Is Westerly Konsort Duo suitable for blue water sailing?

[temptress]

... Being a Motorsailer with twin keel.
Any thoughts will be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Almost any well found boat will be up to the sailing. My advice would be look at what else you need the boat to do. It is a home and you spend a long time at anchor... Is it comfortable? Are you going to spend time in the tropics? Then ventilation and keeping cool are issues. You will live the cockpit. Is is it comfortable? Can you provide shade from the sun? Keep dry when it rains. Coming from the
UK.. Understand that tropical rain while short usually 2 or 3 hours at a time but sometimes days and days in the rainy season) is like having someone turn a high pressure fire hose you. Going below is often unpleasant, humid and very hot.

So can you go bluewatater in a Konsort. Yes of course you can but is it right for you? only you can tell.

I am writing this at anchor in Thailand with 45 knots of wind and driving rain. It is 30 deg c in the cockpit and nearly 40 c below... Humidity is over 100% OUTSIDE with tropical fog (steam) across the hills and bay.


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[Greenheart]

Are you going to spend time in the tropics? Then ventilation and keeping cool are issues.

Good point. The high-top wheelhouse/saloon on the Duo is like a greenhouse. Much better for places where the sun don't shine.

Highly appropriate for UK waters, much less so in the tropics.

 

[scotty123]

Force 9

Ah, wfor some reason thought it was about boat speed.

 

[jwilson]

snipped -
I took a heck of a pounding against the pontoons that morning, and Westerly Consorts must've been subject to the same conditions. Surely it would be better to weather such storms at sea, where there's nothing to bang into?

A lot of difference between sea conditions in harbour/marina than in open ocean. Just water can do a lot of damage. I have in a drawer as a souvenir one of many small chunks of smashed 10mm acrylic from quite a small saloon window. The only thing that hit it was water. To be more precise the whole 34 ft boat got picked up by a breaking wave and dumped upside down. Somewhere around Force 9 for a couple of days in the (quite far north) Atlantic. I was on board at the time.

Big ships go to sea sometimes so that they can avoid the worst of the weather: this is especially the case with tropical revolving storms. They have the speed to do this, unlike small yachts. And sometimes they get damaged at sea: there are plenty of cases of windows or gear 50-80 ft above water being broken by big seas.

For Seajet, yes, Blyth's boat was a Kingfisher 30. Kingfishers were quite well engineered and built, IMHO probably better than Westerlys of the time.