What yacht should I buy. Westerly, Seadog, Hurley, LM or Pioneer Pilot.

[Jcorstorphine]

We are selling or trying to sell our Westerly Pentland as the ketch rig meant it impossible to give a sheltered helming position, though we built a hard doghouse instead of the sprayhood to give shelter to a person on watch and in bad weather run on autopilot to minimise trip out into rain. We will miss the sailing quality however. A similar Westerly hull with sloop rig would make the addition of shelter more practical.

We bought an LM27 as layout much preferable though I am having to get specialised auto helm to operate from pilot house or tiller position (tiller pilot plus remote). She sails OK as sail displacement ratio same as Pentland, except the fishing boat hull means she is less slippery. Her longkeel and shallow draft means she rolls a bit unless some sail is set (Pentand bilge keel bucket effect stops rolling surprisingly well by comparison). I thought about Sea Dog as heavy built and clearly canopy possible across the centre cockpit as mizzen to the rear of it. I think SeaDog would be slow but steady.

I don't know the Hurley but has good reputation, however if the OPs lady does not like the rolling of a 31ft Westerly it is hard to see what will please her. We took, and until we sell will take, ours out in all manner of shite weather in perfect confidence and only slightly green about the gills.

Hi . Just read my original post ref my wife not liking boats which heel too much. What I was trying to say that she liked the Pentland as it never felt it was heeling too much and she felt tottaly safe in it. I loved our Pentland but love the wheel house on my wee Motor Sailer more ?

 

[oldmanofthehills]

I Have a longbow with a hard dodger, you could buy that and just get one added to your spec. (you may know her, she was a clyde cruising club boat, pot & kettle owned by lenoard & catherine macneil). Lennie took her over to bangor in NI from the clyde to get the harddodger fitted. Its an absolute boon. I took her south round lands end last winter and I can attest that the dodger made the triop a damn sight more comfortable than it would have been otherwise.

Our Pentland with iroko pine doghouse or dodger. AS. Not quite as pretty as Steves but does a good job. As you can see the helm is still out in the weather. One thing about a ketch is that in a blow she sails nearly as fast with mainsail down, thus avoiding mainsail work for us ageing sailors in bad weather. Being sold at knockdown price with new engine, sails, rigging if anyone is interested

 

[steve yates]

I'll second that, my longbow handles great under genoa and mizzen alone, easily achieving hull speed.

 

[Mataji]

You say you find your current boat dull. I bought a LM27 on the west coast at the age of 65. I thought it might be my last boat. It certainly was the most comfortable of boats, many friends with larger boats agreed. However, after 5 years I began to find it rather dull, and found myself often just motoring from the wheelhouse. Sold it 18 months ago and bought an out and out sailing boat. Might consider another LM in 5 years or so.

 

[pvb]

I'll second that, my longbow handles great under genoa and mizzen alone, easily achieving hull speed.

Way back in 1977, my wife and I were looking to sell our Centaur and were thinking about a Pentland. At that time, Westerly had a sales office at Bradwell Marina, with some demo boats, including a Pentland Ketch. We booked a trial sail for Saturday 5 November. Well, we turned up and it was sub-zero and blowing F7/8, so I said to the demo guy that presumably we wouldn't be going out for a sail, but that we'd be happy to look over the boat. He said it'd be no problem to go out, so off we went (well off he went, as we just sat and watched) and sure enough with just a jib and mizzen the boat went well and felt safe. We got back to Bradwell, absolutely frozen, but we still signed to buy one, went back to our car and sat for at least 30 minutes with the heater on full before we could talk properly. We had our Pentland for about 5 years, and have very happy memories of it.

 

[Hurleyexpress]

I've only just stumbled on your thread but, I've got a Hurley 9.5 myself and, as another forumite pointed it out, compare to the other boats on the list, they are ultra heavy displacement with a very thick Hull and a low centre of gravity, giving them the ability to pull like a train in some very adverse conditions

 

[Jcorstorphine]

Thanks Gary for reminding me of my original post. Well I finally made up my mind and bought an LM28 with a 10 year old 36HP Bukh in 2019 but it did need quite a lot of work however this was reflected in the price of £5,000. Due to the amount of work needed, we decided not to launch in 19 as we still had our little motor sailor in commission so used that.
2020 dawned and before we could launch we were in Lockdown so did not launch until mid August. We have had one trip out to test the engine and get used to handling the boat. Picture was taken by previous owner of the West Coast of Scotland. Here is hoping we can make use of our new boat in 21.

