Contessa 32, Rival, Nicholson 32

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How do they compare? I am trying to decide which to go for. I do a lot of single handed sailing, S. coast, France etc and am planning to go further afield, maybe trans-Atlantic. Can anyone offer a comparisome?
 
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Sailing Today

did a great issue about the contessa 32 and compared it to the boats you mention. If you are spending £xxK on a boat then I'd suggest you spend £3 on a back issue of the magazine.

Buy the latest and give them a call.

I dont know the other boats, but I love the contessa in all aspects except for one......the plastic "door" that splits the forecabin with the heads. I dont want to sleep in the front with someone 2 feet away doing their business!

If they made a wooden door, it would be perfect.
 
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I looked at the Contessa and the Nich last year when I was looking for a boat - I can't comment on the Rival.

They are both very nice boats - but very different. The Nich is fairly heavy cruiser, the Contessa much more of a cruiser/racer with (IMHO) rather unsatisfactory accommodation. Both have a very good reputation - and as such tend to command premium prices.

There are a lot of equally capable but less well known alternatives (and therefore cheaper) alternatives out there. I eventually bought a Centurion32 - very similar to the Contessa but with better accommodation and higher build quality.
 
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Bedouin speaks truth, particularly about the Centurian and the cheapness of alternatives to Contessas, Nicholsons and Rivals. The Rival, incidentally, is a solid cruising yacht with many thousands of sea and ocean miles under its keel. For years it was theblue water cruiser of choice for o\cdean gypsies on small incomes. It is a bit small and cramped compared to the Nich and Contessa and slower than both. She is more sea indly than the Contessa and probably than the Nich as well.
The trouble with many of the cheaper alternaives to these is that they tend towards the cruiser racer end of the scale (Pioneer 10, She 31, Arpege, Ballad, Scampi, First 30) or to the spacious family cruiser (Westerly in particular).
Others to consider, if you can find them, might be the Trintella 29, Sea Cracker (Contessa 32 look-alike),Sovereign 32, Barbican 33, North Sea 24 (32ft version of the Twister), Sadler 32, S&S 34, Elizabethan 30 or 31, Contest 31 (model 1972), Carter 30 or Carter 35.
 
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God list but also try the Seacracker 33

January 2000 I had the very same list and ruled out the others for the same reasons as James listed. I wanted a small(ish) boat to take up to NW Scotland and the Baltic.

The Seacracker was designed by Van de Stadt and is sometimes described as a Van de Stadt 33 or a Tufglas. Serious cruising boat but fairly rare - several circumnavigated (some twice) and fantastic sailing performance - sail very close to the wind. I'm biased, but I regard them as far prettier than the Contessa's.

Like a Contessa, a Seacracker can be found in good fair for £25K but any boat will require another £5K to put right all of the bochted jobs and out of date kit. Maybe more.
 
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I had a Rival 32 for 15 years and think they are fantastic boats. You won't win any sprints down the solent and the contessa is faster in inshore conditions. However I think that there is maybe a bit of a cult built up around the contessa 32 as it is always quoted as "the" example in regards to stability.
pound for pound I think for a similar condition boat the rival will be 5k cheaper.
Look out for "home finished" boats as there are some poor finished examples around.
There is a excellent owners association.
Rivals have roamed the world and in the fifteen years we had ours never once was I aprehensive about the boats ability, and when the wind blew it was nice to tramp past all the light weight boats who normally scream past in flat conditions.
Best of luck looking.
 
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Rustler 32

James, you recommended the North Sea 24 which I would certainly agree with, but she is a wooden boat and all the others in your list are plastiques. I think you meant the Rustler 32 which is the GRP version, more or less, of the North Sea 24.

At which point we should add the Northney 34, which is the plastic version of the Shaker, which is the North Sea 24 with a counter, and is probably the prettiest plastic boat (either that or the Hinkley Bermuda 40, which is in a different price range altogether).
 
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After a similar exercise, I ended up with an early Moody 33. Well worth a look. Very roomy (mine has 7 berths and a separate aft cabin), roomy centre cockpit, powerful (35hp) engine, H&C running water, 45 galls fuel tank, built like the proverbial and a remarkably good sailing performance for so much weight room and beam.
 
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Nicholson 32

Been out on one of these a couple of times and I found it extremely solid, reasonably large down below and fairly quick in a good force 5/6.
Not bad prices either
Rich
 
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We too were looking for a similar boat to you. We have bought a Nic 32, she has much more accomodation than the Contessa, though we didn't look at the rival. We are currently refitting and are very impressed by the solidness of the boat. The Nic 32 owners association are realy helpful, have a look at the public areas of their website - vancouver-webpages.com/N32//global.html.

Hope that this helps
 
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