Small coastal cruiser

Wansworth

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No I like the look of the Nomad but Stephen Jones could probably work wonders with some airfoil leadkeels and a properrudder instead of a plate steel one!
 

Wansworth

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oldharry

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No I like the look of the Nomad but Stephen Jones could probably work wonders with some airfoil leadkeels and a properrudder instead of a plate steel one!
I had a Nomad. Most comfortable boat of its size I ever came across, but most definitely needs the apologies for bilge keels replaced! Fine off the wind, but forget about beating. She would point well enough, but just sailed sideways! Hard work to make anything to windward at all. In its original form one of the better floating caravans of the era. But sailing? 'Blows along nicely' is about all you could say>

The original rudder is OK: its a properly aerodynamic GRP job on the original. A steel plate rudder is an abysmal botch replacement for the real thing . They didnt like being overpressed, but that might improve with proper keels.
 

johnalison

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The best small boat I had was a Westerly Cirrus. Designed by John Butler (I think), it was 22' with a fin keel of 3' 6", and handled like a 30-footer. It would outsail a Galleon 22 or a Hurley 22 and if the children hadn't outgrown the saloon table we'd have kept it for much longer than two years. With a 10hp Volvo, it could have taken us anywhere, but at least we learned a lot.
 

richardbrennan

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I had a Westerly Tiger, the larger brother to the Cirrus at 25'. An excellent sailing boat and excellent accomodation for the length.
 

johnalison

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I had a Westerly Tiger, the larger brother to the Cirrus at 25'. An excellent sailing boat and excellent accomodation for the length.
I imagine the Tiger was similar inside to the Cirrus. This had a solid door separating the forecabin and heads from the saloon, and a cave locker in the saloon that would take a folded Redcrest plus push-chair and golf clubs, leaving the cockpit locker free for essentials.
 

RupertW

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My favourite (bought once in my 20s and again as a bit of fun on our 40ths) is the Westerly GK24. Sails beautifully and quickly - easily beating much larger boats and has a perfect flat working platform with no raised cabin top or side decks. Ours had an inboard engine which I much preferred to an outboard.

The downside is a very low cabin - plenty of places you can sit up comfortably against a back rest but moving around you are very bent over. You get used to it very quickly. Double Vee berth forward slightly bigger than the 31 footer we got later. Separate hanging locker on one side and sea loo on the other between saloon and forecabin. Very wide saloon for a 24 footer round a table, and two dry and secure pilot berths (though we tended to use one as storage and have a Lee cloth on one of the settee berths).

Loved it and over the years we sailed it between Lowestoft and La Rochelle, but mostly in the West Country. Sad to give it up 18 months ago but realised I was flying out to our bigger boat whenever I had spare time, so it was all routine maintenance for very little sailing.
 

Baggywrinkle

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Apologies if this is a nomad thread but a great small coastal cruiser is the Kingfisher 20+ ? ... spent many a damp summer cruising from the Clyde to Tobermory on my parents one in the late 70s (I was around 8 at the time and was the anchor winch) ... solid little boat with a neat swing-up inboard outboard and a proper loo - we were a family of 5 and we all fitted on board. It dried out nicely in Tobermory bay but never really made more than 3 knots over the ground. Bombproof though if you can find a good one.

K20+technical.gif
 

Concerto

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Apologies if this is a nomad thread but a great small coastal cruiser is the Kingfisher 20+ ? ... spent many a damp summer cruising from the Clyde to Tobermory on my parents one in the late 70s (I was around 8 at the time and was the anchor winch) ... solid little boat with a neat swing-up inboard outboard and a proper loo - we were a family of 5 and we all fitted on board. It dried out nicely in Tobermory bay but never really made more than 3 knots over the ground. Bombproof though if you can find a good one.

K20+technical.gif
My parents first yacht was a Kingfisher 30 bought new in 1965. It was functional in a basic sort of way once some problems were fixed liked the keels used as petrol fuel tanks had the vent inside a stanchion each side. Unfortunately they drilled the fixing straight through the stanchion and vent pipe allowing water into the tanks. It was badly balanced under sail with lots of weather helm. As to boat speed, it was so slow. One trip with a Nich 32 and a Twister, we could not keep up, even using the engine! Of all the yachts I have sailed, it was the worst desgned by a long way. The 22 would be OK as a creek crawler, but there are plenty of better yachts you could choose in my opinion.
 

Wansworth

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The Kingfishers were designed by an aircraft engineer R Neirop(spelling) He was into solving structural problems with the new material,grp but the basic yacht design left much to be desired,if he could have worked with a n architect might of been better,probably his best boat was the 26 footer.
 

Bajansailor

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I know that Wansworth has a soft spot for Westerly 22's - here is a nice story about one of them.
'A friend in a field'

The author of this Blog had sailed her across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and America in 1966 - here is the first part of his passage report about this adventure.
'Voyage to America': Young Tiger, part one

And part II -
'Voyage to America': Young Tiger, part two

With more discussion and some photos posted on Dan's thread about 'favourite boats that he hasn't tried' on page 10 -
Favourite boats I haven't tried
 

Wansworth

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I know that Wansworth has a soft spot for Westerly 22's - here is a nice story about one of them.
'A friend in a field'

The author of this Blog had sailed her across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and America in 1966 - here is the first part of his passage report about this adventure.
'Voyage to America': Young Tiger, part one

And part II -
'Voyage to America': Young Tiger, part two

With more discussion and some photos posted on Dan's thread about 'favourite boats that he hasn't tried' on page 10 -
Favourite boats I haven't tried
Thanks for that,very thoughtful
 
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Since june 2021 I own the Westerly Nomad 244 "Raccoon".

About it 's windward ability, I have a track of my GPS last september, it was blowing around 10kts, the boat would do around 3-4 knts windward, at a "dead angle" of around 110 degrees?

Schermafbeelding 2022-02-21 om 13.50.28.jpg

I used a very old set of sails
The trim of the boat was backwards due to inefficient weight stowage which I hope to improve
It is not ideally rigged for optimal sail setting

Especially the longitudal balance I have high hopes: it brings the mast considerably more forward and it changes the shape of the underwatership. Old owners manual written by Mr Rayner also stresses this point of "sail trim" as the most important and most overseen.

For me it's OK. A bit avoiding windward courses and a bit accepting it may take longer to get to the destination, which is OK, as the goal is not reaching the destination but enjoying a sail.

I wanted a small (check) yacht that is seaworthy (check), can handle shallow waters/dry out (check check) and still has some comfort like headroom, contrary to Cape Cutter and Drascombe that I rented a lot.
I had a new inboard electrical 4KW inboard installed, I tested it last monday and it sailed like a charm.
She had a Torqueedo outboard, but it was wrongly installed too far behind the rudder. But I did discover "e-motorsailing" in light winds both down- and upwind are really helpful in silently giving her an extra knot or two at almost no power consumption.


Lustrum1.jpg
 
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