Westsail 32 in light air

[zstine]

Originally Posted by roverhi

PHRF ratings favor light air and windward performance, two things that don't mean a lot for a cruising boat.

Well, that depends where, when and how you cruise. My experience spending 16mo sailing from NJ down through the Caribbean and back is that I was sailing with the wind forward of beam about 75% of the time. And while most of the Caribbean sailing was spirited, we also had many days sailing in light wind. I noted many cruisers who were afraid to sail in spirited winds and therefor, they only sailed in light air. I was very happy to have a spinnaker for downwind as it stabilizes roll and keeps you moving fast in lighter apparent wind.

Any comfort you get with heavy displacement quickly disappeared when you realize you need to sail in higher winds which = higher seas!

When I was looking for a boat I had a PHRF under 150, under 120 preferred, as a criteria. I'm very happy with the sailing performance of my 1975 Tartan 41, PHRF ~100.

If the OP is concerned about speed, a Westsail 32 is not the boat for him.

[thomm225]

As usual these things get turned upside down by posters.

We were discussing light air sailing, and it doesn't take a 40'er to easily beat a Westsail 32 because they can be easily beaten by 27' sailboats.

[GWB]

Originally Posted by thomm225

As usual these things get turned upside down by posters.

We were discussing light air sailing, and it doesn't take a 40'er to easily beat a Westsail 32 because they can be easily beaten by 27' sailboats.

I see what you did there. Of course a 40 footer could also easily be beaten by a Westsail 32, or even a Westsail 28

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by GWB

I see what you did there. Of course a 40 footer could also easily be beaten by a Westsail 32, or even a Westsail 28

In your dreams.......

Farr 40 (PHRF 3)

Tartan 40 SD (PHRF 105)

J40 (PHRF 78)

Express 27 (PHRF 141)

Hunter 40 (PHRF 96)

Westsail 32 (PHRF 222)

[MicHughV]

These threads never get much traction...
Everybody has an opinion, and rarely two the same.

I kinda like the W32, it has "cute factor"....it's a "classic", no two ways about it. It was never designed to be a race boat. Most were finished off by a home builder who bought the hull.

The boat gained popularity after Ferenc Mate published his book "From a Bare Hull" in 1975 I believe.

If that was my boat, I wouldn't give a hill of beans whether I was doing 5 knots or 6...or who was passing me.....I'll get there in my own good time...

To the OP, just go and enjoy the boat !!

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

slow is a relative thing...in 6-7 knots of windspeed, just about any sailboat will be slow.

most sailboats are slow....relatively speaking..... being restrained by their waterline length

A 40' boat will likely go just as slow as W32 in those low wind speeds...

Nope. Even of you ignore windward ability waterline makes a huge difference.

A good 40' boat will walk away from a westsail 32 in 6-7 knots.

Even similar boats, such as a Baba 40 will walk away from a Westsail 32 in all conditions and especially in light winds.

And in windward ability, hell there is no comparison. Take an Olson 30 compared to a Westsail 32. Sail across the pacific, sail upwind in 6-7 knots, sail upwind in 25 knots. A Westsail is a nice boat but a slow boat in all of those situations.

I have raced on a Westail 32, and we did pretty well, WITH THE HANDICAP WE WERE GIVEN which recognized our speed potential.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

These threads never get much traction...
Everybody has an opinion, and rarely two the same.

I kinda like the W32, it has "cute factor"....it's a "classic", no two ways about it. It was never designed to be a race boat. Most were finished off by a home builder who bought the hull.

The boat gained popularity after Ferenc Mate published his book "From a Bare Hull" in 1975 I believe.

If that was my boat, I wouldn't give a hill of beans whether I was doing 5 knots or 6...or who was passing me.....I'll get there in my own good time...

To the OP, just go and enjoy the boat !!

Wot ^^^^He Said^^^^
Buy a furling Gennaker..

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by GWB

You are wrong about that. Here is a Westsail doing 6k plus in 8k true wind....with working sails. Oregonian might post a picture of a Westsail doing 4k plus in 4k true wind..

https://youtu.be/KfhnPAU7r1Y

There are many other examples, but i couldn't be bothered to post them

The boat in the video was doing very well, but not quite as well as you seem to think.

