I served as a professional skipper on a Tartan 37-took delivery (brand new) from the truck in Annapolis, did the complete commissioning and prep, and then delivered her to Caracas for her Venezuelan film director-owner.
We did all the prep work we so often discuss on this site (cockpit drains, main hatch runner reinforcement and one piece heavy-weather hatch, running backs, storm sails, auto pilot, etc.)
28 days at sea. Generally a good strong sea boat with adequate performance, but had one serious and annoying issue:
The skeg broke on 3 separate occasions while sailing offshore, leaving the leading edge of the rudder exposed to the force of the water. Because of the rudder attachment, this led to the vertical bolts holding the horizontal pintle (a flat 2''X 9" S.S. bar extending fwd from the rudder post) to work back and forth, elongating the bolt holes, which created serious leaks. The first time, between Beaufort, NC and Ft. Lauderdale, was repaired by the guys at Derektors Yard according to the material schedule supplied by Tartan. We left F.L. for St. Thomas and 3 days out it sheared off again, forcing us to slow down dramatically to restrict the movement of the rudder, and put into Roadtown, Tortola for more repairs. This time Tartan sent a revised mat and roving schedule and instructions to beef up this piece, and we departed Roadtown for Caracas. Halfway across, it failed again, and by the time we got to the marina we were pumping 45 minutes of each hour, and had the boat halued immediately. Tartan finally sent a crew down and installed a total redesign of this skeg, which was originally designed to "protect" the rudder from damage (yeah right). In each case the failures happend reaching in trade wind conditions (15-25 kts) at speeds of about 6 knots in seas of 4-15 feet; the boat was well loaded, but certainly not being pressed.
This is the reason you have seen me share my feeling of skepticism as to the value and function of skeg/rudder combos-I prefer a strong, well built spade rudders for the maneuverability, strength stemming from the type of engineering/attachments used by this type, and number of miles sailed on different types of boats.
After all of this, I still enjoyed the T-37, and consider it a good seaboat-but like most designs, it has some flaws one must be aware of and correct before assuming all is well for offshore sailing.
Peace,
S