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We have a Yanmar 2GM 13 HP, raw water cooling, with 6-7000 hours on it and was still cooling just fine. We had it rebuilt last year and if it can hold another 6-7000 hours we will be very happy. We never had problems with the raw water cooling as long as you ensure that the intake valve isn't plugged with seaweed, etc.

Hi Shannon!
Thanks for all the good information. We have decided to work with the working jib for the next little while and also practice reefing. That day, not only was the railing in the water, but the genoa was floating... pretty scary. No doubt we misread the wind conditions. It seems pretty tricky in the Finlayson Arm where one moment you have no wind at all and suddenly it blows right across and sends you in a quick heel. Boats north of Brentwood Bay were flying around with both genoa and mainsail up but we must have caught some winds in the south that were somewhat stronger. No other boat was reacting the way our little boat was. Our traveller is the old style and we couldn't let the wind out of the mainsail because the line got stuck. It all happened so fast that we had to step on the tiller to swing her up against the wind. Our hearts were pounding, that's for sure. We wear flotation gear all the time - we realize we are too new to take that kind of thing lightly but a trip into the drink in late April wasn't really our kind of sailing...

Jens is the big reader on sailboats and he has read that with an older Contessa you can risk having the iron ballast simply rust away from inside leaks, leaving you with one very light and very unstable boat. We are just hoping that it is operator error and, after all, we came home safe and dry with everything but our pride intact. It is definitely a steep learning curve. We have "sailed" on really big boats in the merchant marines and seen our share of hurricanes, even a couple of typhoons, but standing almost upright on the side of a little boat with your toes seemingly inches from the water certainly was a different kind of experience. I have a feeling we can thank the boat for being so forgiving of her new owners.

thanks for all the good info. I think we are both feeling better. We probably have a different comfort level when it comes to heeling because we are so new. We are sailing up and down from Finlayson Arm and up to Brentwood Bay on the east side of Vancouver Island and it is good practice. The water is fairly protected but the wind is constantly shifting due to the mountains.

Love the film. What a good looking boat. It is fun to see a well-kept Contessa. We have some work to do in that regard. It has been cold and rather miserable all spring but now the weather is starting to cooperate and we can get some work done on the trim, the deck, the port holes, the interior... well, the motor seems to be just fine, thank heavens! We figure by the time we have scraped and sanded and varnished and painted and whatever else it takes, we will become good friends and the boat will be a comfortable second home.

Next week we are going to make a concerted effort to find the hull number. We have tried hanging out the back with a camera to take a photo of the numbers there but there are several layers of paint over them so we are hoping to take an etching and see if that gives a better result. The boat has the name, Uhuru, in faded letters along the side. We believe the last owner was not happy with the name and had it painted over but never got around to changing it before he was unable to sail and the boat was left stranded on land in a shipyard on Gabriola Island where we found it. So the documentation is scarce - there are no registration papers from previous owners - but we believe it is from 1976. Certainly, it is the older model but with a wood cabin sole. We also are pretty convinced that it is a Canadian-made boat but even that is only a very good guess.