Design and Construction
The Sunbeam is a 26' 6" wooden monohull with a solid wood hull and wood deck. It has a 6-foot beam, a 17.5-foot waterline length, and a displacement of more than 6,600 pounds. Its fin keel carries 1,904 pounds of lead ballast.
The hull is easily driven. Its 300-square-foot sail area gives a sail-area-to-displacement ratio of 13.62, suited to light-weather sailing. Only 44 boats were built.
Rig and Handling
Westmacott gave the Sunbeam 28 square meters of sail between the mainsail and close-sheeted jib. Combined with the easily driven hull, this produces scintillating upwind performance, especially in light weather.
The class was built for the then newly fashionable Bermudan sloop rig to improve on gaff and earlier Bermudan classes. Downwind, the Sunbeam doesn’t use a spinnaker. Instead, the jib tack attaches to a pole that swings off the centreline and is trimmed with a guy. The boat usually carries two crew.
Accommodation
The Sunbeam OD is a purpose-built racing keelboat, normally sailed by two people. It has no cruising accommodation.
Maintenance and Ownership
The solid wood hull and wood deck require ongoing maintenance. With a production run of just 44 boats, every survivor is now a long-serving wooden hull.
Owners join a near-centenary fleet with active Solent and Falmouth groups. That continuity calls for sympathetic upkeep within a tightly governed class rule.
The Verdict
The Sunbeam OD is a Westmacott one-design that has raced continuously since 1923. Its active fleets and enduring wooden construction have outlasted most of its contemporaries.
Pros
- Continuous one-design racing since 1923, with active Solent and Falmouth fleets
- Easily driven wooden hull with scintillating light-weather upwind performance
- Jib-pole arrangement replaces a spinnaker downwind without adding extra canvas
Cons
- Only 44 were built, limiting supply to a small wooden fleet
- Wooden hull and deck demand committed traditional maintenance
- Purpose-built racer with no cruising accommodation
