Looking for history of Contessa 34 “JAMES BOND” – Sail No K3895

[Hw1234]

Hello everyone,





I’m researching the early history of my yacht and hoping someone might recognise her.





Boat details:





Contessa 34 (Jeremy Rogers)


Original name: JAMES BOND


Sail number: K 3895


Official number: 700473


Originally sold to: Tri Sail Ltd, Chester


UK Port of registry: Southampton





The yard records also mention Lloyds certificate 210347.





Later known owners include:


Gordon Alexander Gibb (Glasgow)


Alistair Speers (Northern Ireland / France)





The boat is now in the Netherlands and currently named Pegasus, but I intend to restore the original name.





I am particularly looking for:





• early owners or skippers


• race entries or results


• photographs


• confirmation of the original hull number





Given the sail number K3895, I believe she may have raced under the IOR rule in the late 1970s or early 1980s.





If anyone recognises the boat or the company Tri Sail Ltd (Chester) I would love to hear from you.

 

[Tranona]

A good start would be the original buiders who are still in business under the same family ownership jeremyrogers.co.uk

 

[Hw1234]

Thats the first thing I did. They don't have more information than the main information ie sail number, hull number, name and make…

 

[Tranona]

OK then unlikely you will get much help here as this particular forum is not much visited as it is mostly about old wooden boats. Even the main forums might not get much as it is random that anybody remembers anything about one specific boat that has probably gone through a series of owners over 40 odd years. There is no formal requirement to register boats in the UK so the only paper trail is what owners pass on when they sell the boat. However the boat seems to have been on the main (Part 1) MCA ships register - that is what the official Number is, so you could contact the Ships registry in Cardiff to see if they have any record although chances are that it dropped of the register years ago by not being renewed. Best of luck with your search.

 

[Sticky Fingers]

The Registry does keep some archive copies of documents associated with registration. I know this because I have successfully recovered some paperwork relating to my own boat, and its initial registration in the late 1990s. Whether they go back as far as this Contessa would require another question. In order to find out what's available, you have to raise a query with the registry, and pay a search fee.

In my case, the document was archived electronically, so I received a PDF scan of the document, with a certification of authenticity from the registration authority.

For this particular boat, any information available with the registry may prove to be useful, so this is definitely worth exploring.

 

[doug748]

You may already have seen this - James Bond took part in the 1992 Three Peaks Race, Mr Gibb was skipper:

Three Peaks Yacht Race - Race Positions 1977-1999

It's quite possible that he is an architect and advocate based in Glasgow and may respond to a letter posted his business address.

.

 

[Minerva]

You may already have seen this - James Bond took part in the 1992 Three Peaks Race, Mr Gibb was skipper:

Three Peaks Yacht Race - Race Positions 1977-1999

It's quite possible that he is an architect and advocate based in Glasgow and may respond to a letter posted his business address.

.

Blimey. A mad bunch completed that race in an EBoat. That must have been hard going!

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Post number 6 in this thread explains how to access all Part 1 registration outside of UK Ships Register, at Southampton City Council Age of boat

It worked for me. Caveat, my boat was registered at Southampton which is why SCC may have the old registers. If the boat was registered at another port, then the associated council may have to be contacted, but I don’t know if SCC hold all the records or not.