Design & construction
Westerly used designer Ed Dubois for the Seahawk to inject more performance into their yachts. The Seahawk’s flared bow, longer waterline, shallower underwater sections, narrow waterline beam, short keel and balanced spade rudder all helped to lift her performance, but these improvements were offset somewhat by her high centre of gravity and wind effort on the rig. She’s no lightweight either, her displ/LWL ratio of 317 puts her firmly into the heavy cruiser bracket.
The fin keel version points better than the bilge keeler, although not by much – I’d say there was around 2-3º in it when sailing hard on the wind. A good number of owners felt the sacrifice was worth it, though, to be able to sneak up shallow creeks and take the ground safely.
Westerly hulls were all laid up by hand to an ample thickness, hence their weight. Osmosis has been a problem with some hulls over the years, but it’s not insurmountable and can be sorted reasonably cheaply these days.
Westerly preferred to fabricate the furniture the traditional way – in situ. While this undoubtedly made for less plastic below and offered better access to skin fittings, the process was expensive and may have gone some way towards the yard’s eventual demise.