1978 Westsail 42

St. Marys, GA, US

Listed Sep 19

$94,500 USD

Seller's Description

BOAT HISTORY REPORT: tinyurl.com/38rv2r9k

GENERAL INFO: Our sailboat “Sea Rat” is a 1978 Westsail 42 cutter. It has the tall rig, 2-spreader mast, great sails, new standing rigging, new chainplates, barrier coated hull, CPT Autopilot, Monitor Windvane, Tigres windlass, and a Yanmar 4JH4-TE diesel engine with 700 hours. You could launch this boat next week and begin a circumnavigation.

A UNIQUE FACT: Our Westsail is hull #100. While it is undeniably a boat built in 1978, which makes it 46 years old, the boat has seen drastically less use than its age would suggest. For 30 years the boat was stored, unfinished, in California. The sails and original rigging was stored indoors during this period. This is why the sails, while original, are in such great shape. Essentially, the boat has really only been used for about 15 years of its overall life. It’s a bit like when someone finds an old classic car that’s been stored in a barn for 30 years. In this way, our boat shows far less wear and tear than you’d expect for a boat of this age.

LOCATION: She’s currently on the hard in St Mary’s, GA in one of the only DIY marinas left on the East coast. It’s a great place to keep a boat, especially if you prefer to do your own work, like we do. It is OK if you spend the night on the boat in this work yard. It’s already set up with an air conditioner so things stay cool and dehumidified while at the boat.

SAILING CHARACTERISTICS: Contrary to mis-guided belief, the Westsail 42 is quite fast, regularly sailing at speeds over 8 knots sustained. She tends to sail at about half the windspeed and does surprisingly well even in lighter winds. She will point at angles closer than 45 degrees to the wind, but does begin to slip rapidly if pressed to sail much closer than that. She’s a HEAVY displacement, full-keel sailboat that’s fast, capable, safe, stable, and very comfortable in the ocean.

Equipment: - New standing rigging (2023) - New chainplates (2023) - Yanmar 4JH4-TE (700 hrs) - Fuel polishing system - Clean fuel tanks (1x 130gal, 2x 50gal 230gal total) - Clean water tanks (1x 130gal, 2x 50gal 230gal total) - Monitor Windvane (all new bearings & shims) - CPT Autopilot (new 2023) - 720w solar panels - 30amp Victron charge controller - 30amp Victron DCDC charger - 300ah LiFEPo4 house bank - LED dimmable lights throughout - 7x 12v Caframo fans - 30gph Rainman Watermaker (new 2023) - Starlink internet - Garmin chartplotter w/ Bahamas charts - 4 burner propane cooktop stove - Electric toaster oven - 2x Natures Head composting toilets - Dinghy boarding step - Boarding ladder (from water) - Lofrans Tigres windlass w/ wireless remote control - 200ft 3/8 anchor chain - Rocna Vulcan 25kg main anchor - Flatscreen 32” smart TV - Dual-stage bilge pumps w/ Gusher back-up - New interior upholstery - New custom mattresses in both cabins - 3000btu Air Conditioner in aft cabin - Insulated hull above & below waterline - Spare starter battery - PSS dripless shaft seal

I’m sure that I’m missing a lot from this list, but that’s a good start. The boat is well-equipped and ready to go anywhere you can dream of taking it.

Specs

Designer: William Crealock

Builder: Westsail Corporation

Association: Westsail Owners Association

# Built: 119

Hull: Monohull

Keel: Long

Rudder: ?

Construction: FG

Dimensions

Length Overall: 41′ 11″ / 12.8 m

Waterline Length: 33′ 4″ / 10.2 m

Beam: 12′ 11″ / 4 m

Draft: 6′ 0″ / 1.8 m

Displacement: 31,500 lb / 14,288 kg

Ballast: 11,000 lb / 4,989 kg

Rig and Sails

Type: Cutter

Reported Sail Area: 948′² / 88.1 m²

Total Sail Area: 948′² / 88.1 m²

Mainsail

Sail Area: 441′² / 41 m²

P: 43′ 0″ / 13.1 m

E: 20′ 6″ / 6.3 m

Air Draft: 60′ 0″ / 18.3 m

Foresail

Sail Area: 507′² / 47.1 m²

I: 49′ 6″ / 15.1 m

J: 20′ 6″ / 6.3 m

Forestay Length: 53′ 6″ / 16.3 m

Auxilary Power

Make: Perkins

Model: 4-236

HP: 85

Fuel Type: Diesel

Fuel Capacity: 200 gal / 757 l

Engine Hours: ?

