Spotless Contessa 32 for those with deep pockets and a yearning for a bit of nostalgia ....

[Daydream believer]

Oh dear.
I’m offended now.
See you out on the water then.

Steveeasy

You have reminded me of a lecture I gave at our sailing club some years ago. the idea was to start club cruises again 7 to some extent it was successful. Quite a few came along & listened just because they wanted my views on somenav issues anyway. the talk was about a 5 day tripto Boulogne. So that involved navigating to Dover & proceedure for entering the port. Then how we would all cross the channel. We would all spend a couple of days in Boulogne & return via Ramsgate so that everyone had some experience of that as well.
I ended the talk with a comment that has been repeated on every cruise since.
Now remember everyone. This is a cruise in company -- it is NOT a race- Then as an aside====BUT I AM GOING TO GET THERE FIRST
Oddly enough I often do , even beating the 40 ft Jeanneau on more time than it has beaten me & a Hanse 45 & Bavaria 34 on one trip from Dieppe to Le Havre giving them 1/4 mile head start.

 

[awol]

You have reminded me of a lecture I gave at our sailing club some years ago. the idea was to start club cruises again 7 to some extent it was successful. Quite a few came along & listened just because they wanted my views on somenav issues anyway. the talk was about a 5 day tripto Boulogne. So that involved navigating to Dover & proceedure for entering the port. Then how we would all cross the channel. We would all spend a couple of days in Boulogne & return via Ramsgate so that everyone had some experience of that as well.
I ended the talk with a comment that has been repeated on every cruise since.
Now remember everyone. This is a cruise in company -- it is NOT a race- Then as an aside====BUT I AM GOING TO GET THERE FIRST
Oddly enough I often do , even beating the 40 ft Jeanneau on more time than it has beaten me & a Hanse 45 & Bavaria 34 on one trip from Dieppe to Le Havre giving them 1/4 mile head start.

You are Seajet reincarnated and I claim my prize! Bet you can't pass an A24, though.

 

[flaming]

I always thought Contessa's went ok in light conditions, not award winners but went ok, certainly for what they are.
I always thought multihulls struggled in light conditions, too light, wide beam, windage, high wetted area. When they stop difficult to get going.

Lets have a look. here are the results from a slow Round the Island:

"LIGHT BREEZE MAKES FOR SLOW SAILING IN 2018 ROUND THE ISLAND RACE​

Extreme heat and little wind made this year’s Round the Island Race in association with Cloudy Bay one of the slowest on record, if not the slowest ever."

View attachment 170770

Ey-up. What's this:

Multihull MOCRA: Leading Dragonfly: 10h 40
*Contessa 32: First Boat: 10h 43

She overtook 2 Dragonfly's despite setting off 1hour 20 mins later.

* A standard one design Contessa, 50 years old, you may of heard of it, Assent. She once cruised Antarctica and the Arctic in the same year, did well in the 1979 Fastnet

.

Ah yes the 2018 race.

1st, the Contessa did not overtake the dragonfly, the multi started much earlier, and finished about 40 minutes before the Contessa.

The 1st contessa also had a faster elapsed time than me that year. The reason for this was simple. There was a massive shutdown off Bembridge, and everyone stopped and nobody could make progress against the tide past Ryde. Meanwhile the slower fleets were arriving at the back of the hole., So after being sat still for a couple of hours (listening to England play in the world cup if I recall) the contessas etc had caught right up to us, despite having started about 90 minutes after us. Then about 15 knots filled in from the west and the whole fleet sailed basically together from Ryde to the finish. There's a reason that in 2018 the first 55 places in IRC came from the slowest fleet. And the winner was the lowest rated boat to make it round.

 

[Daydream believer]

You are Seajet reincarnated and I claim my prize! Bet you can't pass an A24, though.

Our Commodore was a very experienced sailor who received an award from Princess Anne for his life's work to youth sail training. He had an Anderson for many years & sailed many miles in it. I have no doubt that if it had not been for the fact he was over 80 years old, so could not attend, he would have sailed the pants off us.

