Westsail 32 - Opinions Needed !

[cburger]

Westsail 32's carry upwards to 4000lbs in cruising gear, the only way my boat would ever hit 17 knots would be if it was being towed by an aircraft carrier.

[endoftheroad]

Now this is really getting good!

[GWB]

Well, I guess the Westsail comes close to that:

This is an excerpt from an interview with Garry Weber. I don't know him and I apologize in advance if it is inappropriate for me to post this excerpt. I will remove it if asked by the author of the article or anyone else in the interview.
It is relevant because Garry Weber crewed on the Westsail 32 that won the Pacific cup in 1988

Garry remembers fighting the tiller while watching the winch bases flex as the boat hit 12 knots in squalls. "It is so easy to get that hull to waterline speed--7.2 knots. The trick was keeping the speed there," Garry explained. They set the sails then steered to the wind, trying to stay on a reach. He remembers the never-ending roar of the bow wave and the moment they hit 13 on the knotmeter with the enormously stable Westsail rail down.

The full interview is here:
http://www.angelfire.com/or/petermarsh/garryweber.htm

[s/v Jedi]

Getting good indeed... According to posts, the W32 will only need 3-4 knots of wind to reach 7.2 knot hull speed, yet manages 12 knots in more wind. When the big guns discover this, the America's cup can once again go back to the USA when they bring up the W32 as their secret weapon!

cheers,
Nick

[GWB]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Getting good indeed... According to posts, the W32 will only need 3-4 knots of wind to reach 7.2 knot hull speed, yet manages 12 knots in more wind. When the big guns discover this, the America's cup can once again go back to the USA when they bring up the W32 as their secret weapon!

cheers,
Nick

Just the facts Nick, just the facts. And that would be 13 knots... not 12.
And you are wrong on your first statement. Again.

[Randyonr3]

Now I' m not going disagree with the speeds reached on the westsail 32 but to my understanding the westsail is a full displacement hull and.as.such is limited under the hull speed formula..
In boats as the FIRST and J boats, the hull is a simi displacement so the hull speed formula is just another.number..
What makes the westsail , a full displacement hull , to gain the ability to exceed hullspeed for extended periods of time..
If.it is possible, then how?

[malbert73]

Originally Posted by Randyonr3

Now I' m not going disagree with the speeds reached on the westsail 32 but to my understanding the westsail is a full displacement hull and.as.such is limited under the hull speed formula..
In boats as the FIRST and J boats, the hull is a simi displacement so the hull speed formula is just another.number..
What makes the westsail , a full displacement hull , to gain the ability to exceed hullspeed for extended periods of time..
If.it is possible, then how?

In all non planong sailboats, hull speed simply refers to the theoretical maximum speed at which the boat can travel. any boat can exceed it's hull speed, but the energy needed to do so increases very steeply above hull speed- essentially needing waves to surf, or extremely high winds.
I've hit 9.6 on GPS in chesapeake bay conditions, wave and wind aided of course. Can regularly sustain 7-8 knots with powered up broad reaching which is well beyond my hull speed.

Lighter boats can plane more easily, which is the easiest way to exceed hull speed, but I doubt a cruise loaded FIRST or J will find it significantly easier to exceed its hull speed than a westsail....

[oregonian]

Ahoy Paul L. I surrender. The 17k is very impressive and beyond what I will ever see on my W-32. Just a note: At the time that my W-32 was doing 13k, Stan Honey and his wife Sally, on their Cal 40, saw 25k on the knotmeter.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by oregonian

Ahoy Paul L. I surrender. The 17k is very impressive and beyond what I will ever see on my W-32. Just a note: At the time that my W-32 was doing 13k, Stan Honey and his wife Sally, on their Cal 40, saw 25k on the knotmeter.

And both you and Stan would kick my ass in most any race. Skill of the skipper and crew counts! Was Stan on Argonaut at the time? My boat is fast and easy to sail. It will not hold as much gear as a W32. It will sail easier and faster in a lot of conditions. I made a 45 mile beat to weather yesterday in 20+kts where we sailed the whole trip because we could point high enough to avoid the offshore reef. The other boats were motor sailing so they could point high enough to make it. Of course throwing in a big tack would be possible, but that would have meant dealing with a nasty reef strewn entrance at the other end in the dark. Life and boats are all about trade off. I don't think a J is a good boat for everyone, nor do I think it is a boat that satisfies all needs. I can say exactly the same about a W32. I just don't understand why some think that a W32 is a miracle design that is not a trade off, but actually beats the light boats in speed, carries more than semi-load and requires no maintenance and costs nothing. OK, I exxagerate, but the boat is good for a low cost cruiser and would allow a lot of people to get off the dock now, instead of waiting for their 45 foot RV to come in.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by malbert73

......
Lighter boats can plane more easily, which is the easiest way to exceed hull speed, but I doubt a cruise loaded FIRST or J will find it significantly easier to exceed its hull speed than a westsail....

You know how the W32 crew just feels that referring to a W32 as slow by others is just nonsense and ill-informed? Well saying that a fast boat loaded with cruising gear won't exceed the calculated hull speed based on LWL is also nonsense. My J is loaded for cruising. The waterline has been raised, the ass end is in the water. We hit 8 to 10's on many passages. No way you could race her in this condition, but she is still way way faster and points higher than most boats 5 feet longer.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Paul L

You know how the W32 crew just feels that referring to a W32 as slow by others is just nonsense and ill-informed? Well saying that a fast boat loaded with cruising gear won't exceed the calculated hull speed based on LWL is also nonsense. My J is loaded for cruising. The waterline has been raised, the ass end is in the water. We hit 8 to 10's on many passages. No way you could race her in this condition, but she is still way way faster and points higher than most boats 5 feet longer.

Pff.. Let them start bragging about their record 24-hour distances. Being twice as fast as the wind and planing, I bet they must hit 200 nm days most of the time !

Nick.

[svHannabel]

Leave it to a Westsail thread to string out multiple pages and multiple weeks.

[hummingway]

Originally Posted by svHannabel

Leave it to a Westsail thread to string out multiple pages and multiple weeks.

Ouch, zing!

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by svHannabel

Leave it to a Westsail thread to string out multiple pages and multiple weeks.

Are you saying it takes the westsail guys a while to get there?

(running and duckin')

[GWB]

Do you guys ever go sailing? Bored at work?

But seriously, most of the BS about the W32 has been disproved and still the vitriol? I have to think that its a case of sour grapes. Get over it and go sailing fellas!!