What model Westerly

Back in 1970, my dad bought a boat that he kept for about 5 years. We used to sail it from Galveston to Corpus Christi and back. I am pretty sure it was a Westerly but can not remember much else about it. I don't even remember how long it was but probably in the 28 to 30 foot range. Does anyone know if it had a model name or number. I did online searches for Westerly but turn up nothing that looks like it.

 

Looks like a 1960's Westerly to me

Try this one

http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=3227

They also did a 28ft version. It wasn't until the Centaur etc that they became really popular. The Centaur had the trademark knuckle in the bow

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

Thanks. I looked at all the boats on that site and none of them really matched up. I now remember that it had a Volvo Penta auxiliary motor. I had to start it by hand a few times when we left the running lights on and ran down the battery.

 

The other yard building similar boats in the 60's was Macwester. But yours didn't look quite right, unless the scanned photo was distorted or you had a semi one off stretched version, although the keels looked Macwesterish

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

The photos are accurate. As I recall, the boat was a little shorter than the Golden Hind 31 that my dad considered buying at the time.

 

richard, how do those keels effect the performance, looks like a huge amount of drag.

 

Interesting set of keel! Make it practical to handle on the hard.

 

The double keel, sometimes called bilge keels, have about the same surface area as a deep fin keel. The boat handled about as well as a conventional keel but maybe not quite as close to the wind. It was a very stable boat. Would be great in the Bay of Fundy when the tide went out. It was great for Galveston Bay with its many oyster reefs and sand bars. We could go where other boats would hit bottom.
A similar boat when the tide goes out.

 

i understand the bilge keels but the third keel/skeg is huge. it looks like there would be a huge amount of drag with the surface area of the 3 keels .

 

Any additional drag only seemed to manifest itself in a light wind. We never really raced but when a group of boats would put out from Galveston for Corpus, we would get there somewhere in the middle of the pack in a good wind. In a really heavy wind we usually could put out more jib than the other boats. (roller reefing)

 

It's a Westerly 30, designed by D. A. Rayner (David?) and built from 1966 to 1968....largest boat in the Westerly line at the time. LOA 30'2", LWL 25'9", beam 8'8", draft 3'0", Displacement 7020 lbs, ballast 3100 pounds, sail area 365 sq ft. power Mercedes 34HP or Volvo MD2 15HP.

 

Denys Arthur Rayner - nickname 'Ben'


1943 pic

Cheers,
Angel

P.S. - looked up why he was gone so early, too bad he's on this list . .

 

Thanks for that information. It is what I was looking for.

 

I found some old photos from the boat while under sail. That strapping young lad would be my older brother. My dad is at the helm in the one shot. We did have lots of fun on that boat. I remember now that, being the smallest person available, they hoisted me up the mast in a bosuns chair to fix the blub socket for the light on the mast head. I was not bothered by heights then. Could not get me to do that again these days.