[Leica] Arnudel photographica (now Westerly sailboats)

[lrzeitlin at gmail.com (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

The breadth of interest of Luggers continues to amaze me. Westerly twin keel
sailboats are a comparative rarity in the USA but at least two Luggers have
owned, or wanted to own one. Westerlys are not the Leicas of sailboats, more
like the Mack trucks. Strongly built, almost indestructible, but slow and
not overly responsive.


As part of our personal navy we own a Westerly Nomad, an English twin keel
auxiliary sailboat. We named it "Quark" since the Irishman we bought it from
was named Finnegan. James Joyce fans will know the derivation of the name.
It was extremely seaworthy and had full headroom, provided you were shorter
than 5'10". It slept 4 and had an enclosed head and a small galley. The twin
keels and skeg protecting the prop and rudder permitted it to sit upright on
the bottom if the tide ran out. It could be towed on a flatbed trailer
without any supports or bracing. We sailed it all along the Northeast US
coast from Maryland to Maine, up the Hudson and the Erie Canal, and trailed
it to Florida for a couple of months of boating in the Keys.


We used the boat every summer and a few sabbatical winters from 1969 through
1996. When I retired from the university, I took my unused accrued sick
leave pay and bought a larger offshore type motorsailer in Florida. We
sailed up theIntracoastal Waterway and used until the end of last summer.
Now that my kids have moved away and started families of their own, it was
too big for two geriatric sailors to handle. And expensive too. In boating
you pay by the foot. Besides it was overkill for sailing in the relatively
placid waters of the Hudson Valley and Long Island Sound. We still have the
older Quark although it is under wraps and parked on its trailer next to our
garage. Right now I am refurbishing it for next season. It has had a long,
well deserved rest.


Here is a photo of Westerly Nomad "Quark"

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Larry+Z/Quark+in+water.jpg.html

It is the boat just left of center in our local harbor.

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Larry+Z/Senesqua+harbor.jpg.html

A main advantage of twin keel boats is that they trail easily without
supports.

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Larry+Z/Trailing+Quark.jpg.html

A page from the Westerly 1964 catalog.

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Larry+Z/img002.jpg.html



   Twin keel yachts have been popular in Britain for more than fifty years.
They have a number of practical advantages and a notable disadvantage. The
twin keels and the rudder skeg provide a stable tripod-like support if the
yacht takes the mud in areas where the mooring dries out at low tide. The
yacht stays level and does not flop over on the side as would a single keel
yacht. This stability when grounded permits the owner to intentionally beach
the yacht to clean the bottom at low tide. The yacht does not require a
cradle when stored for the winter and, if small enough, can be towed easily
on a flat bed trailer. The relatively shallow draft makes launching easier.
The disadvantage is, of course, poorer performance under sail.significantly
hampered. For a given lateral plane, twin keels have greater wetted area
than a single keel. The greater frictional resistance simply makes the twin
keel designs slightly slower on all points of sailing.

   Larry Z