Bought a Never splashed Colvic Countess 33 on eBay, Looking for infos

[GregOddity]

Hi all, please be gentle, my first dip on a forum that I've been reading for some years as a lurker.

Yeah… I bought a boat on eBay. As soon as I saw that the prop shaft was not even drilled on the hull.
Off course that was before my morning coffee… So I blame my coffee machine for being too slow and allow me to do things like this.
Having said that, my interest lies with the hull, I’m in the process of stripping the hull bare and I will rebuild the all thing from scratch.
I’m looking for any crumbs of info on the Colvic Countess 33 (10.06 m ) I can get my hands on. As she was sold by the marina at auction, the only thing I know is a tinge of a story about it. So now, together with a friend, I own a Magnificent sailboat with water on the WRONG side of the hull and a Bill of sale declaring that my sailing days will be spent out of the water.
I’m also very interested in finding any Colvic Countess in the UK I can pay a visit to. Since I have no plans and (no sanity) and seeing one and making a few critical pics would be interesting to guide my thoughts.
She will be Named Oddity, and hopefully will sail at summers end. She is a project boat that was never finished, produced somewhere in the 1980’s had some professional wood work inside done then left to rot, and rot it did.
Yes, I do know what I got myself into. But that’s half the fun of it. (the other half is explaining to my wife how it all makes sense)
ANY bit of info or where to get it is welcome. I have a video on YouTube showing the Luxury of the Green Velvety interior we found A deluxe setup. SV Oddity on YouTube.
The first question I’m trying to answer is if there is a hull number somewhere or anything. Can’t seem to find anything on that.
Thanks a bunch, in anticipation for any crumb that falls my way.

UPDATE AS it happens one of the owners of Ocean Chandlery at Thornam Marina were we are owns a Colvic Countess 33 and has kindly supplied his plans for us to copy.

UPDATE 21/04/18 Thanks to the kind help of so many, we found the hull number and Mike (@ Caer Urfa ) Kindly provided us with the date for the hull as being 1982.



SV Oddity on YouTube has all the latest on our "new" build . https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd4...ZhsAa5xcF9CJpA

 

[Boo2]

There was an unfinished CC 33 at Peter Leonard Marine's yard in Newhaven back around 2010 (ish) would it be the same one ?

Boo2

 

[Tranona]

A number of members have one. In case they don't see this suggest you pm Ladyinbed, Graham Wright and TimO

Owners association is countessowners.org Google is your friend

 

[pvb]

Welcome to the forums! As it's quite old, there probably won't be a hull number, but it doesn't really matter. You seem to realise that the work involved is immense, and I hope you and your friend have good senses of humour, because you'll need them at times during the process! Best of luck.

 

[GregOddity]

Thanks for that I will. Yeah we did contact the owners association but its kinda taking a bit of time to get any answers or responses.. were still trying to pay 20£ to register.. by Check.

Boo2 , I dont think so. This one was a Thornam marina for the last 12 years of that I am sure.

 

[GregOddity]

Thanks for the warm welcome and funny you should mention sense of humour, first tool I used as I got inside and my foot slid into the bilge with 20 year old water and allien life forms. My shoe spent the day quitching in a funny way and my wife asked what "that" smell was.
I am not sure if Colvic even used Hull numbers. Or if they did where were they located. It does have a nice aluminium inlay saying countess on both sides of the cockpit.

 

[pcatterall]

Get some photos uploaded!

 

[GregOddity]

Get some photos uploaded!

Still trying to figure out the forum but will do this weekend, I did do a video and posted on You Tube under SV Oddity in the hope that somebody would contact us. Not a great youtuber I'm afraid but i'm a better engineer. ( I hope )

 

[pvb]

Still trying to figure out the forum but will do this weekend, I did do a video and posted on You Tube under SV Oddity in the hope that somebody would contact us. Not a great youtuber I'm afraid but i'm a better engineer. ( I hope )

I just watched Episode 1. OMG!

 

[LoneHort]

So did I, speechless but fair play to you both! Very brave undertaking.

 

[vas]

interesting!

just saw ep1 and 2.
considering it took me over 3yrs to get a running boat to a decent condition (by rebuilding most of it...) I wonder how long your restoration trip will be!

good luck, you're going to need it

cheers

V.

 

[Graham_Wright]

Welcome to the forums! As it's quite old, there probably won't be a hull number, but it doesn't really matter. You seem to realise that the work involved is immense, and I hope you and your friend have good senses of humour, because you'll need them at times during the process! Best of luck.

Mine is around the same age and does have a hull number. Small, on the transom.

 

[Graham_Wright]

A number of members have one. In case they don't see this suggest you pm Ladyinbed, Graham Wright and TimO

Owners association is countessowners.org Google is your friend

That's me. The owners association is still alive and well. Where is the boat?

 

[GregOddity]

Hard to reply to all, But OMG may be in line with what my wife said, it just included a tad more profanity when she said it.
Tranona, the boat is in Thornam Marina. The only thing I know about it is that there was a bad divorce fight and the boat got tangled in it. It ended on eBay on sale by the marina. I've been trying to gather as much data on her as possible, Colvic company and Countess model. But it is scarse. We intend to get her glistening in XXI century style, so upgrades are being designed to lay out etc since we have no other choice as we literally only have a bill of sale from the marina.

When I saw this boat I just knew i had to get her to splash. Thank you all for the words of encouragement.
I will search the transom tomorrow as well for any signs of a number.


When I saw this boat I just knew i had to get her to splash. Thank you all for the

 

[wombat88]

I wonder how much effort it would take to turn her over and if it could be done safely with the kit at Thornham?

Let all the muck fall out and then attack her insides with a serious jetwasher, allow to dry, get her rightside up again, build polytunnel etc.

I do this occasionally, on 12ft boats.

Could be fun...

 

[paulieraw]

Get her seaworthy sail her for the season and do the extra work out of season

 

[RichardS]

Get her seaworthy sail her for the season.....

Which season were you thinking of? :ambivalence:

Richard

 

[paulieraw]

Which season were you thinking of? :ambivalence:

Richard

Having seen your tube video OMG doesn’t cut it. Perhaps the 2020 season if you’re lucky. Best of luck with that one mate.

 

[Spyro]

Loved the first video, great sense of humour guys. If you never get the boat finished you'll have a career as youtubers. When you say won the auction were there actually other people bidding?

 

[alahol2]

I’m also very interested in finding any Colvic Countess in the UK I can pay a visit to. Since I have no plans and (no sanity) and seeing one and making a few critical pics would be interesting to guide my thoughts.

Plenty of photos here... https://www.yachtsnet.co.uk/archives/countess-33/countess-33.htm