westerly Centaur

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jellylegs

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With over 2400 built, I think the Centaur clearly is the perfect boat of its size bracket. I read, with interest, the piece in Yachting Monthly this month. The featured boat really looks lovely, and is sailing very well.

I have seen a lot of them around the country, clearly a testament to its build quality and continuing popularity - perfect boat or just a jack of all trades??
 
Pop over to PBO Reader to Reader and see an alternative take on the article. Join in if you feel like it as well!
 
In a previous life I (and a team of boatbuilders) were called upon to completely refurbish a Mirror Offshore for a millionaire who was clearly eccentric! The bill far exceeded the value of the finished article. That said, the finished article was a brilliant and sturdy little Tonka toy.

Personally I have a Centaur with a four stroke outboard on the back and a bike stowed where the inboard used to live. A bit low on charging amps and far less powerful, but it mostly works (no not the bike!) and I can take it home to fix it. ...If I can find a crane to lift it off the transom. That's probably the only reason it hasn't been stolen yet.

Much though I would like to justify spending the value of the boat on a new inboard, I too cannot yet, so the heady aroma of petrol must persist.

If I ever finally admit defeat and get around to removing the three-blades redundant prop it'll sail faster too.

The Centaur has only two real shortcomings to my mind: the lack of large stowage areas and insufficient room to swing an oven (literally.)

Of course, no one would admit to owning a turkey, but I chose a Centaur after sailing one quite a bit and nearly thirty years with a similarly sized lightweight racer. For my sailing style it is far more appropriate. Plus I'm nearly 30 years older now...:0(
 
Centaur, Sabre 27 etc.etc.

Made in the 1970's built like the proverbial brick sh*te house.

Brilliant value for money, ONLY NOT VERY FASHIONABLE at the moments.

Pay your money take YOUR choice :D

PM me if you if you need persuading:)


Ian
 
SAPurdie said:
If I ever finally admit defeat and get around to removing the three-blades redundant prop it'll sail faster too.
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Re prop on my last boat I removed the prop. Put a jubilee clip to stop being able to pull shaft in :eek:. Keep prop for garden ornament (or when you sell), also keep MT fuel tank and other bits (for next owner?). The drag from the props haft does not amount to much but from the prop :eek:. You will feel the difference...
 
jellylegs said:
I have seen a lot of them around the country, clearly a testament to its build quality and continuing popularity - perfect boat or just a jack of all trades??
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By no means perfect, but at the time it was a popular boat. I bought CR1487 new in 1976 and enjoyed it for a couple of years - it was our first saily boat. Quite solidly built, quite reassuring to sail, quite difficult to imagine getting into real difficulty with it, quite bland.
 
My Dad had Centaur 2187; it's a very competent and seaworthy boat, and if a design could be arrived at which had the attributes of a Centaur and the looks of a Contessa 32, no-one would ever need anything else !

The one big criticism we had of the boat was the very neutral tiller, absolutely no feedback on the helm, she just goes where pointed.

This was very upsetting after being used to a very responsive boat - possibly the Andersons' best feature is the feel on the helm - and we tried all sorts of tweaks on the Centaurs' rudder to get some 'feel', extension plates fore and then aft, vortex generators, you name it, in the end Dad gave up and put up with it but he didn't enjoy that aspect.

Probably the ideal boat to use an autopilot most of the time.
 
Seajet said:
Please tell me not pea green as in the one in the article ?!

BTW that's not my idea of 'sailing well', more like overpressed and begging for a reef in the main; the head-on photo is a little alarming.
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Yachting magazine photographers like to shoot yachts without reefs in - it makes them look better - it's a great sailing shot, loads of action but when I saw it I could hear my dad sucking on his teeth and saying "that boat needs a reef or two" - dad was an absolute stickler for reefing early, sadly his sailing days are almost gone, his westerly 22 would never have been seen that hard pressed but the pictures wouldn't have been half as good as a result.
 
Lazy Kipper said:
Yachting magazine photographers like to shoot yachts without reefs in - it makes them look better - it's a great sailing shot, loads of action but when I saw it I could hear my dad sucking on his teeth and saying "that boat needs a reef or two" - dad was an absolute stickler for reefing early, sadly his sailing days are almost gone, his westerly 22 would never have been seen that hard pressed but the pictures wouldn't have been half as good as a result.
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Lazy Kipper,

I'm a pro photographer myself, inc 14 yrs as technical and PR photographer for BAe on the Harrier and Hawk development & sales programmes.

I always prided myself on having every switch and display in a realistic setting, so that people who knew the aircraft and systems wouldn't point and laugh...

These pics of the Centaur, both the side on with silly amount of weather helm and the head on heeling unrealistically, don't work for me as a sailor.

I know what you are getting at; during one of the reviews of my boat, Duncan kent of Sailing Today deliberately crash tacked her for Rick Buettners' camera.

It made a superficially great looking shot, but any sailor worth his salt can see by the main leach telltales she is stalled; the shot wasn't used in the mag' and I admire them for that, taking things to a daft extreme, what if novices think heeling with windward keels of Centaurs almost out of the water is normal ?!

NX1-8_zps3a6b52cc.jpg

She doesn't look uncomfortable or hard pressed though !
 
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Only owned my Centaur so am biased tho have crewed for others and am always glad to be back on board Aurora.
Great sea worthy boat, not fast but can handle anything I,m likely to be caught out in.
Plenty of room for a few guests now and then.
Saloon currently getting a makeover and looks a lot less dated and now I,v retired I,m planning to give her the TLC shes been promiced since I bought her in 2005.
Youngest has dibs on her in the will so shes officialy a family heirloom.
One of the best dedisions of my life was to buy her and get out on the water.
 
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