 

[steveeasy]

You have reminded me of a lecture I gave at our sailing club some years ago. the idea was to start club cruises again 7 to some extent it was successful. Quite a few came along & listened just because they wanted my views on somenav issues anyway. the talk was about a 5 day tripto Boulogne. So that involved navigating to Dover & proceedure for entering the port. Then how we would all cross the channel. We would all spend a couple of days in Boulogne & return via Ramsgate so that everyone had some experience of that as well.
I ended the talk with a comment that has been repeated on every cruise since.
Now remember everyone. This is a cruise in company -- it is NOT a race- Then as an aside====BUT I AM GOING TO GET THERE FIRST
Oddly enough I often do , even beating the 40 ft Jeanneau on more time than it has beaten me & a Hanse 45 & Bavaria 34 on one trip from Dieppe to Le Havre giving them 1/4 mile head start.

Quite right

 

[Frogmogman]

You are Seajet reincarnated and I claim my prize! Bet you can't pass an A24, though.

Shome mishtake shurely. Don’t you mean A22 ?

 

[Mark-1]

You are Seajet reincarnated and I claim my prize! Bet you can't pass an A24, though.

Where *is* Seajet??? I've missed something?

 

[Baggywrinkle]

Where *is* Seajet??? I've missed something?

https://forums.ybw.com/threads/seajet.557838/

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I always thought Contessa's went ok in light conditions, not award winners but went ok, certainly for what they are.
I always thought multihulls struggled in light conditions, too light, wide beam, windage, high wetted area. When they stop difficult to get going.

Lets have a look. here are the results from a slow Round the Island:

"LIGHT BREEZE MAKES FOR SLOW SAILING IN 2018 ROUND THE ISLAND RACE​

Extreme heat and little wind made this year’s Round the Island Race in association with Cloudy Bay one of the slowest on record, if not the slowest ever."

View attachment 170770

Ey-up. What's this:

Multihull MOCRA: Leading Dragonfly: 10h 40
*Contessa 32: First Boat: 10h 43

She overtook 2 Dragonfly's despite setting off 1hour 20 mins later.

* A standard one design Contessa, 50 years old, you may of heard of it, Assent. She once cruised Antarctica and the Arctic in the same year, did well in the 1979 Fastnet

.

Flaming has explained that one, it hapoens, in the RTI. Fact is, the Contessa NHC base number , ie real world performance derived, is 0.895. The Dragonfly 920 is 1.235. The other dragonflys aren’t that much different. Sailing in the same conditions, the DF is 30% faster over the racecourse. We find, in the strong tides of the western Solent that it is nearer 50%. On a light day the Contessa might make 4kn, which could be 0-2kn over the ground, or zero if beating. We make say 6kn on the same conditions, making us at least twice as fast upwind when the wind is with the tide. The XOD is 0.788 usually. The reason we catch Contessas is depth of water, probably. We stay out of the tide, rockhopping. Fact is, point to point they’re the worst of any world.

 

[doug748]

Flaming has explained that one, it hapoens, in the RTI. Fact is, the Contessa NHC base number , ie real world performance derived, is 0.895. The Dragonfly 920 is 1.235. The other dragonflys aren’t that much different. Sailing in the same conditions, the DF is 30% faster over the racecourse. We find, in the strong tides of the western Solent that it is nearer 50%. On a light day the Contessa might make 4kn, which could be 0-2kn over the ground, or zero if beating. We make say 6kn on the same conditions, making us at least twice as fast upwind when the wind is with the tide. The XOD is 0.788 usually. The reason we catch Contessas is depth of water, probably. We stay out of the tide, rockhopping. Fact is, point to point they’re the worst of any world.

Bad luck, you must have been mortified, overtaken by Contessa's. I drew a tactful veil over the handicaps

.

 

[Daydream believer]

https://forums.ybw.com/threads/seajet.557838/

I think that the UK selling off all its Harriers did for him. Final straw

 

[prestomg27]

Bad luck, you must have been mortified, overtaken by Contessa's. I drew a tactful veil over the handicaps

.

I've just looked up what a dragonfly is. It is one of those horrible, fugly trimarine things. I'm not sure what that has to do in comparison to how fast a monohull goes.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

This is just MY opinion, as I know that the Contessa has an ardent and admiring following!

I chartered a Contessa back in the 80s from Ardfern. The first thing is that the two female members of the crew hated it from the moment we boarded! And indeed, I deliberately spent our first night at anchor well away from civilization so that they couldn't jump ship, the dislike was so strong that they were talking about being landed at Crinan!

