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Hi, I've not sailed a Centaur 26 but my last boat was a Hunter Horizon 26 which was also a twin keel which was allegedly a fairly efficient design.
Depending upon where you sail a twin (bilge keel) has benefits....around the NW England coast a bilge keel with a good engine is quite popular given the string tides and miles of sands but when it comes to sailing (which after all is more fun than sitting your boat on the beach) I've found the Contessa a much more sea worthy and enjoyable boat.
The Hunter used to pitch and bounce quite hard in a heavy sea and also suffer from weatherhelm unless you tightened up the backstays in a blow....not a problem I've had yet in the Contessa plus the sea motion feels better.....my girlfriend has yet to be sick in my Contessa which bodes well.
Cheers
Andrew
Jim, great if you have any photo's. The track arrived by special delivery this morning, excellent getting it within 24 hours and even better as we went sailing today on the mersey from Liverpool (F4-5, gusting 6 sunshine and dipping the gunwhale and making 5.5K - fantastic, saw a big seal but we did have trouble going against the strong tide to get back into the lock)
The 1.3m traveller is just the right length. Totally agree with you about not wanting to screw through the stainless steel so was going to us SS jubliee clips, positioned so the screw is at the back and tripped off at the back. Should not look too bad. Good idea to use a bit of teak toe rail, had'nt thought of that. There is a boat jumble at Preston on Monday I'm going to so should be able to pick up the peices then....I may need to modify my sticker to ....sponsored by ebay and boat jumbles !
Cheers
Andrew
Thanks jarvist for the idea, I'm currently tracking a couple of these on ebay. Do you have a 12v adapter (if so where did you get that from and at what cost in the UK)
BTW, how's the planning for the big trip ? has the IC exploration committee been meeting regularly to discuss the impending departure :-)
Yes, it was quite a shock to hear about Peter. I understand he had a sudden heart attack, I hope he went out doing what he loved most :-)
Peter was very helpful to me when I was researching the history of my boat and other questions. In the last edition of the CO26 Association letter which only went out a few weeks earlier, he confirmed his intent to stand down as secretary for the association and was looking for opinions on how to take forward, i.e. should the UK CO26 continue with a quarterly news letters or move to an internet based forum with emails updates ?
Maybe we will get to an update/discussion at the 40th Rally of the JR Contessa's in Lymington at the end of the July.
Personally I think there's a lot to be said for moving to a internet forum/email based association as demonstrated by the excellent resources and help shown through this site.
Cheers
Andrew
Can I put an order in for your book ! I bought the Navik at the weekend and plan to install as a winter refit job.
It was in really good nick and the guy selling it helped me put it all together; it comes with the original manual and the model is stamped as A77 ?
It came off a straight stern from a Moody 27, so like yours may need some extended stainless steel brackets to connect to the sloping transom but on my model the legs are bolted onto the main frame so may not need to weld
I'll post some pictures when I get it back home.
Cheers
Andrew
ShannonRHIANNON,
Hi, have you got your Navik installed yet, if so any pictures and what do you think of it ?
I've found a Navik for sale which I'm going to look at on Sunday evening (15 years old - $750, 1 user complete and in good condition ?)
Any other feedback on Navik's greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Andrew
Mark,
That's a good idea about caliberating the log, why did I not think of that !
I checked the manual and sure enough it can be caliberated but I never had time today to try some Contessa 26 drag racing up and down the marina ! I'll let you know how I get on.
Cheers
Andrew
Hi, thanks for all the feedback ... to answer a couple of questions. The speed was measured using a new NASA Clipper thru hull log, so it was the true speed as obviously no current in the locked in marina ! To answer Mark's point there is no black or white smoke from the exhaust, it's fairly clean so I don't think it's burning too much/too little fuel.
When the boat was out the water I measured the diameter of the prop and it was definately a 13", I'm not surprised that the Contessa was designed for an 11" or thereabouts as that would explain the very narrow gap ! I never measured the pitch at the time (how do I do that)
I'm tempted to get the marine engineer from the marina back in to give a quick check of the RPM and compression and see if he can spot anything else - which is going to be cheaper than hauling the boat out and back in again. Otherwise after I've put my 58Kg on new chain in the bow which has just arrived (40m 8mm short link) along with the inflatable and outboard which should flatten out the waterline, the only difference can be the prop ? I've dropped an email to one of the previous owners of the boat in the early 90's (who owns anothe Contessa now) to see if he can recall what he typically got out of the engine.