Accomodations

Water Capacity: 300 gal / 1,136 l

Holding Tank Capacity: ?

Headroom: ?

Cabins: 2

Calculations

Hull Speed: 7.5 kn
Classic: 7.74 kn

Sail Area/Displacement: 15.2
<16: under powered

Ballast/Displacement: 34.9
<40: less stiff, less powerful

Displacement/Length: 379.7
300-400: heavy

Comfort Ratio: 43.9
40-50: heavy bluewater boat

Capsize Screening: 1.7
<2.0: better suited for ocean passages

Notes

From BlueWaterBoats.org:

The Westsail 42 was introduced in 1974 by Westsail Corporation as a no-compromise long-distance passagemaker for the cruising couple. It was a time when cruising sailboats had captured the imagination of the American public propelled by a 1973 Times Magazine article featuring a double page spread of a salty Westsail 32 anchored in an exotic tropical island. Westsail found itself on the forefront of a cruising sailboat boom with its Westsail 32 selling in huge numbers.

Historically, the relatively tubby Westsail 32 traces its roots way back to a 1925 Atkins 32 foot design called Eric which was later adapted by Bill Crealock to take advantage of fiberglass production methods. In contrast with the Westsail 42, he was given free reign to design his ultimate cruising sailboat for a couple.

Crealock continued with the 32’s tried and true full keel and heavy displacement formula but gave the new hull a canoe stern to make it fuller in her aft sections than the double-ended Westsail 32. While the Westsail 42 was penned as a center-cockpit, it was followed up with a rear-cockpit variation dubbed the Westsail 43 a year later which was built from the same hull molds.

The Westsail 42 like its smaller 32 foot sibling was offered for sale as fully completed boats or as kits for owners to complete. The original list price of the Westsail 42 was $130,000 by comparison a hull/deck kit and hull/deck/ballast/rudder kit went for $20,000 and $30,000 respectively. Rigs options were available in both ketch and cutter sail plans with the cutter being more popular.

Percentage-wise more 42s were factory completed than the more budget minded 32s. Of notable fame, “the most believable man in America”, Walter Cronkite purchased a Westsail 42 for himself.

Westsail Corporation fell into bankruptcy with a sour economy and dated business practices in 1977, it survived through to 1979 with a buyout operating as Westsail International. When Westsail finally closed operations the molds for the 42/43 was purchased by Jomarco, a boatbuilder in Santa Ana, CA who continued with a small production run. In total 119 Westsail 42 hulls were produced, hulls 1-116 (1974-1979) by Westsail and hulls 117-119 by Jamarco.

Construction

Much of the Westsail 42’s heavy displacement comes from its sturdy and overbuilt hull and deck. The hull is constructed in two pieces. Each half consisting of 12 layers of hand laid fibreglass mat and roving which are bonded together. A two inch flange is molded in place along the sheer line for the hull to deck join. The deck molding is cored in half inch plywood. Both deck and hull were cured for a month where any defects would show up during this time.

The lead ballast was cast in three sections and bedded into place with a mix of asbestos and resin and then glassed over.

With long-distance liveaboard cruising in mind, the Westsail is spacious belowdecks with plenty of stowage. Quality construction abounds.

Undersail

Undersail the 42 is spirited, sea kindly and stable. And with both cutter and ketch sail plans, the yacht is easily trimmed and balance under all wind conditions. In particular shorthanded sailors will appreciate the ketch rig option with its club footed inner forestay sail which gives a huge variety of sail configurations making shorthanded sailing a breeze.