It was the late 1960s – early 1970s. The era of counterculture and search for personal meaning in a world of war, Watergate break-ins and a corrupt establishment ruling class. Enter a Southern California boatbuilder with slickly produced brochures showing their 32 ft cruiser anchored in a serene bay in Tahiti, Bora Bora or somesuch tropical paradise, the attractive sea-going family of four, fit and tan, diving off the boom into the crystal clear waters. “Westsail the World!” And promises to “pioneer the oceans, to live aboard the sea, to weather the storm, to reward yourself, to live a different kind of life” were powerful prose in the time of Whole Earth Catalogs and back-to-the-land (and sea!) sensibilities. Consequently, the dream, the concept, and the boat were a hit.
About half of the Westsail 32s were sold in kit form, the idea being take delivery of hull and deck, spend the winter outfitting her, then set sail to the South Seas in the spring (in most cases, quite a few springs later!). At one point there was a two year delivery backlog. Despite all that, due to lax business practices of the Westsail Corporation (hey, it was the 70s!) the boat had a relatively short production run, about 800 produced between 1972 and 1980. The overwhelming majority of these boats are still fully seaworthy and their resale value has held up well.
The Westsail 32 was everything a deepwater cruiser should look like – the double ender design lifted from Colin Archer’s Scandinavian lifeboats, the fullest of keels, traditional cutter rig, small seaworthy cockpit, spacious belowdecks accomodations. It’s very heavy construction (displacement – 10 tons!) emphasized seaworthiness over speed (detractors gave her the nickname “Wetsnail”) but the boat delivered on the promise of taking its owners anywhere in the world, one even surviving the “Perfect Storm” intact (The boat, that is. She washed up on a Maryland beach mostly undamaged. Her skipper and crew were airlifted to safety in a harrowing USCG evacuation as documented below).
The Westsail Trudeau 32
Being wood snobs, modeling a fiberglas constructed boat like the Westsail 32 is a departure for us at Trudeau. However not entirely, we had the Westsail 32 in mind back in 2005 with our very first offering, the Trudeau 32. (Perhaps one or two of us at Trudeau had also been in thrall of those Westsail brochures :) Full keel. Check. Sloop rigged. Check. Double-ender, stern hung rudder, bowsprit. Check, check, check.
What we wrote about her in 2005 still stands as the ethos behind every one of our subsequent offerings
The Trudeau 32 is a gaff rigged, full keeled wooden sloop sailboat with graceful lines – one of a line of sailing yachts inspired by the classic designs of famed nautical designers like L. Francis Herreshoff, Colin Archer and John Hanna. The Trudeau 32 designed for a unique SL boating experience. A lazy afternoon in a peaceful cove, racing across a sun-dappled sea, slipping off the deck shoes and relaxing when the sun goes down, entertaining guests on the water or dockside, or visiting exotic ports of call on an extended cruise. It looks fantastic berthed at your lake or seaside marina and at a 27 prim displacement, can accommodate a party of up to 4 for sailing excursions.
Our original 32 had a relatively long lifespan, made it into the SL windlight era, and we’ve been told can still be occasionally found here and there on the grid.
But SL time marches on and if you think the 2005 Trudeau 32 looks clunky, let me remind you of what our avatars looked like back then! On second thought, let me not :) Mesh remade the entire look of SL and and did so with our latest offering, the…
All New Trudeau 32
Full keel. Check. Sloop Cutter rigged. Check. Double-ender, stern hung rudder, bowsprit. Check, check, check. How about some features only available as pipe dreams 15 years ago? Line drawing correct shape of it’s real life inspiration. Tru-Sail luffing and billowing sails giving in-world indication of correct trim. Completely inhabitable below decks accommodations. Movable running rigging. Seating positions for skipper and 2 crewpersons – 1 heel-offsetting hike position per side for the skipper, 3 per side for each crewperson.
Additionally, the new 32 has a couple features that no proper oceangoing cruiser can be without. Last seen on our now-retired Columbia, 32 carries a tender on her deckhouse that is an actual separate 2 person rowing dinghy in her own right. Touch the deckhouse tender to rez either port or starboard-side (naturally parcel rez permissions needed, this is SL after all)
Something else is afoot in this Trudeau offering. The HUD gives a clue:
Check out that windspeed scale – 80 meters/sec! That’s like 160 knots. WTF, Trudeau? The other clue is the Reef 2 setting on the 32:
Yes, that’s a storm jib and a trysail main. Two more things no proper oceangoing cruiser can be without.
Throw a wind setting like this at the 32:
/1 set wind 0 40 20 2 1
That much wind on any SL boat (Trudeaus included) and you are asking for a spinning knockdown or worse. Our new Trudeau 32, like that Westsail in the perfect storm, can handle set wind speeds up to 40 m/sec (and with a 40 speed variance setting, gusts up to 80 m/sec). Make sure to reef 2 immediately!
You won’t make much headway under normal conditions in that configuration, but if you want to roleplay the entire Beaufort scale in SL, here’s your chance! It’ll be a handful in those higher winds and only the storm jib luffs to give indication of proper trim, but it can be done. (tip: dump wind often!) Maybe this will open up a new category of SL regattas – “survival!”
What else to say? Skipper, crew and passenger sit locations for the 32 and tender:
Are those adult couple anims in the passenger sits? We’ve heard those are popular ;) Boatyard jackstands when rezzed over the hard. 5 built-in traditional color schemes. And, naturally….
Customization!
Downloadable templates, in .psd format, to make her your own:
Hull (including name), Rudder and Gunwales (15.3MB)
Tender Hull and Oars (19.4 MB. Make sure replace the tender in T32’s contents with your custom textured model)
Sails (60.3MB. Please see the “The Sail Customization Files and Notes on Modding” section in the “Sailing the Trudeau 32” notecard regarding changing the default sail textures)
Deck, deckhouse, hatches (62.7MB)
Hardware and rigging (86.6MB)
Spars (1.3MB)
Cabin Interior (21.7MB)
Dimensions
Trudeau 32 – 37.35 ft (11.38m) length on deck, 45.9 ft (14M) length overall, 13.45ft (4.1m) beam, 5.9ft (1.8m) draft. 75 land impact moored, max 84 land impact when sailing.
Tender – 10.5 ft (3.21M) length overall, 5.75ft (1.76m) beam, .6ft (.18m) draft. 4 land impact.
Jackstands – 5 land impact.
See the Trudeau 32 inworld at Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts today. Reward yourself, live a different kind of second life, the grid’s oceans are calling!
Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts 