Hello;  I will be inheriting my father's 1978 W32 and moving it to my yacht club.  My port captain needs to know if the actual LOA is 32'; it make a huge difference where I can dock it.  If it's really over 32' I have to find another location for it as he is trying to get it into a 30' slip.  Any help or suggestions is most appreciated.  Thank you so much and I look forward to joining this group.   tamra@teamortho.com

Hi - Yes at a minimum, you'd need 40 ft to incorporate the bow sprit and boomkin for no overhang, unless the marina you are in is going to measure any additional gear hanging off the back i.e a wind vane that might stick out a little more. 

It's in the terminology.  LOA is the distance of the solid boat from stem to stern, exclusive of the bowsprit and boomkin.  Visualize a real ship, with a big hulking hull and a dinky little  bowsprit pointing the way for steering.  Here's the way to say it.....

'LOA (Length Over All)'  is  32 feet, which gives you a rough idea of how much cargo it can carry..

It has a bowsprit and a boomkin, so the 'Sparred Length'  is  39 feet,  which is what the dockmaster needs to know

'Waterline length' is  27.5 feet.  Maybe you can talk the  yard into basing the cost of hauling and bottom paint on this instead of the sparred length.  8^)

Thanks this was very helpful.

Tamra

Yes he did:)

Tamra