Contessa 26

The Contessa 26 is a 25 ft 6 in fibreglass development of the Nordic Folkboat, designed by David Sadler and launched by Jeremy Rogers in Lymington in 1966. Roughly 750 were built on two continents: about 350 in England and about 400 under licence by J.J. Taylor & Sons in Toronto, the later Canadian boats sold as the J.J. Taylor 26. Narrow, heavily ballasted and long-keeled, it is one of the smallest production boats with a serious ocean record.

Sadler, a Folkboat owner with a wooden-boat background, and Rogers drew the boat in 1965 and showed it at the 1966 London Boat Show. Rogers built it for about ten years; production in Lymington ended in 1976–77, after which a handful were finished by Chris Carrington and by Maclan Marine. A second set of moulds went to J.J. Taylor in Toronto in 1969, who built the boat until the company closed in 1990. The moulds no longer exist.

A full keel cut away at the forefoot carries a steeply raked keel-hung rudder; ballast is encapsulated cast iron (cast lead on 1983-on Canadian boats). The masthead sloop rig gives 304 sq ft with the working jib, a modest SA/D of about 15.8 on a D/L near 260. Reviewers praise directional stability and the ability to carry full sail to 20 knots, and criticise windward speed, a wet ride, a low cockpit sole that drains slowly and a bridgedeck too low for offshore work.

UK and Canadian boats share the same hull. Canadian boats have a slightly different coachroof and cockpit, and from 1983 a redesigned deck with a longer companionway hump, more headroom, an amidships hatch and lead ballast; from 1984 they were sold as the J.J. Taylor 26. Per the catalog rules this is treated as an alias plus a factory option on the one model, not a separate generation, because buyers search for either name and the hull is identical.

Check the original engines (Vire petrol, Petter or Farymann diesels) for parts availability; many have been repowered with small Yanmars. Look for flex in the uncored foredeck, cockpit drainage, water pooling on side decks, and the usual chainplate and deck-fitting leaks on boats now 35–60 years old. Ballast is encapsulated, so keel-bolt worries do not apply, but check the keel casing for damage.

Tania Aebi sailed the Taylor 26 Varuna around the world from New York between May 1985 and November 1987, aged 18 to 21, recounted in Maiden Voyage (1989). Brian Caldwell completed a 27,000-mile circumnavigation in Mai Miti Vavau in 1995 at age 19. Contessa 26s raced in the 1972 and 1976 OSTAR and the Round Britain races, and Nick Jaffe sailed Constellation from the Netherlands to Sydney in 2007–2010.

The UK-based Contessa 26 Association and the Contessa Corner (co26.com) forum for North American Taylor and Contessa 26 owners are both active.