John Westell

John Westell (11 March 1921 – January 1989) was an English sailboat designer, who is noted for designing the 505 sailing dinghy and the Ocean Bird class of trimarans. Westell also designed cruising sailboats.

Biography Born Woodroffe John Westell on 11 March 1921 in Devon, England, Westell dropped the use of "Woodroffe" in his name, which was a reference to his ancestry. By age 16, he was a champion dinghy racer. In 1939, he volunteered for the Royal Navy Reserve and helped deliver a Bird-class minesweeper to the New Zealand Navy. He returned to become a sub-lieutenant and train as a meteorologist. During World War II, he was posted to a naval air station in Ceylon (which became Sri Lanka in 1972). After the war, he returned to England, married and became a father by 1950. He raced International 14 sailboats and co-founded the magazine, Yachts and Yachting.

He died of cancer in January 1989 at the age of 68, having retired from a position at Honnor Marine, a manufacturer of sailing craft.

Ocean Bird trimaran class Westell designed the prototype Ocean Bird, which became a trimaran sailboat in the 1970s. It featured fold-in lateral floats on a webless steel-beam frame chosen to provide stability against heeling, yet allow a compact footprint in harbour.