1980 Westerly Fulmar 32

Westerly Fulmar 32

General Information

The Westerly Fulmar 32 is a 9.7 m (31'10") cruiser-racer sailing yacht designed by Ed Dubois and built by Westerly Marine in the United Kingdom between 1980 and 1991, with 435 hulls completed across all keel configurations. This Keel and Centerboard version combines a short fin keel with a pivoting centerboard, giving her a shoal draft of 1.06 m with the board raised and 1.75 m with it lowered, while retaining strong upwind performance when required. The Fulmar 32 succeeded the Westerly Griffon and became one of the yard's most successful models of the era, valued for balancing cruising comfort with genuine sailing ability.

Construction and Design

Built to Lloyd's specification, the hull is hand-laid GRP using chopped strand mat reinforced with woven rovings at points of stress, and every boat was supplied with a Lloyd's Register Certificate as standard. The deck is through-bolted to the hull with stainless fasteners at six-inch centres. Ed Dubois drew a fractional Bermudan sloop rig on a deck-stepped aluminium mast, aiming, in the designer's own words, to combine excellent sailing qualities with elegant looks. The result is a cruiser-racer that handles well short-handed while still rewarding careful sail trim.

Key Features

Shoal-draft centerboard keel: a short fin keel houses a pivoting centerboard, reducing draft to 1.06 m with the board up for gunkholing and drying out, and 1.75 m with the board down to restore upwind grip.

Spacious two-cabin interior: teak and marine-ply joinery with cream deckhead panelling sleeps up to seven across two cabins, including a large aft double berth.

Practical cruising systems: a single diesel inboard, 90-litre fuel tank and 135-litre water tank support extended coastal and offshore passages.

Self-draining cockpit: a closed aft cockpit comfortably seats four with winch controls kept within easy reach.

Fractional sloop rig: a manageable sail plan suited to short-handed cruising, with genoa, solent, jib, storm jib and symmetric spinnaker options for varying conditions.

Summary

The Westerly Fulmar 32 Keel and Centerboard remains a sound choice for sailors who want genuine shoal-draft flexibility without giving up the upwind performance and lively handling that made Ed Dubois's design well regarded in its day. Her solid, Lloyd's-certified GRP construction and straightforward systems continue to make her a practical, capable cruiser-racer on the used-boat market more than four decades after she was launched.