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I love a cockpit you can sleep in on a hot day, or fit more than three people for a drink or picnic.

As for headroom: if you want to stand up, go buy a canoe!

Seriously, I always wear a hat down below. That way I don't bang my head.

Christopher...
Don't forget that JJT boats have a lighter keel - by 390 pounds - to compensate for the lower buoyancy of fresh water. This was done in about 1969 when Al Scott first brought the design over from England.

That means the bootstripe should be the same.
 
The sales brochure for JJT 352 - laid down 20 years later, at the end of the Canadian run - gives a keel weight of 2,300 pounds, and a total displacement of 5,400.

The early boats had a cast iron keel. Post 1980 - about boat 300 - the keels were made of lead, a heavier metal which took up less room allowing them to lower the floor.

The JJT boats have a longer cockpit, taller mast and the forestay is further forward to compensate for lighter winds and more sunshine in Canada.

Very interesting. You seem to have a 70s boat with lots of 80s mods, all of them improvements. Sounds like you got a good boat.

Lowering the floor would be very difficult becos it was a one-piece mould.
The traveller is new, a common add-on. The motor sounds good too. The standard head door is a very tight fit so many were taken off. Don't remove the bulkhead though. Several people have, to their instant regret.

I'll put a magnet on my keel sometime soon to see whether cast-iron attracts.

But enough talking. Time to go for a sail --- once the ice melts.

one more thing, sorry.

How many pintles on the rudder.
My boat is a 1975. It has two pintles.
Later boats had three.....

That's an easy one.

To identify yr boat look at the hull number that is embedded in the fibreglass on the outside of the starboard quarter of the hull. This was embedded when the fibreglass was laid down.

A hull number such as SN ZJT 03 308 0885 stands for:
SN - I don't know
ZJT is JJ Taylor Toronto, which built the Canadian boats from 1969 on using modified British molds
03 is the Contessa 26
308 is the sail number. That would fit the year it was laid up, which was
0885 - August 1985.

A boat built in 1970 would have a sail number of 50 or less.

Some early boats did not have numbers, but they made detail changes through the years so you might be able to compare your boat with other early ones.

The Yanmars did not come along until much later. My 1975 boat has a Petter diesel.

Christopher
I'm with you.
When I bought my 1975 boat I discovered it did NOT have seacocks on the cockpit drains. No idea why not. I thought it would be a key safety feature since the cockpit drain outlets are often under water.
The first job I did was to install brand new seacocks just in case a pipe burst or came off and sank the boat.
 
On that subject, I watched a very expensive motor cruiser slowly sink at launch this year. The owner had attached the engine cooling inlet pipe with one loose clip instead of two tight ones. The pipe came off, the water flowed in and the boat slowly settled.
Luckily, one of his neighbours noticed the boat sinking and quickly reattached the pipe.
Again, no seacock. 
I don't understand it. A $100,000 boat full of luxury fittings but they don't bother with an engine seacock.