Westerly Solway 36ft Ketch Sunk for a few days

A better boat than that was sold by the insurance company in Camaret after last winters storms for 500€. It was very repairable and a good boat but no one wants all that work with good boats going so cheap at the moment.
Boat market is flooded at the moment and I don't think that will change in the future. Too many boats seeking too few buyers and not enough marina places. Even in France we have 5 year plus waiting lists for berths in most Marinas..
 
I looked at this very boat when she was for sale by her previous owners, last year.

They were a lovely couple who had really looked after her, and sailed her widely.

They were very keen for us to make an offer, but she just wasn't what we wanted.

I don't know if she was sold, and I don't know how she came to be in her present sad condition.

I'm certainly not interested now!
 
I have worked on quite a few similar boats. The insurance companies always sell off the write offs, often to their preffered salvage agents. Like cars damaged repairables have a ready market from those who dont have the full price available to buy a good large boat outright but still want one.
From experience i would question when did it sink? it could have been salvaged 6 months ago, filling an engine with diesel is not proper first aid so electrics, starter & alternator will be toast. Batteries, electronics, instruments, wiring, lights all will be scrap. Headlinings throughout. Then there's the glass work, fixing the bilge keel & rudder will be heavy expensive work. If you are brave & have the skills to do it you could end up with a good boat.
If you are paying someone to do the work forget it as you will be out of pocket. They will sell it no probs, always plenty of lulu's out there!
 
vyv_cox said:
Simply drying it out a few times. There is a limiting length(weight) for splayed bilge keels that Westerly exceeded with many designs. The Discus I mentioned earlier was on a drying mooring.
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Hmm, maybe next boat isn't going to be a Westerly 33 to 36 foot bilge keeler after all
 
I have rebuilt two boats one which flooded on the tide when I bought her, and one which I knew needed work but still sailed............I am pretty handy..........I would never never do it again...... walk away .........life's to short.
 
vyv_cox said:
Simply drying it out a few times.
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Your generalism surprises me.

I bought a 1988 BK Konsort Duo in 1996, it had spent it's life drying out on the East Coast. I sailed it to Beaumaris, where it dried out outside my house for four years. It is now in Conway - still drying out twice a day.

I don't think it has ever been on anything other than a drying mooring.
 
Depends on the economics

Thanks to the OC, I found a second owner of my Macwester 26 had bought it as salvage when c. 2 yrs old. Currently a yacht charterer in Columbia, but that's another story.(The owner, not the boat)

It had had a keel ripped off on piling on a falling tide in Ramsgate. After being told, I could just detect the repair 30+yrs later
 
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chinita said:
Your generalism surprises me.

I bought a 1988 BK Konsort Duo in 1996, it had spent it's life drying out on the East Coast. I sailed it to Beaumaris, where it dried out outside my house for four years. It is now in Conway - still drying out twice a day.

I don't think it has ever been on anything other than a drying mooring.
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I have no idea why some Westerlies failed in this way and some did not, I can only assume poor quality control but maybe the location of drying mooring is a factor. It is a fact that many bilge keel Westerlies did have the problem and I recall a Centaur in Dickies that suffered it. The Discus was named Mercedes, sank in Beaumaris Bay in about 1990, one keel fully detached.

Westerly were not particularly good at designing and building hull strength around keels. Early GK29s were notorious for problems in this area and I have read of one in which the keel emerged into the saloon as the boat dried. Mine was strengthened by the first owner and then again by a boatyard after the keel showed signs of becoming detached after a grounding (insurance job after the mooring failed)
 
vyv_cox said:
I have no idea why some Westerlies failed in this way and some did not, I can only assume poor quality control but maybe the location of drying mooring is a factor. It is a fact that many bilge keel Westerlies did have the problem and I recall a Centaur in Dickies that suffered it. The Discus was named Mercedes, sank in Beaumaris Bay in about 1990, one keel fully detached.

Westerly were not particularly good at designing and building hull strength around keels. Early GK29s were notorious for problems in this area and I have read of one in which the keel emerged into the saloon as the boat dried. Mine was strengthened by the first owner and then again by a boatyard after the keel showed signs of becoming detached after a grounding (insurance job after the mooring failed)
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I think QC was Westerly's biggest problem, on my boat i've experienced some interesting variations in laminate thickness and quality.

Having fitted two skin fittings in the bilge the other day i have two grp dowels on the bench (from drilling the holes) that are almost an inch thick yet my keel stub floors were both around 10-12mm thick. The stubs are now significantly beefed-up both internally and externally but find it rather curious as to why the bilges would be twice the thickness of an area of the hull thats taking significantly more loading.

FWIW the only Westerly's i've known to have lost keels (three in total) all broke free of their moorings and therefore obliterated themselves on quay walls and sand bars.
 
Hi neal,
We did sell the boat, the chap who bought it told us about it sinking. She sank after he had hit something whilst sailing in the solent. He knew water was coming in but did nothing about it, just brought it back to the mooring and left it. The keel coming off was not down to a structural failure. We were so sad to see her now, when we said goodbye to her she was in tiptop condition as you know. Regards
 
vyv_cox said:
I remember a Westerly Discus sinking on its mooring in Beaumaris Bay for the same reason. The boat was rebuilt and AFAIK is still sailing. I suspect that £10,000 is too much but if the engine can be recovered, quite likely if the correct actions were taken, then it might be.
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Graham, manager of Dinas Boat Yard rebuilt a Centaur which had one keel detached .
 
+1 walk on .....there will be owners of good boats who will rip your arm off for 10k.......look around and make offers..
Good luck.
 
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