His true wind angle was over 60 degrees, which for many boats is the best wind angle for speed, and he was flying a spinnaker of some kind, it is visible in the video, not working sails. So I think that 6 knots, while respectable, is not any great accomplishment, however, I have to wonder if the speedometer isn't a bit optimistic. My polar computations expects him to get a bit more like 5.14 knots.

[MicHughV]

6-8 knots may have been the "true" wind speed, but at around 0.21-0.25 into the vid the wind speed indicator is showing "13" knots of wind speed, which is, off course "apparent" wind speed, which makes more sense to me, in that, it will likely take that kind of windspeed to get 6 knots of boatspeed out of the W32, ie, the boat's speed is added to the wind speed on that heading...
...'jes sayin'....

[MicHughV]

finally, 6-8 knots of "true"wind speed generally indicates relatively flat or smooth water, as shown in the vid, but should the "true" wind speed jump up to 13 knots, so to will the sea state, and one would need to allow for waves coming from ahead....so with 13 knots of "true" wind, the "apparent" wind will be in the 18-20 knot range, going to weather, that is...which means the W32 will likely be near or at it's max. speed, and probably flying reduced sail to boot....but still doing around 6 knots or so.
...'jes sayin'....

[oregonian]

I can understand not liking another boat or not appreciating it but my gawd do you need to make up things to establish a point. PLEASE look at that video posted by GWB again. The wind does not jump to 13k or 19k. That is 7.3 and 7.9. Jeezas. And wingsail says the boat is flying a spinnaker or something. The Head sail is a standard W-32 Yankee that is high cut. Not a Super Yankee or Genoa or anything else. The Staysail is standard and on a boom. I’m going to suggest that some of you guys, with 1000’s of post, do a little more research before spreading such misinformation. There is plenty of that already around. Thank you

[GWB]

Now I remember why I stopped getting involved in these threads. The boat in the video is my boat, from about 8 years ago. Since then I have learned to sail a bit better and could post something showing better performance.
The point I was trying to make is that there are many people who simply don't know what they are talking about.
To the original poster, the Westsail 32 sails perfectly fine in light air. Don't believe the know-it-alls who will tell you differently.
In the video, the display shows both true and apparent wind angles and speed, when the button is pushed.
Waterline length for a Westsail 32 is 27.5 foot which means hull speed is 7.3 knots. I have seen more than 10 knots in my boat.

To Wingsail, please post your polars for a Westsail 32. I would love to take a look.

[GWB]

Here is a Westsail 32 doing 4.2k in 4.2k APPARENT wind...

Who can tell me what the TRUE wind was...?

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by GWB

Now I remember why I stopped getting involved in these threads. The boat in the video is my boat, from about 8 years ago. Since then I have learned to sail a bit better and could post something showing better performance.
The point I was trying to make is that there are many people who simply don't know what they are talking about.
To the original poster, the Westsail 32 sails perfectly fine in light air. Don't believe the know-it-alls who will tell you differently.
In the video, the display shows both true and apparent wind angles and speed, when the button is pushed.
Waterline length for a Westsail 32 is 27.5 foot which means hull speed is 7.3 knots. I have seen more than 10 knots in my boat.

To Wingsail, please post your polars for a Westsail 32. I would love to take a look.

In the photo I see a nylon radial cut sail forward. It appears to be much lighter than the hanked on sail on the stay aft of it. To me it looks like a nylon reacher or asymmetrical spinnaker, it's hard to tell from the photo, but it's clearly not the standard working sail. It does look like the right sail for the conditions however.

As for a polar, my VPP calculator does not work well for "heavy cruisers" and anyhow, its meant to indicate velocity change as true wind angle changes, not absolute boat speeds. And, frankly, I wrote it for a different kind of boat and I've never plugged a Westsail 32 into it before so don't expect to learn much from it.

[waterman46]

Originally Posted by GWB

You are wrong about that. Here is a Westsail doing 6k plus in 8k true wind....with working sails. Oregonian might post a picture of a Westsail doing 4k plus in 4k true wind..

https://youtu.be/KfhnPAU7r1Y

There are many other examples, but i couldn't be bothered to post them

Nope. That wind is 10 to 12 knots, not 8. the water gives you away. Small whitecaps clearly seen ahead of the boat to starboard. Sure I do believe you were going 6 knots in 10 knots of wind. And it looks like you are closer to a beam reach, perhaps even a little below, than your instrument indicated.