Westsail 32

The Westsail 32 is a heavy-displacement fibreglass double-ended cutter built in Costa Mesa, California by Westsail Corporation from 1971, developed by William Crealock from William Atkin's Colin Archer-derived Thistle/Eric design via the short-lived Kendall 32. Around 800 hulls were built, roughly half of them sold as kits, and its marketing in the early 1970s largely created the modern image of the 'bluewater cruiser'. It is slow and wet to windward but exceptionally strong and sea-kindly, and many have circumnavigated.

In the late 1960s Larry Kendall and a group of Costa Mesa boatbuilders had Crealock modify Atkin's Thistle lines for a fibreglass mould and built the flush-deck Kendall 32, about 31–36 hulls, before Kendall went bankrupt. Snyder Vick bought the mould at auction for $1,000 in February 1971 and with his wife Lynne, an advertising professional, launched the Westsail 32 with a trunk cabin; hull #37 Misty was the first Westsail-built boat. Demand led to a second plant in North Carolina in 1973, but Westsail filed for bankruptcy in spring 1977 owing about $10 million despite $5 million in orders. Hans Weerman ran it as Westsail International until 1979, after which P & M Worldwide built nine more 32s, and Bud Taplin's Worldcruiser finished around a hundred hulls and kits through 1988.

The hull is a classic Archer-type double-ender with a long, deep full keel, 7,000 lb of internal ballast (lead and iron on early boats, later all lead) and an outboard rudder hung on the sternpost. Construction is heavy: twelve alternating layers of woven roving and mat, a plywood-cored GRP deck and plywood bulkheads tabbed to the hull. The cutter rig carries main, staysail and yankee on a six-foot bowsprit, giving about 40 ft overall with appendages. The design inspired a generation of Taiwan-built imitators (Tayana, Baba, Hans Christian, Union and others).

There is one hull and deck for the Westsail 32; the Kendall 32 is the flush-deck predecessor from the same mould and is recorded here as an alias and a separate production run rather than a separate model, since the boats are usually sold and searched as Westsail/Kendall 32s together. The important variation is completion: roughly half the hulls left the factory as kits, so 'Westsail 32' covers everything from factory-finished boats to amateur interiors, and this is recorded as an option rather than a generation.

Establish first whether the boat was factory-finished, Worldcruiser-finished or owner-completed from a kit; quality and layout vary accordingly, and the Westsail Owners Association hull register helps. Check the plywood-cored deck for soft spots, chainplates and bowsprit/bobstay fittings, original Volvo or Perkins engines and their access, and for osmosis on 1970s hulls. Bud Taplin's Worldcruiser still supplies parts. Expect leisurely passages and a wet beat; most owners fit larger headsails or a taller rig to improve light-air performance.

Satori (Ray Leonard) survived the October 1991 'Perfect Storm' after being abandoned by her crew and washed ashore on a Maryland beach essentially undamaged. Saraband won the 1988 Pacific Cup on corrected time. Numerous Westsail 32s have completed circumnavigations, the type's original selling point.

The Westsail Owners Association (westsail.org) maintains hull registers, the Kendall 32 history and an active forum, and Worldcruiser Yacht Company continues to supply parts.