[Leica] Now Westerly sailboats

[r.s.taylor at comcast.net (Richard Taylor)]

Larry - Amazing!  You actually own one of these things.  The Nomad was one 
of the small cruisers I was very interested in when I was seriously thinking 
of buying a small boat.  The other was the Stone Horse that I've talked 
about here before.  

I have real weakness for efficient design and the Nomad, despite being, 
shall we say, err... gorgeousness-challenged, was certainly that.  I loved 
the boat but nothing came of it, or of the Stone Horse, for that matter.   I 
ended up buying a Thistle that I raced for a dozen years.

Now, just tell me that you power it with a Seagull outboard and my life will 
be complete.  :-)  
 
Regards, 

Dick



On Apr 14, 2010, at 9:57 PM, Lawrence Zeitlin wrote:

> 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
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information