Cheers
Andrew
I'm been measuring this weekend in preparation for installing a Raymarine ST2000 tillerpilot and would welcome feedback on best position !
The manual suggests that the connection should be approximately 460 mm from the end of the tiller from where it'c connected to the hull. Given that the tiller if 1600mm long, this positions the tiller quite far aft "behind" the starboard coving.....which makes it slighter more difficult to get at and adjust ?
Has anybody move a tillerpilot further forward, on or in front of the aft coving ?
Thanks in advance.
Andrew
Unfortunately I don't have a rev counter so not sure of the RPM but at full tilt it was doing about 4.6 in the marina.
Not sure if it's a prop issue but as posted before the gap between the tip of the prop and the hull is only about a quarter of an inch (yep that's right ..... about 4-5 mm) and the marine engineer who put the engine back in thought this may cause caviatation ? the 13" prop is definately the right size for the 2GM20.
Cheers
Andrew
I've now got the boat back in the water after the winter works and the the hull and 13" 3 blade prop all cleaned and antifouled, the 2GM20 engine was taken out and new engine bearers put in and it sounds to be running fairly sweetly, so took for a spin in the marina today and at top speed reached 4.6 knots (this was with a slightly shortly waterline as all the anchor chain is out at the moment and the anchor is not in place so it's a bit back heavu and the bow waterline is about 6" above the real waterline at the moment).
4.4 knots is OK but is that the average or do other boats get more or less ?
Cheers
Andrew
Thanks, I quite like the sound of the macho approach to single-handed sailing :-) with the monitor
..... and it's generally positive feedback but do feel put off a bit by the size and weight (I've got a Rutland 503 wind generator to put up on the transom pulpit next week).... so guess I may save up for the Navik.
PS. Apologies for all the spelling mistakes and bad grammar in the original post but 3 hours spent painting in a small confined space with International Brightside paint can do wonders for the brain !
After a weekend of working on the beautiful old girl (reason for flattery follows) I'm interested in anybodies experiences of renaming their boat.
- Did you toast Neptune ?
- Put a new penny under the mask ?
- Or sing a ditty and run (or swim) around the boat naked three times ?
I'm just courious having renamed my boat on Saturday morning from "Moonshine" to "Ploughboy Dreamer" (long story which I'll explain on my website in due course) I seem to have suffered bad luck ever since !
Fristly my fan heater started sparking and clanking on Saturday afternoon so I had to go out and buy a new one; then in my little (ho, ho, ho) exercise of moving the batteries from the cockpit into the cabin I found one to be completely dead despite having been trickle charged and then in locking up the cabin doors late this evening .... balancing on the cockpit floor joists (as I have the cockpit floor up)....I hear something fall out of my pocket, hit the back of engine and drop into the bilges.... A quick check confirms it's not my car keys... so I pop inside to get a torch and put a light into the bottom of the bilge....only to see my nice leather wallet and it's contents of credit cards, cheque book and driving licence gently slipping into the bottom of oily water.
So what do you reckon... is this a one-off or should I consider a renaming ceremony for the boat; if so any recommendations on the proposed ceremony ?
Hi, I have a 3 blade prop on my Yanmar 2GM20; I'll measure it at the weekend.
Sailing around the Irish Sea and Anglesey we get some pretty strong 5knot+ tides which makes for good practice on the old tidal calculations and avoiding wind over tide conditions.
Just got the engine back in this week so hope to get her back in the water soon and find find out what the cruising speed is with a clean bottom and prop !
Cheers
Hi, this is Santa wishing all Contessa 26 owners a happy Christmas. I'm just getting the elves to arrange the final presents in the Christmas stockings for all you good boys and girls who have been working hard on your boats.
Question is what three small essential 'luxury' items do you get the Contessa 26 owner which small enough to fit into that stocking hanging from the bulkhead ?
I've already had the following request from eebygumcaptain
#1 LED torch programmed with SOS signalling
#2 Bosun's knife
#3 Mini blow torch
Any other suggestions to keep the elves busy ?
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