Micheal:  Intersting question actually  -  this page Westsail Corporation  may be a good starting point for your research - as well as other pages under Westsail Info.

When you look at the W28,W32,W42 and W43 hull designs there are quit a few simularities - but when you look at the W39 and proposed W63 - verses the W28,W32,W42,W43  there are many differences. 

So what makes a Westsail a Westsail -- each sailor can/will have a different opinion - but I would also suggest that there is a "Cuise the World " attitude that goes along with the Westsails that needs to be included - even though a sailor may NOT be able to actually cruise the world physically - at least our boats can.

Jay

(PS this is my opinion only as a member)

The Westsail history page pretty much tells the whole story. Westsail is the builder not the designer.

You can check out the Atkin site for more info on the origin of the design Kendall used to build the first molds which were later aquired by Westsail corp. The flushdeck Thistle  and the deck housed Eric appear to have identical hull lines. According to Crealock, he raised the bulwarks about 6" (maybe to increase headroom under the flushdeck? certainly made it a dryer boat), otherwise not changing the original Atkin lines. The Eric (1924) and Thistle were the first in a long line of "Atkinized" refinements of their Colin Archer inspired double-enders. One important difference from many other Archer copies, is that Atkin fined up the entry at the waterline (it's actually slightly concave)  for better windward performance, and cut away some of the forefoot for better manuverability. Many boats that look like the Westsail/Eric/Thistle are simply copies of the original Colin Archer design, reduced to 32 feet.

Atkin's later designs worked to improve performance in other ways such as flattening out the buttock lines to reduce hobby-horsing. Check out the Ingrid , Vixen and Syltu for evolution of the type.

http://www.atkinboatplans.com/Sail/index4.html

Michael Oya wrote:

Thank you gentlemen for the helpful responses.  It seems then I have an Atkin/Crealock designed, but not a Westsail built boat.  I know there is a placard on the boat with the name of the boatyard that built it.  However I wasn't sure if Westsail had authorized or contracted yards all over the world.  And it seems not so.  All that is well and good and besides being a little salty from neglect (I call it patina), it's a fine example of the design.  She is an extremely stout and well constructed boat.  I just didn't want to say I had something that wasn't.  Which leads me to wonder, maybe the guy at the marina that said mine was a Westsail because it was identical to his may not have had one either.  Whatever, I have it, it's mine and I'm loving it!

(Hmm, I guess that means I really don't belong here.)

To my knowledge, the only Atkin design that Crealock modified was the one that came out of the molds used first to make the flushdecked Kendall,  and later aquired by Westsail for the deck-housed W32.

Does your boat have a HIN (hull identification number) located at the starboard side of stern near the top of the hull? The ID#  will tell you the builder and date built. Westsail ID#'s start with WSS. The links below explain the HIN system and can link you to a site where you can look up #'s and builders etc.

http://newboatbuilders.com/docs/HIN-101-for-boat-owners.pdf

http://boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/hin.htm

Outside of the US the ID system might be different. I seem to remember reading about a boat for sale in New Zealand or Australia that was being offered as a Westsail 32 and someone said it was one of several copies made in the area. Does anybody else know anything about that?

As Jay suggested, if you can post some pictures, someone here might be able to help ID your boat.

David Wiencke wrote:

Here's a couple of links to the boat I was talking about. Not much info in the thread, but I remember there was more discussion about the designer/builder on the listing site, which is no longer there. It would be interesting to know more about these boats.

Are you in Australia? Is this possibly your boat Michael?

http://www.westsail.info/index.php?action=posts&thread_id=634

http://westsail.info/index.php?action=posts&thread_id=635

There were some 33' versions of the Atkins design that were built by a yard in Australia, some as sailboat, and many as fishing boats.  These are not Westsail boats, despite the yard attaching the Westsail name to them.  They were built after the Westsail Corp. ceased operation, and nobody was around to stop them from using the name.

 I did check with the original owners of Westsail, and they told me they never gave anyone else the authorization to use the name Westsail on boats they built.

I have had correspondence with the yard, and also some of the 33' owners, and did request that they not call them Westsail to stop the confusion, but evidently to no avail.  One wanted to put his boat up for sale on my website, but I politely refused to do so.

Bud