A Writer's Question on Westsail 32

[endoftheroad]

Originally Posted by endoftheroad

Tiller only, but with over 800 32's produced someone may have special ordered wheel steering. Also, someone may have done wheel steering on a kit boat.
On another forum a W32 owner recently requested help for changing to wheel steering.
Love my tiller.

I knew I wasn't crazy. Well I had some worries about my sanity since the above quoted post of mine.
After digging deep into my mental files and physically searching here in Key West I found a Westsail 32 with wheel steering on a dock.
It was kind of like trying to remember who sang that song, very nagging and I couldn't let it go.

Seeing it in person gives a whole new definition to Westsail's small cockpit reputation.


Check out these pictures of a Westsail 32 with wheel steering.


endoftheroad

[Capt Phil]

I recall only seeing one Westsail 32 with a wheel which was moored in Reed Point Marina in Burnaby, BC. It had a hole drilled through the hull about 1 1/2 feet above the waterline in the stern with a rod attached to the rudder just aft of the rudder centerline. Had a small wooden wheel mounted on a slant on a box at the extreme aft of the cockpit. Don't know what the mechanism was but imagine it was a worm gear set up below decks.
I talked with the owner years ago and it was a custom made setup, not factory installed. So, there are a few out there, I suppose... cheers, Phil

[GRIT]

My wife and I would be interested in a copy of that PDF if you wouldn't mind.

She writes often for sailing magazines and has a book started too.
She'd love to publish via Amazon.

Cheers.
Paul
svquintana at gmail.com

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by Capt Phil

I recall only seeing one Westsail 32 with a wheel which was moored in Reed Point Marina in Burnaby, BC. It had a hole drilled through the hull about 1 1/2 feet above the waterline in the stern with a rod attached to the rudder just aft of the rudder centerline. Had a small wooden wheel mounted on a slant on a box at the extreme aft of the cockpit. Don't know what the mechanism was but imagine it was a worm gear set up below decks.
I talked with the owner years ago and it was a custom made setup, not factory installed. So, there are a few out there, I suppose... cheers, Phil

That sounds equally plausible as a hydraulic ram, which could be bypassed for a short tiller arm on the rudder's head and hooked into a windvane, also something you see on a lot of W-32s.

Just as another straw in the poll, I've seen about six W-32s. None of them were wheel-steered that I recall (it would stick out a bit) and all had some unusual "extras" like a backstay-mounted homebuilt wind genny, or a deck crane or some kind of rain collecting bimini. They were sold as kit boats/bare hulls, too, and can get quite individualistc as finished, working boats.

In my view, a reasonably skilled female sailor under 60 and over five-foot-six in better-than-average (but in no sense Olympian) fitness levels would have the upper body strength and leverage to sail a W-32 pretty well anywhere. Mechanical advantage in the form of upsized blocks, downhauls, even boom furling, are proven and negate the weight of the wide spread of canvas you want to put out to move these, uh, robust vessels, which are "get you home"-oriented, not "get you going above 4.5 knots"-oriented.

If you really want to look legitimate, mention Ferenc Mate's book "From a Bare Hull", and name drop "Satori", the W-32 that beached itself in "The Perfect Storm" (not the movie, the book). They are renowned for strength, slowness, general resistance to getting destroyed, old-school, almost antique, styling, and a vast capacity for carrying provisions. They would be the choice of someone who had inherited one built in the '70s as a passagemaker...because it's not like it would have fallen apart by now.

[Bashleys]

The Westsail 33, the Austalian version, has a wheel. Likely what u saw.

[S/V Alchemy]

Westsail 33? Wow, never heard of that variant. Live and learn.

[endoftheroad]

Haha.....
I found another Westsail 32 with wheel steering, this one is on the internet.


For the record;

[Andrew B.]

I almost spewed my drink all over that frigging keyboard reading this Mark !

Better clean the cannons, and check the powder...

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Are you saying a murder is more likely to be committed on a Westsail 32 than other boats? Or that single handers are mysterious?

Or that Hylas 47 cruisers are less likely to jamb a winch handle up the nose of a suitable murder victim?

I'm not anchoring near no Westsail 32s no more.



Mark

[Nor'Sea 27]

How about the book title so we can obtain entertainment in lieu of debating minor details?

Charles

[Andrew B.]

Originally Posted by Chas Erwin

How about the book title so we can obtain entertainment in lieu of debating minor details?

Charles

Indeed !

Weaving a butler into this story has got to be very interesting.

Everyone knows the butler always does it...

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Chas Erwin

How about the book title so we can obtain entertainment in lieu of debating minor details?

Charles

Perhaps the rules don't allow the OP to promote on the forum but I was able to track it down. You can read a few pages free on the website.

A Dangerous Harbor | R.P. Dahlke