Late in May in  the year of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s silver jubilee and the R.O.R.C’s Cervantes Trophy race started off of the Lymington Spit Buoy.

Among the fleet were two Laurent Giles designs: Starlight Return and Giant Killer both of which had been designed by Mike Pocock who for a couple of seasons led the Laurent Giles racing yacht design team to produce a handful of competitive custom and production quarter ton and half ton yachts.

At 29’ overall Giant Killer was a natural addition to the Westerly/Giles range of cruiser racers of which the smaller GK 24 Quarter Ton was their opening shot. The 29’ hull was built in wood – mahogany over longitudinal framing system and plywood bulkheads and web frames. Built in record time  her deck and deck works were fashioned from the smaller GK24 coachroof and cockpit moulding which was fasted down tightly to the double skin plywood ring deck.

In her first season she won the Cervantes trophy, was second in the Deauville and Guingaund Bowl races, and fourth overall in the R.O.R.C Championships.

In an impressive fleet Giant Killer did what it said on the tin and with these racing successes under her keel Westerlys committed to a production run which saw one hundred and eight-two yachts built, but popularity waned after the introduction of the Konsort two years later.