Westsail 28

Description

The Westsail 28 is a compact American fiberglass bluewater cruising cutter designed by Herb David as a "pocket" world cruiser emphasizing heavy displacement, robust construction, and offshore capability in a smaller hull. It was built by Westsail Corporation (USA), with hulls hand-laid in solid fiberglass (plywood sandwich deck) and offered both as factory-finished boats and in various stages of kit completion. Introduced in 1975, early boats underwent refinements including increased ballast (from ~3,500 lb to ~4,200 lb, adding ~4 inches of draft), enlarged sail area (from ~480 sq ft to ~545 sq ft working sail), and a larger rudder with a characteristic step for better balance and tracking; the design features a full keel, cutter rig for versatile heavy-weather sail handling, and a practical interior with 4–5 berths suited to long-distance cruising or liveaboard use. Production ran from 1975 to 1979, during which only 78 hulls were completed—far fewer than the iconic Westsail 32—making well-maintained examples relatively rare today despite their cult following for proven seaworthiness and global voyaging history.