Battle of the heavyweight bilge keelers...

[alexrunic]

The Mac 27 is a good solid boat as many have said, they do sail well with a good wind, light winds they are pretty dam slow. The 28 has the same keel profile as the 26, so not sure if it would suffer from the same sailing sideways problems as it has.

[NigelBirch]

There is actually a Konsort on the Westerly Owners site for £9500 but it's got hull damage that needs sorting out....

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Why you (& seajet possibly) gave the examples you gave in a thread about the direct comparison involving heavy bilge keelers

OP said "Thanks all, looking forward to your thoughts! "

The thought being that consideration may be given to other fine craft close to 10K.

[NigelBirch]

The Westerly Fulmar must be one of the very best tween keelers i have sailed on.

It's one of those boats that has an almost legendary reputation like the Contessa, She 31, Nicholson 31.....but of course it's way out of budget

[James W]

OP said "Thanks all, looking forward to your thoughts! "

The thought being that consideration may be given to other fine craft close to 10K.

I did indeed Scotty and, as always, there's plenty to think about!

Thanks all!

[planteater]

The Westerly Fulmar must be one of the very best tween keelers i have sailed on.

I agree 100% and would love one. Unfortunately, it's no secret and they command pretty high prices compared to their counterparts from the same era.

[NigelBirch]

Centaur's got to be worth a look again there are a few on them on the Westerly Owners Site sub 10K....

[Seajet]

I agree re. the Centaur, a much maligned boat which actually sails well in the right hands; one reason it gained a rep' as a non-performer was simply that a lot of novices bought them; in fact a lot of all types of sailors bought them.

As Tranona has pointed out before, there are also a lot of them, so shopping around for a good one becomes more likely to get results...

[NigelBirch]

And with the Centaur you have an active association that do a great job of keeping the Westerly Marque alive which helps preserve your investment....

[Tranona]

The OP just mentions a bilge keeler & in my experience with one that only drew about 2' it went sideways about as much as forward in a wind over tide situation.I am now looking for another bilge keeler but it will be about as deep drafted as I can get in my mooring.
A Sabre is on my list but a real sailing comparison with others in the field would be very beneficial.

He also says (if you read all of it) that performance is not a priority.

From my experience - I learned to sail in a bilge keel Sabre on the East Coast when they were new (dates me! - I was only a youngish) it performs very well for its type - definitely better than the previous generation of twin keel but probably not as good as the later ones such as the Sadler, David Thomas and David Feltham designs.