Westerly

I've always been interested in naval history partly because one of the first books I read on the subject was 'Escort' by Commander DA Rayner RNVR (Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve). The book is remarkable not only because of its good humoured narrative and common sense approach, but also because it tells the story of one of the very few RNVR officers to be given command not only of a destroyer, but of an entire destroyer group in The Battle of the Atlantic. In itself a remarkable achievement.

Many years later, when we bought a boat made by Westerly I was interested in the origins of the Company and had a dig for some more information. I was astonished to discover that the Company had been founded by one...DA Rayner.

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Commander Denys Rayner RNVR
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HMS Highlander. Rayner's favourite command

Under Rayner, Westerly established a reputation for solid, dependable but slightly dull boats, a reputation that changed in the 80's when a new design team began to produce several boats that merged the traditional Westerly values of strength and dependability with slightly racier performance. One of the most successful designs was the 32' long Fulmar.

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The Fulmar