Is a Contessa 32 basically a man cave for Boomers longing for the halcyon days of the 70s?

[DFL1010]

Back in 1971 my parents bought a Nicholson 30, which we raced on the East Coast. That year we raced from Harwich to Ostende. Course due SE. Wind at the start was NW 15 knots true. We started 15 minutes after the large class under full main and full spinnaker. The biggest yacht was a Nicholson 43. Half way there we passed the Nicholson 43. The wind had increased and due to all the B&G instruments being analogue, we do not know exactly what our boat speed or the wind speed was. The log was stuck on 10 knots and the wind speed was stuck on 48 knots from astern, so adding those together makes 58 knots +++. We constantly planned her for over 4 hours. This was an early model with a skeg, so to keep her on track took 3 out of the crew of 5 on the helm. The following 2 years we again planned her, but using a star cut spinnaker, with only one on the helm after we removed the skeg. We would set the spinnaker in gale force winds, which difficult to do as the kite always opened about halfway up the mast, but as soon as we started planing it could be winched to the masthead.

So, yes I have very shrewd idea of the wind strength in that video, but I doubt it was anything like I have experienced racing. The wider flatter stern section of the J90 is more suited to planing compared to our Nicholson 30. It was almost unheard of in the early 1970's to plane any racing yacht.

Even on my Fulmar I use the spinnaker whilst single handed, as per in the avatar. Once I was holding it with 18 knots on the beam and going like a train. In a decade of sailing Concerto, I can also say I have never had her broach or get the spinnaker wet when I drop it. My only proviso is I need open water, so not busy with other boats or in a river.

Not sure that's how that works...

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Centaurs don’t cost half a million quid.

 

[Lucky Duck]

How about this boat seemingly priced in bitcoin

https://yachts.apolloduck.co.uk/boat/dehler-30-od-for-sale/807630

 

[justanothersailboat]

...neither do Contessas? someone selling one for that says little about "the cost of a Contessa", just the existence of a tiny number of people willing to splash out for a "perfect" one.

Ones with quite a lot done to them seem to ask about 30 grand which IS premium for age and size and would make for a toughish choice compared to other boats for the same money, but you could have a lot of fun with one and I can't see it as irrational.

 

[steveeasy]

Of course a Contessa is a man(loose word) cave just like a Twister, westerlyCentuar or Fulmar or any other boat quite frankly. Why a person chooses a specific type/design is of more interest.
Someone buys a Morgan. Some will think he’s mad, some won’t.

It’s all personal preference and influenced by lots of factors in that persons life.

I like a westerly centaur but I’d not own one. I like a Contessa 32 as it looks good and apparantly perceived as a good boat. When I talked about buying one with respected sailing fraternity, I got very positive advice.

I liked a Twister from the off. A boatyard discouraged me but that’s what I wanted. They looked good.

Being told other tubs are better than a Contessa just falls on death ears. It’s no big deal if on a calm day another boat is half a knt faster. It might not be in a blow.
Boats are mancaves. We don’t need them. They are for pleasure.
Not sure it’s about nostalgia. If I had more money I’d buy something grander or new. heaven forbid I’m looking to buy AWB. Why, why not.

Steveeasy

 

[seeSimon]

Centaurs don’t cost half a million quid.

...not yet...but who knows?

Have you seen the prices of some other 70s tat, sorry...heritage nostalgia artefacts?

Fast Fords, Raleigh Choppers, Honda Monkey Bikes, Yamaha FS1Es? All have caught my eye...but not prised my wallet open so far.
My wife is buying hideous coffee sets that her mother would've chucked out, my daughters snapping up all sorts of G Plan furniture "must haves".

Buy now before it's too late...or perhaps sell now before all us "comfortably retired boomers" are forced to spend our ill gotten loot on dental treatment, hip replacements and care home fees...

I'm told, by slightly older pals, that prices for 30s/40s "classics" are softening as the market is quite literally dying off...

 

[winch2]

I agree and 14 pages in lets be frank. All boats are expensive toys procured in the main for the benefit of us chaps. Clocked my dream boat last yr for sale, a restored mid 60's Virtue. Beautiful, and would need ten gallons of traditional varnish every year. Would I buy it.. absolutely not but it doesn't hurt to dream a bit.

 

[potentillaCO32]

...not yet...but who knows?

Have you seen the prices of some other 70s tat, sorry...heritage nostalgia artefacts?

Fast Fords, Raleigh Choppers, Honda Monkey Bikes, Yamaha FS1Es? All have caught my eye...but not prised my wallet open so far.
My wife is buying hideous coffee sets that her mother would've chucked out, my daughters snapping up all sorts of G Plan furniture "must haves".

