Did Contessa manufacture lifting keel boats?

I’ve always thought that I had an idea of the underwater shape but this is confusing.

Picture taken last week, UK, Google doesn’t help.

View attachment 154815
The Rob Humphreys Contessa 27 was available with a lift keel, but that looks too long and low for a 27 (though that may be a trick of the camera perspective). Could it be a 33 with the keel removed ?
 
Sticking "Contessa Aurora Sailing yacht" into google tells me that a contessa 33 of that name competed in the 2017 3 peaks race.
Team Aurora - Three Peaks Yacht Race 2017

Seems to match, so I suggest we've solved the mystery...
What matches?

I knew it was a Contessa.

I searched its name:

IMG_4481.jpeg

I saw there was a Contessa of the same name … not really a surprise … but that doesn’t in any way answer my question … so how have ‘we’ solved the mystery?
 
What matches?

I knew it was a Contessa.

I searched its name:

View attachment 154821

I saw there was a Contessa of the same name … not really a surprise … but that doesn’t in any way answer my question … so how have ‘we’ solved the mystery?
If you click on the link I posted you see many photos with the same boot stripe, same antifoul colour etc. And if you look very closely at the photos of 2017 on the website you see what appears to be a matching circular sticker on the bow. As it's on all the boats I suspect it is some sort of race entrant identifier.


So it seems pretty clear to me that this is a Contessa 33, almost certainly Aurora, and that for whatever reason it is currently without its keel and rudder, rather than being a lift keel boat.
 
To get into Ravenglass, for the Three Peaks Scafell leg, a lifting keel is very desirable. Maybe Aurora is a one-off?
 
Team Aurora Irish Sailing and Mountaineering Adventure Challenge

If you flick through the photos there is a pic of the boat out of the water. Looks like a fixed keel to me. Especially because if you could sit it like the OP's photo, why wouldn't you? And also, there's that round sticker....
The mast being out in the OP's picture is also a clue btw.

Honestly, you can tell the average age of a forum when you have to google everything for them.... ;)
 
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