Contessa 32

The Contessa 32 is a 32 ft fibreglass cruiser-racer designed by David Sadler in 1970 as a larger successor to the Contessa 26 and built by Jeremy Rogers in Lymington. It won Boat of the Show at the 1971 London Boat Show, became one of the most successful British production yachts of the 1970s, earned a lasting reputation for seaworthiness in the 1979 Fastnet, and is still built to order by the Rogers family in small numbers.

The first two hulls were moulded in 1970 and the boat was shown at the London Boat Show in January 1971. Rogers built the great majority of the fleet before his yard's insolvency stopped production in 1982–83. J.J. Taylor in Toronto built 87 under licence for North America; MacBar Marine of Poole built at least two in 1986 and Mike Slack about fifteen between 1988 and 1995. Jeremy Rogers bought the moulds back and restarted bespoke production in 1996; by the mid-2020s the yard, now run by Kit and Jessie Rogers, had added about 25 new boats and builds only a couple a year.

A moderate-displacement hull with long overhangs and a narrow 9 ft 6 in beam carries a long fin keel with cutaway forefoot and a skeg-hung rudder; two tons of lead ballast are encapsulated in the keel for a 47% ballast ratio. The masthead sloop rig is keel-stepped with double lower shrouds, and the solid, uncored deck is part of why the boats have aged well. The 1979 Fastnet inquiry singled out the design's stability; it is also known for rolling downwind in a big breeze and for a wet beat.

There are no generations: the hull and deck have remained the same from 1970 to the current builds. Post-1996 Rogers boats are built on a bespoke basis with modern engines (Beta 25 hp), systems and joinery, and the 2011 'Green Contessa' Calypso carried a diesel-electric hybrid, but these are build-to-order specifications rather than catalogued options, so none are recorded as options here. Canadian J.J. Taylor boats are the same design under the same name.

Prices vary widely between 1970s Rogers boats, the small runs of the late 1980s and the new-build Rogers boats. On older boats check the keel-stepped mast step and bilge for corrosion, the original engine (15–25 hp diesels of the period) and its beds, chainplates and rigging age, and the condition of the encapsulated keel casing after groundings. The interior is small and the heads headroom low, so check the layout suits you before the survey.

Assent (Willy and Alan Ker) was the only finisher in her class in the 1979 Fastnet. Declan Mackell circumnavigated alone in Sean-Ois (1979–83); Gigi rounded Cape Horn in 1984 (John Kretschmer, Cape Horn to Starboard); 15-year-old Seb Clover crossed the Atlantic alone in Reflection in 2003; and Pierre-André Huglo completed a non-stop solo circumnavigation in Fresh Herring in 221 days in 2018–19, repeating it in 2024.

The Contessa 32 Class Association (co32.org) runs a one-design racing programme and cruising rallies and is the best source for hull histories.