 

[C08]

Thanks Gary for reminding me of my original post. Well I finally made up my mind and bought an LM28 with a 10 year old 36HP Bukh in 2019 but it did need quite a lot of work however this was reflected in the price of £5,000. Due to the amount of work needed, we decided not to launch in 19 as we still had our little motor sailor in commission so used that.
2020 dawned and before we could launch we were in Lockdown so did not launch until mid August. We have had one trip out to test the engine and get used to handling the boat. Picture was taken by previous owner of the West Coast of Scotland. Here is hoping we can make use of our new boat in 21.View attachment 107949View attachment 107949View attachment 107949

Nice looking , capable boat - I think you got a bargain!

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Thanks Gary for reminding me of my original post. Well I finally made up my mind and bought an LM28 with a 10 year old 36HP Bukh in 2019 but it did need quite a lot of work however this was reflected in the price of £5,000. Due to the amount of work needed, we decided not to launch in 19 as we still had our little motor sailor in commission so used that.
2020 dawned and before we could launch we were in Lockdown so did not launch until mid August. We have had one trip out to test the engine and get used to handling the boat. Picture was taken by previous owner of the West Coast of Scotland. Here is hoping we can make use of our new boat in 21.View attachment 107949View attachment 107949View attachment 107949

Im envious. I would have preferred the LM28 to our LM27, but none were on offer a the time we bought.

Our needed quite a bit of work to get it up to modern spec with dam between cockpit and wheelhouse (behind door) and closing off the ridiculous open side cuddies in cockpit that would drain a swamped cockpit straight into bilges, plus we added gimballed cooker to replace defective original. All fun, but what was not fun was that 36 year old engine. It was not merely a bit sluggish with age like its new owners (Seller engineer claimed it was fine) but it spewed oil and forward clutch failed to engage until running for 20 minutes. In short a peice of sh*t. New Beta 25 being fitted as we speak.

Navigator is completely sold on it. Charts just to left of helm position, galley a bit further left and kettle stays level to about 15 degree lean. Navigator frets if we heel more and wont cook then. And we start the day at anchor or mooring by putting on stove and warming wheelhouse while we ponder the view.

 

[Jcorstorphine]

Thanks Gary for reminding me of my original post. Well I finally made up my mind and bought an LM28 with a 10 year old 36HP Bukh in 2019 but it did need quite a lot of work however this was reflected in the price of £5,000. Due to the amount of work needed, we decided not to launch in 19

Im envious. I would have preferred the LM28 to our LM27, but none were on offer a the time we bought.

Our needed quite a bit of work to get it up to modern spec with dam between cockpit and wheelhouse (behind door) and closing off the ridiculous open side cuddies in cockpit that would drain a swamped cockpit straight into bilges, plus we added gimballed cooker to replace defective original. All fun, but what was not fun was that 36 year old engine. It was not merely a bit sluggish with age like its new owners (Seller engineer claimed it was fine) but it spewed oil and forward clutch failed to engage until running for 20 minutes. In short a peice of sh*t. New Beta 25 being fitted as we speak.

Navigator is completely sold on it. Charts just to left of helm position, galley a bit further left and kettle stays level to about 15 degree lean. Navigator frets if we heel more and wont cook then. And we start the day at anchor or mooring by putting on stove and warming wheelhouse while we ponder the view.

Glad you like the LM. Think you have made the right descion regarding the engine. My previous boat but one (Westerly Pentland) had a Volvo Penta MD2B which was also a heap of sxxx. I spent a fortune on trying go keep it going. Ended up pulling it apart and doing a partial rebuild due to the extortionate costs of Volvo spares. It sort of worked after that but it spoiled a nice boat. When I look back, I could have bought a new 30hp Perkins for about the same price of all the spares I bought. The previous owner of my LM 28 bought a new 36 HP Bukh bobtail engine and had the Saildrive fully rebuilt by Bukh about 10 years ago. Cost was about £12,000. The Bukh is a joy to behold, I have never had such a quiet and vibration free engine but it was an eye watering cost. So enjoy the new engine, you will never regret it