Had a
C&C 38 with a
customs keel, 7.5'
draft, based out of Narragansett bay, I sailed the snot out of that
boat up and down
New England and NY area in all conditions and loved it, it's long gone now but I still miss that boat.
C&C tended to make well rounded, good performing boats that still handled challenging conditions well and comfortably. Mine had an inner forestay added, to fly a
storm jib, which added much flexibility to the trim options, it's something you might consider, it helped bring the center of balance inward in big
wind, it was removable, so it didn't interfere with tacking the large (155%)
head sail in normal conditions.
Perfect boat for the area your in, good upwind performance, good seakeeping traits(for a
racer cruiser) and a level of comfort and stability most
racer cruisers don't offer. Oh, and by the way, I was able to outpoint most J's, which gave me no endless joy. One thing though, due to the inner mounted
genoa tracks offwind headsail trim could be inefficient, so I used to carry extra
genoa lines with snap shackles and s hooks on the ends, on broad reaching days I clipped them to the toe rail to bring the trim of the headsail out from the center of the boat which made for much better broad reaching sheeting angles. It's worth noting.