Buy now before it's too late...or perhaps sell now before all us "comfortably retired boomers" are forced to spend our ill gotten loot on dental treatment, hip replacements and care home fees...

I'm told, by slightly older pals, that prices for 30s/40s "classics" are softening as the market is quite literally dying off...

There are 5 centaurs that can't be given away at the boatyard i'm at that will be cut up when they sort the paperwork and court work out.
The problem with the boat market is that nobody wants, most, oldish boats anymore. A good centaur, and i think they make fine family caravan type boats, is only worth 5k tops. So even if you give a sad, tired one away it makes no commercial sense to refit one. The sailing market in the uk is shrinking and unfortunately there is a surfeit of old boats.

As with classic cars, i think and hope that a good number of the real icons of the time moody, rival, contessa, hunter, sadler, s&s, she, aphrodite, elizebethan dragonfly etc survive due to asociations/classes etc.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Every dog has its day though, and I foresee, in another 30 years, the same thread with a different title. Drsgonfly 920s, bought by old gits yearning for a rosy past?’

 

[Concerto]

Not sure that's how that works...

That makes the wind speed in the force 12 region, so in relation to the J90 video, I certainly know what sailing in extreme conditions is like. Very few sailors experience conditions, let alone race in those conditions under full sail.

 

[Blue Seas]

Every dog has its day though, and I foresee, in another 30 years, the same thread with a different title. Drsgonfly 920s, bought by old gits yearning for a rosy past?’

You must have been an Optimist dinghy owner "The most popular child's dinghy in the world" Your Optimism knows no bounds - I'll agree with you but think 3 years not 30!
As you said to me in your post 252 - "If you don’t know that, you are indeed re living the past. It’s good that some people have the dedication to own a floating museum piece. The world would be poorer without them."
I concur.

 

[Concerto]

There are 5 centaurs that can't be given away at the boatyard i'm at that will be cut up when they sort the paperwork and court work out.
The problem with the boat market is that nobody wants, most, oldish boats anymore. A good centaur, and i think they make fine family caravan type boats, is only worth 5k tops. So even if you give a sad, tired one away it makes no commercial sense to refit one. The sailing market in the uk is shrinking and unfortunately there is a surfeit of old boats.

As with classic cars, i think and hope that a good number of the real icons of the time moody, rival, contessa, hunter, sadler, s&s, she, aphrodite, elizebethan dragonfly etc survive due to asociations/classes etc.

Classic cars have a larger potential market than old tatty yachts. Boats. Rarely can be boats be stored for free, whereas cars can be stored at home. Repairing cars has a much larger of number of people who spent their working lives learning how to repair or know someone who can it in a cost effective way. The number of people who can work on boats is scarce by comparison. Both these factors add to your explanation of why older boats end up in the distant corners of boatyards. Some do find new owners but rarely do they ever get splashed again.

 

[Mark-1]

There are 5 centaurs that can't be given away at the boatyard i'm at that will be cut up when they sort the paperwork and court work out.
The problem with the boat market is that nobody wants, most, oldish boats anymore. A good centaur, and i think they make fine family caravan type boats, is only worth 5k tops. So even if you give a sad, tired one away it makes no commercial sense to refit one. The sailing market in the uk is shrinking and unfortunately there is a surfeit of old boats.

As with classic cars, i think and hope that a good number of the real icons of the time moody, rival, contessa, hunter, sadler, s&s, she, aphrodite, elizebethan dragonfly etc survive due to asociations/classes etc.

I don't buy the idea that Centaurs are disappearing even if the prices are low and the tatty ones are often having a match put to them. They still do what they always did and they still make up a high percentage of boats on drying moorings up muddy creeks.

AFAIK there isn't an equivalent available new that's selling in any numbers. In 20 years time the answer to the question "What's the smallest sturdy family boat I can buy and keep on a drying mooring?" Will still be Centaur, and a handful of others, few built before the 21st Century.

The big question isn't do they have a future, but how did they have a past? They make perfect sense as a cheap used boat, but little sense as a new boat. Were there really that many people wealthy enough to buy a brand new boat, but so poor they needed a drying mooring? Maybe there were a lot less marina berths in the 70s.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I think you’ve found the answer. Deep water moorings have become more popular, and there are orders of magnitude more marina berths. Driven by the perception that bilge keels were a bit sh1t I daresay. And the way we live our lives now means we don’t want to be restricted by tides. The odd thing being that whilst modern fin keel boats will sail to windward, they rarely do. They do what you’d do in a Centuar. Even Contessa 32s do it. Our lack of engine power and efficient rig puts us on the opposite side. It’s faster, quieter, more comfortable to thrash to windward under sail.

