Hi and welcome!
We are travelling around Australia in Venture, our 1986 CR 38 Hull number 106.
The research I did prior to purchase indicated that they didn't start using the new Vinyl-ester layups until a few years later than our boat and we do have some blisters on the turn of the bilge. You can see them reasonably clearly just after the wash down on slipping. My original survey noted they were cosmetic and I've since had two other shipwrights say the same thing.
We have a couple of (minor but annoying) leaks level with the companionway steps on both port and stbd sides. I'm pretty sure the scuppers are leaking (again nothing serious) and I'll fix that when we get a bit further north into the warm weather.
We also had the Westerbeke 46 engine with about the same number of hours! We replaced it last month with a marinized Kubota 50Hp but not because it was failing..
The WB46 was running really well apart from a couple of issues. When we first started it after sitting for a few days, it blew quite a bit of blue/grey smoke till it warmed up (valve seals I'm sure and not at all serious). The main issue was was oil leaks from a number of different seals including the rear seal. The oil ended up in the bilge and so we were generating oil slicks when the bilge pump went off (not a good look up in the Barrier Reef..). To do the rear seal, I needed to get the engine out..
The story went, if we get the engine out we should probably get it reconned before putting it back in, price to recon was 2/3 of a new engine, Westerbekes are rare here so parts are expensive, bugger it, put a new one in..
We found storage to be an issue. We sacrificed the shower in the end but we are now realising that we are carrying a lot more "stuff" than we actually need so we may get the shower back in the future anyway. The shower in the cockpit is fine for our needs anyway.
Don't let any of the above put you off! We love Venture and would not swap it for anything we've seen so far including 18 months looking seriously at boats and 18 months cruising. Hmmmm, the admiral did like the look of a 46' Bayfield but that was only because it had an actual bath in there!..
Lots of luck and I hope it works out for you.
Dave and Terry
Living the Dream :-)
http://adventures-on-venture.blogspot.com.au/