WOA: An ex owner's observations

Before the Westsail, I owned a Columbia 26 and a Morgan 35. Both plastic fantastic production boats that were barely safe to float in a bathtub. Broke all the bulkheads loose from the hull on the Columbia and ended up successfully suing Morgan for gross structural problems. Both the Morgan and the Columbia were dangerously hard to control with the wind up. After those two experiences, I wanted a hell for stout boat with reliable handling characteristics. A friend turned me on to Westsail just after they became Westsail in early 1973. I went out to California and looked at the boats, their construction, and sailed on a Kindly (the guy who actually came up with the idea of building the Atkins design in Fiberglass and built the mold) and was very impressed. Put an order in for delivery a year later We were one of the original Westsail 32 kit builders finishing hull #163, or was it 136, in '74. We sailed California, French Polynesia and ended up in Kona in '77. The second owners did more modifications and refurbishment and took the boat to Australia and most of the South Pacific Islands in the early '90s. It's now back in Kona and on its 4th owner. The boat is being used in what looks like a very successful day sailing operation.... We took advantage of every little nook and cranny to add a lot more usable storage with a much nicer finish than the factory. We saw quite a number of boats that were under construction by their owners including Ference Mate's. Most Kit boats were very well finished though some were quite eccentric in their layouts....Anyway, don't shy away from a custom built Westsail, most were built with more thought, skill, and attention to detail than the factory boats. Do look carefully at how the layout works, however. If they strayed too far from the stock layout, they may not be practical for either cruising or living aboard. Do a thorough survey of the hulls of W32's built after '75 or so. Westsail was always in deep financial difficulty and did some pretty weird things when the vendors were hounding them for money. The early boats were laid up by Crystaliner, numbers under 300 or so, and were all very well done...... Basically, severe negligence during construction not withstanding, the W32's are so overbuilt they'll sink anything, including California, that they run into.

All lead ballast or the extra lead ballast and punchings option are good to have. The extra weight down low improves the sail carrying ability. I've seen at least one factory boat that had to have been way light on ballast as it floated 6 inches or more above its lines.

With their 20,000 lbs plus displacement and wide beam carried well forward and aft, the Westsails have the interior volume of a 40' boat. Plenty of room for a couple to live on and cruise. When we moved off the boat, after 4 years, the kitchen in our first house would not hold the galley equipment and supplies we carried off the boat.

Even though the W32 has the nickname of the 'Wetsnail', ours was a very fast boat. We averaged 120nm a day, through the water, for close to 10,000 miles. Those were sailing miles as we had less than 350 hours on the engine, mostly for battery charging, when we sold the boat after 10 years. We knew of no other boat within 10' of her waterline that had a better average.

One thing a W32 won't do is beat into a chop, however. You simply cannot pinch these boats up. Crack off a bit and get boat speed up to 4 knots or more and they
will sail the pants off most other boats with in more than 8 knots of wind. If you are dumb enough to want to go hard on the wind, get in the habit of motor sailing. We could point up with the best IOR racer with the engine ticking over just above idle.

From a close to a broad reach, there are very few boats that will stay with a W32. On one trip down from San Francisco to Newport Beach, we averaged over 140 nm a day with a best days run of 187nm. On a reach into Hawaii on the trip from the Marquesas, we covered 1,000 nm in 6 days. Of course, the first 1,000 mile took 12 days with light and fluky winds and sailing around in circles for a day in the ITC.

The boats carry a pretty strong weather helm when they've got a bone in their teeth. We spent most of our time at sea with a single reef in the main and the
staysail and Yankee. The slot between the two headsails was very important as boat speed suffered when we were forced to drop the Yankee and sail under staysail and reefed main, alone. A roller furling Yankee, which we didn't have, would probably allow you to balance out the fore triangle under all but the most severe conditions, however. We also carried a high cut reacher/drifter off a Morgan 35 for off wind work up to about 10knots of apparent wind. These four sails were a more than adequate inventory to drive the boat under all but storm conditions. A modern asymmetrical cruising spinnaker/reacher and a real genoa would be a nice sail combination to carry if you didn't mind an extra sail bag or two lying around.

The W32 will not balance out and self-stear, except going to windward, so a competent pendulum servo self-steering vane is a must. Nick, our Aries vane, sailed the boat in all but ghosting conditions. Can't say enough good things about Nick Franklin and the Aries. A monitor or other vane would probably work just as well if the boat you find doesn't already have a vane. A one armed autopilot would have been nice for powering. Without an autopilot, it was an excuse not to turn the engine on.

A W32 is easy for a single hander to maneuver. With my 4'10, 85 pound wife as crew, we sailed into and out of practically every anchorage and harbor that we came to. The only time I felt the least intimidated was when we got hit by a sudden 40 knots rounding Point Conception with the Reacher and full main up. Let the main off, set the self steering vane for a close reach and fought the Reacher down. The reacher was a real handful as the wind was so strong, it would fully hoist the sail up the stay if I didn't physically haul it down. After fighting the reacher down and lashing it, hauled up the staysail, which was already hanked on. Then went aft, double reefed the main and we were back under control. Of course, as soon as all this was done, with great drama, the wind dropped to 5 knots never to come back again.

We had the 2-cylinder Volvo MD2 engine that was the definition of simplicity. Easily hand cranked after the dynamo fell off, rebuildable in situ, dead reliable and extremely economical. Would push the boat at a becalmed 5 knots at less than a gallon an hour. It was all the power plant we needed. For most people, it wasn't enough power, however. Delivered two Westsails, one with the MD3 Volvo and the other with a Perkins 4-107. Both were much more maneuverable in reverse and more pleasant under power, though some of that was undoubtedly due to their 3 bladed prop. The idiot owner of the Perkins powered W32 actually stopped the boat in its tracks on a reach, by red lining it in reverse He lost control under full sail
in tight quarters in Newport Harbor when an unexpected Santa Anna blew up. The MD2 with a two bladed prop, told you I'm a sailor, was a bear in reverse. It would not back to port with any rev's on the engine. When going in reverse, the drill was to rev up the engine to build up speed to get steerage, then drop the engine to idle and put the tiller hard over to turn to port. I ended up backing all the way out to the main channel, from our slip at the marina, more than once when the wind and tight surroundings wouldn't let us turn the way we wanted to. It would turn to starboard without a sweat. The larger engine boats with 3 blade props were much better behaved in reverse.....

Westsails as seen through the eyes of a veteran cruiser....