Books

To Pioneer the Oceans To Live aboard the Sea To Weather the Storm To Reward Yourself To Get to Know Your Family To Live a Different Kind of Life No Matter What you Earn To Join the Westsail Family Powerful words that brought a new type of cruising sailboat to market in the early 1970s.

For years it had been understood that sailboats were more an emotional purchase than a rational one. Yet most companies advertised facts and specifications, presuming that sailboat buyers were knowledgeable enough to translate the specifications into which boat fulfilled their dreams.

Westsail made no such presumption and became the first company to put the facts about their boats and the emotional appeal of sailing together in sweet harmony. Boy, did they make a success of the concept. Over 1100 cruising sailboats were delivered in less than ten years.

Find on Amazon

Two good books to read to really trace the history of the Westsail 32. They show where the origins actually started. How Colin Archer came up with the double ender roots and how William Atkin designed the Eric and Dragon from Collin Archers designs. Then how Bill Crealock designed the Westsail 32 from those designs.

Enjoyable books to follow the history of the boat.

Greg Peterson 

by  J. T. W. Hubbard

1986

W.W. Norton and Company

Covers the 1984 OSTAR (Observer Single-handed Transatlantic Race) completed by the author in his Westsail 32, Johan Lloyde. Of 92 starters, he finished 61st overall and 10th in Class. The Westsail had first been single handed to England in order to start the race back to the USA. From home to England and back, the little sailboat moved her keel over more than 8500 miles of water. Interestingly,  Johan Lloyde had been purchased by the author in 1974 as a "Sailaway Kit". The book is good reading.

20 Small Sailboats includes a section on the Westsail 32 - link to amazon.com where it is reviewd and for sale.

I ran into Shawn and Heather at the 2011 Strictly Sail show in Oakland.  They are owners of Blue Latitude Press and have written and published two books titled Pacific Mexico  and Sea of Cortez .  They use W32 Om Shanti  as their research vessel. 

Take a look at their site as their books look very detailed.

Jay

http://www.amazon.com/Bare-Hull-Ferenc-Mate/dp/0920256074

Review from Amazon - The good review - This is a great book. Ferenc Mate has a very enaging style of writing, and he weaves nuts and bolts information and construction techniques into an excellent reference book. He has strong opinions on most matters, and lets the reader know why he believes things should be done a certain way. I found the book very useful not only for boatbuilding reference, but also as a guide to good construction techniques for existing boats. I have learned how to look at a boat's construction with a critical eye-- How would Ferenc Mate have built that? If you are considering building a boat, get this book first.

The bad review - To start with, the book was written in the early 80's and much of the technical details are outdated and quoted prices unfortunately rather unrealistic. Measurements are only imperial and not metric.

The structure leaves much to be desired. He starts with a chapter on reinforcing hulls and then moves on to hull selection criteria. There is nothing on fiberglass and epoxy production itself, it is assumed that those parts are purchased ready to be used. There is nothing whatsoever on hull production. Mr Mate endorses internal lead keels (cough) but suggest to purchase the keel rather than DIY.

Throughout the whole book are suggested solutions to remedy problems related to heeling yet the one solution that addresses all of them (a multihull!) is done away with as unsafe! I fail to see how a mono that can sink within minutes is safer.

Then there are suggestions like "lower the saw blade on a table saw to prevent injury while sitting on it"!!! Sure, he should've added to switch off a hydraulic press before taking a nap inside of it. He also recommends to deliberately damage plywood and then haggle down the price.

Also rather annoying is his permanent use of the same phrase, testament to his rather poor writing skills. I am half way through this book now and have to push myself to pick it up again. What a waste of money!!!

I was asked by Jeanne Kenaston to put up a copy of this link. The links to the two volumes are:

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1832424 Volume 1
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1828992 Volume 2

YouTube for a short slide show http://youtu.be/FM10Fw1jDCM

You can look at the whole book without buying it, but I think it was a great effort on the part of the Jim and Jeanne and well worth the cost.

Steve Waterman
***********************

Our former Westsail, "Sabbatical," now owned by Gary Baugh (renamed Betelgeuse) has finally made it into print. I completed this year the story of our voyage around the world.

Didn't start out to ever do that, but in digitizing hundreds of photographs, it just sort of "happened."

The books (two volume set) are available at www.blurb.com (Search: On Sabbatical). It can be viewed in its entirety for free. Purchase is also through Blurb, although for the same price I can sign and mail copies ($120.00 for the set). I'm getting ready to order some more sets, as I am currently sold out, but will have some in a few weeks. Sorry about the price - the penalty for "on demand" printing. Sale is at my cost, so I'm not retiring on the proceeds.

The books comprises 300 pages and 500 photos of our three-year adventure. If you would like to share the link and my email information (jkenaston@att.net) I would appreciate it.

I would like other Westsail owners to experience this adventure in a fine vessel - which we hold dear to this day. We're glad she's still afloat and loved. Sabbatical was hull number 657. We sailed from 1979-82 - 30,000 miles.

Best regards,
Jim and Jeanne Kenaston