• Registered: 2014-08-08
  • Posts: 1

Topic: Help identifying CO 26

Hello,

I bought a Contessa 26 from a wonderful gentleman in Ontario a few months ago and have been trying to locate any history. I cannot find a hull number anywhere.

I believe she is an older model - her sail # is 16 (would this be a 1969?). She is laid out differently than any of the model drawings I've seen - with a round forward hatch, head to starboard, hanging locker and sink to port, no stove, holding tank under starboard v-berth, water tank under port v-berth. Instruments are non-working, but are all of U.K. origin and appear to be of high quality.

Her current name is Blue Nimbus. I believe she had been used at a sailing school for a while.

Any information, history, original name, etc., would be appreciated.

Thanks!

2 Reply by bertinol (edited by bertinol 2014-10-19 05:24:57)

  • From: nyc toronto
  • Registered: 2012-01-04
  • Posts: 163

Re: Help identifying CO 26

As a start you could look at the hull number that is embedded in the fibreglass on the outside of the starboard quarter of the hull.

Using the circumnavigating Mai Miti Vavau for example, its hull number is ZJT 03 148 1075, which stands for:  JJ Taylor / Contessa 26 / sail number 148 / laid down in October 1975. If your boat was a ZJT, it would have been laid up on the roof of the JJ Taylor building on Stadium Rd. in Toronto then moved inside for finishing. If it wasn't a ZJT, it might be an English import.

My boat, no. 156 built in 1975, has the same arrangement below but my forward hatch is square.

Some of the early boats had a main sheet traveller in front of the companionway.

  • Registered: 2006-09-20
  • Posts: 175

Re: Help identifying CO 26

If you've also got a round "dustbin lid" hatch for the stern locker she probably is an English import.