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No, no, no? Bit rude hey?

Interestingly, I buy filters for my Bukh at Napa.

Hi Bob,

Boothbay. Not far from where you had your boat overhauled in Whitefield. I watched that refit with interest, our two boats are nearly identical.

Cheers -Steve

This is an odd question?! The hull is clearly strong enough to deal with any sailing conditions it may encounter. The strength of any boat's hull is fairly immaterial without considering it's shape. For instance, the Nor'Sea's hull HAS to be stronger because it's a broader, more blunt boat, so head seas have more surface area to present force upon. The contessa is a good sea-going boat not because of how it's built, but because of its design - it's narrow and deep relative to its length. It also has low freeboard, so this coupled with its narrow beam present less surface area to stress and less structure to support. I'd suggest not worrying about hull strength and focusing on the type of boat you want, and the condition any specific boat you find is in.

It depends - if the boat is built in US/Canada, and I believe Mexico, (NAFTA), then no duty applies. If the boat was built anywhere else, last I knew import duty into the US was 1.5%, no idea what the Canadian tariff is.

I don't think that's an accurate assessment or statement in any way, shape, or form. Consider for a moment the term "wimp", generally associated with the male gender - is it not? If you think not, then consider the term "gaybashing" - is that generally associated more closely with the male gender or the female? The statistics provide a clear, sad and stark answer:

"In the United States, the FBI reported that 15.6% of hate crimes reported to police in 2004 were based on perceived sexual orientation. 61% of these attacks were against gay men, 14% against lesbians, 2% against heterosexuals and 1% against bisexuals, while attacks against GLB people at large made up 20%."

Certainly I'm an advocate of the wrongly disenfranchised and will leap to their moral, financial, or physical assistance whenever the call comes, (like now), but equally so will also point out when the disenfranchised are falsely claiming the status. By the way, what's that got to do with sailing anyway? Which, after all, is the wonderful thread that all posters here should recognize as the tie that binds us all in equality. This is sailing, everyone's welcome and everyone belongs, none more or less than the other - that's the beauty of life under sail.

Richard - first thing to do before modifying the boat's design is to sail it! I would not do major surgey until you understand how it all works under sail. The cockpit drains on my contessa are 1.5" ID,(I think!), sounds like maybe yours are smaller? Inadequate or adequate is really decided by where and what conditions you sail in. For any coastal cruising, the cockpit drains are absolutely fine. For offshore cruising, the bigger the better.

The reason you'll never see cockpit drains out the transom smaller cruising yachts is because they will put more water into your cockpit then they'll remove - by a LOT. Think it through - you're talking getting 3 inches of drop. The only time you're going to get a cockpit full of water is in breaking seas, likely over 12 feet, and likely following seas. Picture your boat going down a 15 foot cresting wave. Where are those transom cockpit drains in relation to the cockpit now? They are a foot or more above your cockpit sole and under the pressure of many tons of seawater, and are flooding your cockpit rather than draining it. That would be a very big problem because while they would drain a bit after you crested the wave and the trim of the boat went the other way, (bow up), they would drain slower than they flooded as the outside pressure of the ocean would be greater than the pressure of the amount of water in the cockpit.

So assuming your concerned about the drains because you're going to be sailing offshore, I would suggest 1 of 2 things, or both:

1. Get an SSB and a subscription to a routing or weather service for sailors. The best way to avoid a swamped cockpit is to never put yourself in the conditions that would cause it.
2. If you really want more efficient drains, leave the existing routing right where it is, (crossing over is very important again not to flood your cockpit); get out some power tools and make the existing ones bigger! It should not be a big job and would probably make them quite adequate.

Ball valves or no - I think Merrill was right and wrong. He's right in that they would likely get frozen and are hard to reach so might be no help; on the other hand if you have them on the cockpit drains, they definitely won't hurt. My 26 does have ball valves, and one was frozen when I bought her. I've since freed it and if you grease them once a season, and just operate the levers a couple of times every time you have the engine hatch off they won't freeze again.

Another note on transom openings in following seas - you generally DO find the wet exhaust outlet there, but often find no way of closing it. Just as large following seas could flood your cockpit if you installed drains there, they could, (and have on many boats), also flood your cylinder head with seawater, so would definitely recommend installing a way to close the wet exhaust outlet to the sea if going offshore.

The Contessa doesn't have a problem with weather helm, UNLESS you're trying to pinch, or the rig isn't tuned properly. If the rig is tuned and sails trimmed properly, falling off a few degrees from maximum sheeting you can just about let go of the tiller.

Not reefing is not wise - (it can be fun of course!), but it not only overstresses the rig, but it is also a much slower way to sail than reefing. If your combing is consistently in the drink, you'll go much faster by tucking in a reef.

Methinks my point still slightly misunderstood. Not taking a shot at anyone, at least no more than I was myself - meaning my admonition was meant for myself as much as anyone else. The caution I meant to make was that we all love our boats for OUR reasons, and this, in my observation, often leads one to look down our noses at "other" boats. While I generally try to keep my mouth shut, I am JUST as guilty of this as anyone. e.g. - I have been quoted as saying Hunters are crap. And I think they are, for the use that I use a boat. However, if one wants to spend most of their time in calm waters and with short hops from marina to marina, they are in fact the perfect boat providing much space in a relatively inexpensive platform that sails quite well in certain conditions. Would I sail one offshore? No, I'd rather eat my own head. I saw a Hunter that was delivered from A to B some 850 miles offshore in the Atlantic, a 45-ish if memory serves, and at the end of that delivery, one could wiggle the main bulkhead with their hand. Yikes! But that person was using a boat for a purpose that the boat was not intended from a build and design perspective, (let's leave the marketers out of this for the sake of the point for a moment, that's a different story altogether!). Just trying to point out that everything moves on. Don't forget in the 1970s, even our beloved Contessa 26s were not infrequently referred to as "tupperware" by just as discerning folk as we are. Were they right to look down their nose then at our lovely mini-yachts? No more than we are now to turn up our nose at any boat of "our time", but at that time, many boat aficionados were that much closer to wood. And were $$$$, time, and maintenance no object, I would wholeheartedly agree with them and would be unquestionably sailing a wood boat - pragmatics aside, to me, there is nothing so warm, beautiful and beckoning as a planked wooden hull. However, pragmatics are a reality, so I've compromised with a plastic boat - albeit one with traditional lines. $118K for a new Dana 24? Not so bad really, considering the last of the "new" JJT 26s rolled off the line at about $50K, which is in fact $80K in today's dollars, then $118K isn't so far above.  And certainly the Dana 24 is built to a notably higher standard than the JJT 26, not to mention as this discussion underscores, there isn't as much competition for a offshore worthy built pocketcruiser now - so that price is actually in line.