hi Everyone,

I have looked at windward topics on this forum but it did not answer my question.

The westsail seems to suffer from attacks from non-owners, for some dark reasons..

We are looking at getting a boat (as millions out there) for liveaboard to start with and then voyaging.

I admire the W32. I mentioned it to a friend who has been around the globe three times and has extensively sailed. His speech went roughly like this:

"Cute, but inadequate. Windward impossible unless sail-motoring.". 

He hates motoring and believe in using sails all the time, motor being used for emergency and docking. He had been once around the world on a 21' without engine.

We do want to minimise motoring, ideally down to the bare essential, even if that means going very, very slow. Of course, in the sailboat world, everything comes to a trade off.

Honestly, do you guys (W32 owners) manage to go upwind, or motoring is mandatory? 

Thanks, I'd love to know if this is a fallacy or not, as I am looking for excuses to join the tribe, we are also our eyes on a Wylo, similar boat.

Hello Aloys,

You have some misinformation.  First a brief explanation:  Back in the 70s and early 80s, Robert Perry, the famous yacht designer, was selling his wares and writing prodigiously in a number of popular magazines monthly - for a long time.  He harshly criticized the W-32 at every possible opportunity.  Eventually, most everyone that ever read a sailing magazine knew "all the theory about the W-32".  Percentage wise, few had ever sailed one.  I once heard a guy say to his 3 buddies, "the W-32 is the slowest gawd damned boat in the whole fucking world".  ( I will now skip most of the rest of the story).  upon confronting the guy face to face, he could not pick out the W-32 on the dock nor had he ever been on one at any time.  Yet he knew "everything about the W-32.

I have raced a little and cruised much.  In top racing situations the W-32 will go to weather equal to the average racer/cruiser 30 footer.  That is slow for a 32 footer but does that mean that 30 footers can't go to weather?  That is in smooth water.  In the ocean the situation can be very different.  A boat can not get home from Hawaii without going to weather for hundreds of miles.  I have twice returned in 2 different W-32s in less than 19 days.  PLEASE talk to anyone who has made that trip in a cruising boat under 40' and ask them what their time was. 

Your friend says he sailed around the world in a 21 foot engineless boat and he says the W-32 is inadequate?  That is nothing more than a joke.  I'm sorry.

The W-32 motors about the same as any cruising boat.  It is based purely on personal preferences and personal choices.  It can pretty much sail anywhere, and anytime, that the helmsman is capable of.

As a delivery skipper, my miles are approaching 200,000nm.  That is on 150+ sailboats.  I can assure you that I have not experienced a sailboat under 36 feet that can do as many things, that I have wanted to do, better than a W-32.  I also lived aboard for 26 years, making 3 round trips through the South Pacific during that time with my wife Ruth.  Do you think we could have tolerated a boat that couldn't go to weather for that long?  How could we ever have made it back home?  

If you're in Portland on January 1st, we'll be leaving the dock for the annual New Years day sail.  You're welcome to come along. The cabin inside will be 70 degrees and there will be any hot drink of your choice available.

Good Luck,      Dave

I hadn't had a chance to talk to my good friend, he's no fool so I'd like to know more about the logical behind his opinion. 

To be fair to him, I may have depicted a very incomplete image of the man, he said many times "you can do (almost) anything with any boat but you will have to do it differently." This will perhaps give a more accurate idea of the dude.

We are very early on our journey and I am trying to gather as much information as I can, and you guys have been very helpful. Internet is full of keyboard warriors and it is indeed hard to differentiate the tale from the truth.

Cheers.

PS: as much as I'd love to take your invitation David we live in Australia  

Well said Mike ! "sailboats are my reason for being"