Second, I was pretty out of practice at the time - we did occasional charter holidays, but I was sailing at most 1 or two weeks a year. MY impression was a) that the Contessa was easily stopped by a short sea and b) needed to be handled just right to get the best out of her. I never felt that I was able to get her to perform as all the hype said she should. I know they are incredible and extremely capable sea boats, but they need to be handled and set up just right to get the performance everyone associates with them. As I was out of practice and of course, she was a charter boat, she didn't perform particularly well. And frankly, even then the Moody 34 we chartered the following year performed much better!

So, I certainly wouldn't pay £100,000 for one; I'd expect to pay the going rate for a boat of the late 70s and early 80s - say a few tens of thousands for a good example. In my view, £100,000 is an order of magnitude too high.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I've just looked up what a dragonfly is. It is one of those horrible, fugly trimarine things. I'm not sure what that has to do in comparison to how fast a monohull goes.

A 920 is not that dissimilar inside. And a used one costs half that Contessa price. Sure, it’s a radically different kind of boat, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I’m not that keen on the newest ones, reverse bows don’t do it for me. I mentioned it obviously because I’ve got one, and because there are 6 C32s at our club, I often get a back to back comparison. And compared to even slightly more modern boats, they’re heavy, slow, and only win against other boats in freak conditions. You buy one because of what they look like. These days they have few other virtues worth talking about.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Bottom line for me, I sail an even more ridiculous classic, own one and race them 3 times a week in season. Wood, designed in 1910. I don’t delude myself that it’s anything more than it is though. It’s slow, cumbersome, heavy, miserably wet. The plus points are that it‘s a one design, it has a regular 40-50 boat turnout at Cowes Week, and most crews are super competitive, the fleet has way more than it’s share of Olympians. It’s crap on every measure against more modern boats, and there’s no point in paying silly money for one. There’sca new one sitting in a boatyard, been there for 6 years, finished. Nobody is deluded enough to pay for it. The passion for C32s has clouded the logic on pricing. If they were 30-40k for a decent one, it might be more realistic. Though even there, you can buy a way better boat. It might not be as pretty, but it will sail better, be drier, and less hard work.

 

[doug748]

I've just looked up what a dragonfly is. It is one of those horrible, fugly trimarine things. I'm not sure what that has to do in comparison to how fast a monohull goes.

Yes, it's all very odd.

We always seem to have one, the Anderson 22 is remembered with affection, then we had the bloke with the Motorsailer who regularly overtook boats like a Pogo 8.5 in 8 knots of wind. I don't think anyone has ever seen a 12 ton boat like that actually move from the spot in light airs but his was, surprisingly fast.

Looks like we are entering the age of the Dragonfly, with the Hanse 311 pressing from behind.

.

 

[prestomg27]

A 920 is not that dissimilar inside. And a used one costs half that Contessa price. Sure, it’s a radically different kind of boat, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I’m not that keen on the newest ones, reverse bows don’t do it for me. I mentioned it obviously because I’ve got one, and because there are 6 C32s at our club, I often get a back to back comparison. And compared to even slightly more modern boats, they’re heavy, slow, and only win against other boats in freak conditions. You buy one because of what they look like. These days they have few other virtues worth talking about.

Think having one of those square ugly thi

Yes, it's all very odd.

We always seem to have one, the Anderson 22 is remembered with affection, then we had the bloke with the Motorsailer who regularly overtook boats like a Pogo 8.5 in 8 knots of wind. I don't think anyone has ever seen a 12 ton boat like that actually move from the spot in light airs but his was, surprisingly fast.

Looks like we are entering the age of the Dragonfly, with the Hanse 311 pressing from behind.

.

I've just looked and they are both on nearly every thread about contessa 32s on here. Quite bizarre.

I think with the strange chap with the trimarine it's a bit like a guy with an AMC Pacer who came up to me at a car show to tell me how terrible my GT6 was and the e type parked next to it as well. Ugly car/boat envy syndrome.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

And you have performance anxiety, plainly

 

[prestomg27]

And you have performance anxiety, plainly

Indeed. I always state my size in cm not inches without being too specific about the units.

 

[Daydream believer]

Indeed. I always state my size in cm not inches without being too specific about the units.

have you thought about millimetres?