Westerly owners: information please

That's a good choice in my (biased) opinion ! I had a Pentland ketch for about 10 years before buying a Discus fin-keeled ketch for many of the reasons that were explored earlier in this thread. It's massively over-engineered with plenty of internal space in three separate cabins which makes sailing with friends enjoyable rather than awkward. The boat is beautifully fitted out in a durable manner and has an air of solidity about her. I've found her sailing performance satisfactory in just about all conditions except very light airs and I've never worried about the security of the boat when things have got exciting.

I guess it's always a matter of horses for courses; I wanted a robust craft for the north sea which would be enjoyable to sail whilst not being intimidating for friends .. or my wife. I've owned the boat for 15 years now and have never regretted my choice.

Cheers,

Martin
 
I have a westerly longbow, 32ft fin keeled ketch. She crossed from peel to donaghadee under mizzen and genoa alone in 7 hrs, covering 45 niles, basically 6.5 knots ave speed. Wind was 4-5 sw and seas rolly and lumpy, prob about 2m waves.
 
Some might say I am biased, I have owned a Westerly Fulmar, an Ocean 33 from new for three years and an Ocean 37 from new in 2000 which I still have with no plans to sell.
The Ocean 37 is a larger '33 loosely based on the Typhoon hull but just about everything else, deck plan, interior and rig was newly designed by Dubois. She undoubtedly is one of the fastest boats that Westerly ever built apart from the 43 and 49 and we beat a 43 the one time we raced together. We got 6th in our handicap class in our first year of ownership in the RTIR and we regularly beat Typhoons.
Had Westerly not gone bust I suspect the 37 would have been a great success. As it was, the recession and low cost production line yachts by the likes of Bavaria killed the Westerly essentially hand built yacht business stone dead.
There are things I'd change, accommodation is traditional British and rather narrow by modern standards, but then again she is massively built like all Westerly's and like all the Westerly's we have sailed has never given us a moments doubt. She has a huge rig and we need to reef at about 17 knots apparent, which is a pain, but the upside is she will carry sail in light airs when most other yachts are motoring. There are Westerly's that were little more than floating caravans and for many owners that's just what they want, but if you want decent performance in a solid safe yacht you could take your granny out in and not give her a heart attack and still have a good investment in 20, 30 or even 40 years time then there is a Westerly model that will be right for you.
 
BlueChip said:
Some might say I am biased, I have owned a Westerly Fulmar, an Ocean 33 from new for three years and an Ocean 37 from new in 2000 which I still have with no plans to sell.
The Ocean 37 is a larger '33 loosely based on the Typhoon hull but just about everything else, deck plan, interior and rig was newly designed by Dubois. She undoubtedly is one of the fastest boats that Westerly ever built apart from the 43 and 49 and we beat a 43 the one time we raced together. We got 6th in our handicap class in our first year of ownership in the RTIR and we regularly beat Typhoons.
Had Westerly not gone bust I suspect the 37 would have been a great success. As it was, the recession and low cost production line yachts by the likes of Bavaria killed the Westerly essentially hand built yacht business stone dead.
There are things I'd change, accommodation is traditional British and rather narrow by modern standards, but then again she is massively built like all Westerly's and like all the Westerly's we have sailed has never given us a moments doubt. She has a huge rig and we need to reef at about 17 knots apparent, which is a pain, but the upside is she will carry sail in light airs when most other yachts are motoring. There are Westerly's that were little more than floating caravans and for many owners that's just what they want, but if you want decent performance in a solid safe yacht you could take your granny out in and not give her a heart attack and still have a good investment in 20, 30 or even 40 years time then there is a Westerly model that will be right for you.
Click to expand...

Your Ocean 37 is a fine boat, but it's worth remembering that Westerly only managed to build 2 of them. Not sure about "massively built" either, as when you take the ballast weight off the displacement, you're left with a hull weight very similar to modern AWBs of the same length. Same with the "huge rig", modern AWBs have the same sort of mast height. Sure, it's a "solid safe yacht" but so are modern AWBs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top