Westerly Fulmar archive details - Yachtsnet Ltd. online UK yacht brokers

Introduced in 1980, the Westerly Fulmar was the second design by Ed Dubois for Westerly, the first being the smaller Griffon 26. It was intended as a replacement for the Laurent Giles 31-footers (Westerly Longbow, Berwick, Renown and Pentland), but was a substantially higher performance yacht, so much so that they were used for match racing and race training. The main production run of the standard Fulmar 32 ended in 1992 with over 400 built, but a very few Fulmar 33s were built up to around 1996, these later boats having a modified transom with 'sugarscoop' boarding platform.
Despite the higher performance, the Westerly Fulmar was a very successful pure cruiser, and a surprising number were until very recently still in use as sailing school and charter boats, a testament to their combination of vice-free handling and robust construction. Prices can vary a lot, from hard-worked ex-sailing-school boats to carefully maintained private-use boats. Like all Westerlys of this era, they often suffer from sagging interior foam-vinyl headlinings.

Many people regard the Fulmar as the best boat Westerly ever built, and although we might think the rarer and bigger Typhoon is even better, the Fulmar is certainly a very fine sailing yacht.

The usual engines fitted by Westerly were the Volvo MD2002 with 18 hp as shown above or a Bukh DV20 of 20 hp as seen at left.

These were usually raw water cooled engines. By now quite a number of Fulmars have been re-engined and/or fitted with fresh water cooling to heat water via a calorifier.

Photo left: most Fulmars seem to have been fitted with masts which have a riveted joint between base and gooseneck: this is not a repaired mast - it is how most were sold.

Fin keel Fulmars have a very well known (but fairly simply repairable) problem
within the internal stiffening web floor structure around the aft end of the keel.

This manifests itself as - to quote one surveyor ".... The bonding in of the floors, longitudinal stiffeners, bulkheads and engine beds etc. where accessible were sounded and there are signs of fractured laminates at the intersection of the transverse floor and 2 longitudinals either side of the centreline just forward of the companionway".

Probably at least 75% of fin keel Fulmars have this to some degree, many by now have been repaired. Despite this there have as far as is known no incidents of catastrophic damage or keel loss as a result, despite 450-odd Fulmars being in use, many with a hard racing or sailing school/charter life.

The photo at left shows such a repair almost completed, before the bilges were repainted.

There are various slightly different methods of repairing this: some say to only add laminate at the sides of the ribs, to keep the floorboards level. Others accept that the floorboards may be raised throughout a few mm. In this case the underside of the affected floorboards were thinned down slightly where there was raised glass laminate.

Westerly Fulmar

Brief details

Builder

Westerly Yachts Ltd., Waterlooville, Hampshire

The Westerly Fulmar is a fast family cruiser with the potential for club racing, with all the usual Westerly virtues of solid construction and seaworthiness. 'Yachting Monthly' described the Fulmar as having ".... perfect manners - a light touch on the tiller, good balance and straight running".

LOA

31' 10"

Sail area

566 sq ft main and genoa

LWL

26' 0"

Rig

Sloop

Beam

10' 11"

Cabins

1 plus saloon

Draught

5' 3" fin or 4' 0" bilge keels, also a very few 3' 6" to 5' 9" lift-keelers

Berths

5/6

Displacement

9,900 lbs

Engine

Volvo or Bukh diesel

Ballast

4,210 lbs (except lift-keelers at 4,350 lbs)

BHP

18 - 24

Keel type

Iron fin or bilge keels and spade rudder. A very few lift-keelers were also built.

The usual engines fitted by Westerly were the Volvo MD2002 with 18 hp as shown above or a Bukh DV20 of 20 hp as seen at left. These were usually raw water cooled engines. By now quite a number of Fulmars have been re-engined and/or fitted with fresh water cooling to heat water via a calorifier.

Photo left: most Fulmars seem to have been fitted with masts which have a riveted joint between base and gooseneck: this is not a repaired mast - it is how most were sold.

Probably at least 75% of fin keel Fulmars have this to some degree, many by now have been repaired. Despite this there have as far as is known no incidents of catastrophic damage or keel loss as a result, despite 450-odd Fulmars being in use, many with a hard racing or sailing school/charter life.

about us

brokerage

classified

archives

web links

contact us

The usual engines fitted by Westerly were the Volvo MD2002 with 18 hp as shown above or a Bukh DV20 of 20 hp as seen at left.

These were usually raw water cooled engines. By now quite a number of Fulmars have been re-engined and/or fitted with fresh water cooling to heat water via a calorifier.