The hull lines of Konsort were laid down in late 1978 however early design discussions had started between Laurent Giles’ Partner Dick Stower and David Sanders of Westerly Marine in the spring of that year. Initial planning and sketches centered around an auxiliary sailing cruiser two feet shorter (design number 0761), before switching to a 34’ 6” pilot house motor sailer (design number 0785) and then settling on the 28’ 6” masthead sloop to be named Konsort.

This was at the time that Westerly’s were looking toward more sporty cruiser racers after the initial success of the Laurent Giles designed GK24 and 29, the rationale being that with the success of his pretty Harwich Half Tonner prototype Santa Evita Ed Dubois would take over the racing yacht marque while Laurent Giles would continue with the cruising auxiliaries and introduce a new range of motor sailers and continue to develop the W36 Conway series and W33.

I recall that David Sanders was insistent that the name would be spelled with a K rather than C, for the reason that K was a universal letter in all Western languages, although Latin scholars and our friend Mr Google may disagree with his theory. K is actually one of the least frequently used letters, but it is believed to make people laugh and feel good. It is represented in over 40 languages – and it is certainly very strong in branding!

As for the yacht itself, Konsort offers one of the largest interiors to be found on a boat of this size and type, even though it was not intended to compete against the GK 29, when the first Konsort was launched into the market in 1979 the vast majority of those considering the cruiser/racer were won over by Konsort’s impressive space.

Barry van Geffen