Review of Westerly 25
Basic specs.
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Both the hull and the deck is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season. And outside the sailing season, just bottom cleaning and perhaps anti-fouling painting once a year - a few hours of work, that's all.
The interior is like many other boats made of mahogany. Mahogany belongs to the hardwood species, known for being water-repellent and resistant to decay. It has an attractive wood grain and holds wood polish and varnish well.
The boat is equipped with 4 berths, a galley and toilet facility.
The Westerly 25 is equipped with a masthead rig. The advantage of a masthead rig is its simplicity and the fact that a given sail area - compared with a fractional rig - can be carried lower and thus with less heeling moment.
Triple keel
The Westerly 25 is equipped with a triple keel keel. A triple keel ia a bilge keel, but with the ballast in a center keel. Tripple keels are useful in tidal waters in which the boat can be beached.
The boat can enter even shallow marinas as the draft is just about 0.76 - 0.86 meter (2.49 - 2.79 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.
The Westerly 25 has been equipped with different engine alternatives.
Alternative 1:
Westerly 25 may be equipped with an inboard Volvo Penta MD1 diesel engine at 7 hp (5 kW). Calculated max speed is about 4.5 knots
Alternative 2:
An outboard motor is often used on this boat. In that case the boat will typically require a power of 4 - 5 hp, alternatively 80 - 96 lbs thrust if you prefer an electrical motor. Electric outboards are becoming popular for sailboat owners who want clean instant power with less noise and no exhaust fumes.
Note: For the ourboard engine, Westerly have designed a unique completely retractable carriage for raising and lowering.
Sailing characteristics
This section covers widely used rules of thumb to describe the sailing characteristics. Please note that even though the calculations are correct, the interpretation of the results might not be valid for extreme boats.
What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?
The capsize screening value for Westerly 25 is 1.87, indicating that this boat could - if evaluated by this formula alone - be accepted to participate in ocean races.
What is Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed?
The theoretical maximal speed of a displacement boat of this length is 6.1 knots. The term "Theoretical Maximum Hull Speed" is widely used even though a boat can sail faster. The term shall be interpreted as above the theoretical speed a great additional power is necessary for a small gain in speed.
The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level.
The immersion rate for Westerly 25 is about 96 kg/cm, alternatively 542 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 96 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm.
Alternatively, if you load 542 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.
Sailing statistics
This section is statistical comparison with similar boats of the same category. The basis of the following statistical computations is our unique database with more than 26,000 different boat types and 350,000 data points.
What is Motion Comfort Ratio (MCR)?
The Motion Comfort Ratio for Westerly 25 is 19.2.
What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?
The l/b ratio for Westerly 25 is 3.38.
The ballast ratio for Westerly 25 is 36%.
What is Displacement Length Ratio?
The DL-ratio for Westerly 25 is 192 which categorizes this boat among 'light racers'.
SA/D (Sail Area Displacement ratio)
Indicates how fast the boat is in light wind:
- Cruising Boats have ratios 10-15
- Cruiser-Racers have ratios 16-20
- Racers have ratios above 20
- High-Performance Racers have ratios above 24
Sail-area/displacement ratio (SA/D ratio): 17.46
Maintenance
When buying anti-fouling bottom paint, it's nice to know how much to buy.
The surface of the wet bottom is about 14m2 (150 ft2).
Based on this, your favourite maritime shop can tell you the quantity you need.
Note: If you use a paint roller you will need more paint than if you use a paintbrush.
If you need to renew parts of your running rig and is not quite sure of the dimensions, you may find the estimates computed below useful.
| Usage | Length | Diameter | ||
| Jib sheet | 7.6 m | (25.1 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Genoa sheet | 7.6 m | (25.1 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Mainsheet | 19.1 m | (62.7 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
| Spinnaker sheet | 16.8 m | (55.1 feet) | 10 mm | (3/8 inch) |
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