Westerly Corsair 36 Sailboat Review, Specs, and Listings

Design and Construction

Dubois drew the Corsair 36 as a centre-cockpit monohull with a fin keel, and the longer cockpit than the Conway's left less room aft — a constraint that would shape the early aft-cabin compromises. At 35 feet 8 inches overall with a 30 foot 5 inch waterline, a 12 foot 6 inch beam, and a moderate 4 foot 11 inch draft, she carries 15,500 pounds of displacement on 6,600 pounds of ballast. Westerly's Lloyd's Series Production certified GRP practice underpinned the solid fiberglass hull and deck, and the Corsair's sister yacht is the Oceanranger, a stretched sugar-scoop variant. The Corsair II, launched in 1986, added a proper navigator's seat and the famed Westerly tiled galley worksurface.

Rig and Handling

The standard rig was a masthead sloop, though a ketch version with a slightly lower mast and reduced main and genoa area was offered on early boats and only a few were built. Sail area on the sloop runs 296 square feet in the main with a 540 square foot No. 1 genoa, and the ketch substituted a 231 square foot main, 80.5 square foot mizzen, and 523 square foot genoa. She delighted early sailors with excellent light-air performance and astonishing interior volume, and one owner under load reported staying with and passing cruising boats her size and larger, while another logged 168 miles a day for four consecutive days on a close reach in about 18 knots. In hard going southwest of Bermuda, the boat sailed fine under triple-reefed sails in 35 knots and 15 foot seas, and after five days of gales off Ireland nothing broke.

Accommodations

The Corsair 36 sleeps eight across two heads, but the early aft cabin was a genuine design struggle. The original layout used two lengthways berths with a square central cut-out intended to double as an athwartships harbour double without an infill, but it left hanging locker space to starboard only and none to port. Production's answer on hull three was to cram a toilet into the starboard locker and a basin opposite, which met with loud ridicule. Between hulls six and twelve the half bulkhead was shifted roughly six inches aft with Lloyd's approval to free the aft cabin, and the 1986 Corsair II refined the saloon with a U-shaped port berth and a curved navigator's seat, tucking the navigator's berth back into the aft hanging locker with a small foot roof.

Known Issues

Beyond the aft-cabin teething, the first few hulls carried minor interior problems from a single heads installation before the two-head layout settled. One owner reported the forward-head hatch cracking after a large wave broke over the deck, and separately noted engine trouble in the Isles of Scilly. Period opinion holds the standard Volvo 2003's 28 horsepower leaves her unable to exceed four knots into a strong headwind under power, though six knots under sail in those same conditions is readily had.

Refits and Ownership

The standard engine throughout the Corsair run was the three-cylinder Volvo Penta MD2003 of 28 horsepower, with a few turbo examples at 42 horsepower and some particularly well-regarded Bukh 356 installations. In 1992 the basic specification gained in-mast mainsail reefing. The Oceanranger stern redesign moved the large stern water tank into the saloon under the starboard settee — better placed for weight but costing convenient storage. For the cruising owner the boat has been called a rocket ship by a fellow sailor in the Eastern Caribbean, a label the owner himself considers exaggerated, yet the Corsair's blend of handiness and toughness keeps it circling the globe.

The Verdict

The Corsair 36 is a Dubois-designed centre-cockpit cruiser that turned a difficult aft-cabin start into a enduring Westerly classic, pairing light-air sparkle and offshore toughness with a roomy eight-berth layout that matured through the Corsair II.

Pros