, enjoyable escapes, not around the idea of being a mini-expedition cat or a hard-edged offshore machine.

Why the TH36 still matters

You cannot judge the TH38 honestly without remembering how strong the TH36 already was. Four Winns launched that boat as its first outboard catamaran, following the success of the H-Series introduced in 2022. It was designed by Garroni Design and Marc Lombard Yacht Design, and that combination gave the platform a look and feel that stood apart from the usual production powerboat crowd.

The original boat also earned real respect, not just brochure praise. Testers praised the hull’s seaworthiness and the pleasure of handling it, and the TH36 won Multihull of the Year in the Power category in 2023. That kind of reception is why the TH38 is interesting. Jeanneau is not starting with a blank sheet. It is inheriting a platform that already proved it could win over multihull buyers who care about behavior on the water as much as interior polish.

The performance story is simpler now

The TH36 had a foiling system in the conversation, but that is no longer the direction here. The TH38 test sail off Cannes focused on twin 350-horsepower Mercury outboards, and the handling was described as exceptional. That shift says a lot about the target buyer. Jeanneau and Four Winns are leaning toward predictable, confidence-inspiring performance rather than selling the boat as a technology demo.

That is probably the right call for this class. A compact powercat lives or dies on how easy it is to run, dock, and relax aboard. The Boating Magazine preview added another useful benchmark, saying the TH38 offers the space of a 50-foot monohull and reaches 38 mph with twin 350s. That is the kind of performance number that makes sense to owners who want real pace without moving up into a much bigger, more complicated boat.

Weekend use is the whole point

Everything about the TH38 points toward weekend cruising. The space, the cabin count, the outdoor galley, and the protected helm all support a pattern of dock-to-bay travel, lunch aboard, and overnighting with another couple or a small family. This is where powercats have been gaining ground: not as specialist oddities, but as practical floating spaces that happen to run quickly and efficiently.

That positioning also fits a broader market shift. Compact powercats are being judged less on raw speed and more on how well they support shared time aboard. If a boat makes it easier to keep everyone comfortable, moving around, and close to the water, it earns its keep quickly. The TH38 seems designed around exactly that logic.

What the Jeanneau badge changes in real life

The badge change may matter as much as any hardware tweak. Jeanneau brings a different retail identity, different showroom expectations, and likely a broader cruising audience than Four Winns did for this niche outboard cat. That can be a real advantage if you are comparing brands as much as boats, because the ownership experience includes dealer presence, parts support, and how easy it is to explain the boat to future buyers.

Groupe Beneteau’s decision to move the TH line under Jeanneau suggests the company wants the platform to sit closer to cruising multihull buyers rather than to a more general sportboat crowd. In other words, the same basic concept is being sold through a brand with stronger credentials in family cruising. For buyers cross-shopping compact powercats, that could be enough to tip the scale if they value dealer reach and brand familiarity over a more experimental badge.

The reality check

So is the TH38 a meaningful evolution of the Four Winns powercat formula or mainly a rebadged version with incremental changes? The honest answer is both, but the brand shift is not empty. The hull DNA, the weekend-friendly layout, and the social-cruising mission all come straight from the TH36 playbook. What Jeanneau adds is a more refined package, a clearer cruising identity, and enough presentation changes to make the boat feel more mature and more broadly marketable.

If you loved the TH36 for its handling and would buy it again in a heartbeat, the TH38 looks like a cleaner, better-positioned sequel. If you were hoping for a radical leap in concept, this is not that boat. But if your shopping list is built around comfort, confidence, and the kind of powercat that makes a short escape feel effortless, the Jeanneau badge does more than change the stickers. It changes how the whole package is understood, sold, and lived with.