WESTERNMAN

The concept for WESTERNMAN was informed by her original owners Tom and Ros Cunliffe’s fifteen-years live-aboard voyaging experience with the 1911 Bristol Chanel Pilot Cutter HIRTA (now returned to her original name CORNUBIA), and a desire to sail in climates in which the old lady would have taken a beating from the heat. Experience was coupled with the lively mind of their old friend Nigel Irens - whose knack for old and new fusion in yacht design would be aided by new kid on the block Ed Burnett just before he branched out on his own career. That repeat boats were built says everything about the success of this think tank. Soon after WESTERNMAN's summer 1997 commissioning in Nova Scotia, the Cunliffes set sail south in a healthy breeze: “The boat just shoved her shoulder into the waves and hammered off to the southwest. We shortened down to spitfire, reefed staysail and double-reefed main, then lashed the tiller, and she steered herself the whole way. We slept dry in our bunks and marvelled as WESTERNMAN ate up the distance.” The Cunliffes enjoyed WESTERNMAN and sailed thousands of miles with her for thirteen years, then sold her to the present owner in 2010. Since then she has cruised mostly on the west coast of Scotland where she somehow fits right in with the rugged scenery. WESTERNMAN completed a 2023 thorough ‘25 year service’ refit in the capable hands of Ardfern Yacht Centre.