 

[Supertramp]

That makes the wind speed in the force 12 region, so in relation to the J90 video, I certainly know what sailing in extreme conditions is like. Very few sailors experience conditions, let alone race in those conditions under full sail.

Having recently endured Floris at anchor I am in awe. My sailcover zip broke, the boat heeled to 30 degrees and the Zodiac flapped on the davits. A spinnaker is beyond my imagination in that!

 

[seeSimon]

I don't buy the idea that Centaurs are disappearing even if the prices are low and the tatty ones are often having a match put to them. They still do what they always did and they still make up a high percentage of boats on drying moorings up muddy creeks.

AFAIK there isn't an equivalent available new that's selling in any numbers. In 20 years time the answer to the question "What's the smallest sturdy family boat I can buy and keep on a drying mooring?" Will still be Centaur, and a handful of others, few built before the 21st Century.

The big question isn't do they have a future, but how were they ever built? Were there really that many people wealthy enough to buy a brand new boat, but so poor they needed a drying mooring? They make perfect sense as a cheap used boat, but little sense as a new boat. Maybe there were a lot less marina berths in the 70s.

Yes.

I now pass 5 Centaurs (as well as similar smaller Hunters and MGs) on drying moorings on my 1/3 mile tender ride to my hard-won and relatively expensive deep water swing mooring. 3 Centaurs have arrived post-covid. Still a big demand for drying moorings, but the majority are smaller MoBos of some sort.

I've been told that my deepwater mooring with my modern 26ft lift keeler on it is " a waste of a mooring".
Deep water in the main harbour is relatively plentiful, but boat sizes are increasing and whereas 30-33 ft was "normal", it seems plenty of punters now want 45ft plus.

We have no marina here...yet! But 45ftrs on swing moorings seem to take up an exponentially large amount of water space. This will tend to squeeze the rest of us out (owners of £££ "modern classics" eg new Con 32s excepted?)

No prizes for guessing who owns the 45ftrs v bilge keelers, local full time residents v "investment property owners".

Perhaps the future is smaller numbers of larger boats, at a MUCH higher cost for deep water moorings?
There might then be a market for the last few of us local boomers to moor our bilge/lift keelers? Once we die off, the upper parts of the estuary could be turned over to kayaks/SUPs..but little money, and few jobs in that?

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Caravan Club sites wouldn't accept me and my nicely converted ex-British Telecomm workshop lorry, so I'm not sure I agree.

But I suppose its possible I wasnt just any old riff-raff

Perhaps I was more your New Age Traveller riff-raff.

You had to be friendly, or at least offer that perception, to be accepted by them, maybe you didn't look friendly. However, they have dropped their logo motto now so I assume curmudgeons are now welcome. Probably a required change driven by their demographics.

The Friendly Club

Drab and Bland Club

 

[winch2]

I've been told that my deepwater mooring with my modern 26ft lift keeler on it is " a waste of a mooring"

Ive been waiting for someone to say that. Our 20 foot gaff is just shoreside of the deep water moorings and we're all packed pretty tight. Nothings been said but Ive noticed the boats surrounding us are gradually increasing in size making us looking like the fly in the ointment. However the price jump from us to 'them' isn't huge so maybe thats why we havent been moved.

 

[potentillaCO32]

Every dog has its day though, and I foresee, in another 30 years, the same thread with a different title. Drsgonfly 920s, bought by old gits yearning for a rosy past?’

Is that time now??

 

[potentillaCO32]

The big question isn't do they have a future, but how did they have a past? They make perfect sense as a cheap used boat, but little sense as a new boat. Were there really that many people wealthy enough to buy a brand new boat, but so poor they needed a drying mooring? Maybe there were a lot less marina berths in the 70s.

Take the Crouch. Fambridge marina was built in 1973ish. Burnham marina in 1980s and essex marina was a pile of rotten wooden floating things tied together. The only options were the moorings at burnham, paglesham, fambridge and hullbridge. The moorings are now nearly empty and most people keep their boats in marinas.

Where i spend most of my time in france the market is different and there are lots of small cruisers and dayboats on the market. None of which are marketted in the niche market that is the uk. I don't how they compare to the cost of a.centaur in 1970. A bente 28 is about 160k euros. A lot of j/7s are selling new for about 60k euros.