Issue 6 April 2016 The Contessa 32 Class Association Newsletter is all about you and what you do in your Contessa so please contact me on:- co32newsletter@gmail.com Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the newsletter. Like many, I m thrilled to see the end of winter and the first glimpse of some real warmth heralding the start of the new season. You will see in your new Class Cass Captains message that changes are afoot for the newsletter, it s all very exciting and hopefully with some fair winds we will see a new glossy yearbook soon. My thanks to those who have submitted articles for this newsletter as George has mentioned we have kept some of them back for use in the new book. Please keep the articles and logs coming; we will still be compiling a newsletter it will be a shorter read but we still need your input. My thanks again to Alan & Vanessa (Izy) for all their help in putting this newsletter together Have a great sailing season here s hoping for fair winds and plenty of sunshine! Obituary We are very sorry to report the news that Jill Burley has passed away. Long-standing members of the association will remember that Jill was one half of a very successful partnership with her husband Richard racing the Contessa 32 "Moongirl". Richard was a Class Captain in the past and was responsible, ably assisted by Jill, for engendering the spirit we have in the Class today. A memorial service for Jill will be held at St Thomas a Becket Church, Warblington on 29th April at 1430. Take a look on the website for all the cruising and racing programmes for the year, there s lot to look forward to. Solent racing programme http://www.co32.org/solent-racing-programme-2016 Solent Cruising Programme http://www.co32.org/solent-cruising-programme-2016
Class Captain, George Isted Hello and welcome to the latest Contessa 32 Class Association newsletter for which we owe our thanks to Lynn Roberts and all the contributors. The new sailing season in the UK has started for some and very nearly here for others, I have already seen a number of Contessas out cruising and racing in the cool winds of Spring. In addition to the new season there is also a new Class Captain as I have taken over from Mark Himsworth as of the AGM in March. My thanks to Mark for his efforts over the last two years. Knowing so, many past Class Captains over the last 20 years or so it is both a pleasure and an honour to hold this post and I hope I can continue to helm our fantastic organisation for benefit of all the members during my tenure. I was lucky enough to grow up sailing Contessa 32 s as my parents bought Aigle D'or shortly after I was born and I have many happy memories of cruising and racing around the Solent and further afield. History is now repeating itself with my two boys who enjoy (and occasionally endure) weekends and holidays on Concerto who we have owned for about 9 years. I firmly have a foot in both the cruising and racing camps and will be supporting both during my tenure. If you would like to contact me please feel free to do so using the address captain@co32.org. Looking forward to the 2016 sailing season we have a full calendar of events. Mark Oliver has organised an exciting season of racing events in the Solent with the first inshoreseries weekend being hosted by Portsmouth Sailing Club on the 14 th and 15 th May. Being Concerto s home-port, I look forward to seeing old faces and some new to this very welcoming club after some top-class racing in the eastern Solent. As always, anyone who would like to join in on this or any weekend are very welcome, even if it is just for the meal on Saturday night. My thanks to Alice Butcher, our new Social Secretary, for working with the clubs to make sure we are suitably fed and watered at these events and others. The booking system on the Co32 website is now open for the Racing Series, go to the 2016 Solent Racing Programme and click on one of the "Book" links. You will need to be logged into the site to complete your booking. Mike Sellers has also done a fantastic job at pulling together a range of cruising events that run from the late May bank-holiday weekend through to the end-of-season rally in October, and I will be running a Christmas rally again at the start of December. The booking system is now open on the Co32 site for the May Rally. We have seen a real growth in the number of boats participating in our cruising events over the last couple of years and look forward to seeing that continue. If you would like to run an event for Contessa yachts in your part of the world then please do get in contact and we would be delighted to help promote it to all members. Looking forward again if plans work as hoped, there will be a revised format for the newsletter after this one. Some of the content submitted for this and future Newsletters is being held back for a glossy yearbook to be created and sent to all members at the end of this season. There is a fair amount of work involved in both of these so this so watch this space and do please keep the articles, reports, cruising logs and pictures coming in - they are hugely appreciated and we can't create these publications without them. I suspect that is quite enough from me but I look forward to seeing you out on the water or hearing about your exploits in the next newsletter, on our fab new website or on the Contessa 32 Facebook page.
Alan Dixon:- Charlotte s Tent I have pondered long and hard to have some form of protection for the cockpit, having considered a number of options I concluded that a simple boom tent would best fit the bill and the pocket. There are several problems to overcome in the design of a boom tent for a CO32 The boom does not project very far into the cockpit, The boom would also have to be centred in that position the main sheet hinders entrance to the cabin I have a Stackaway system with lazy jacks Boom tents are dark, Simple boom tents make it difficult to enter and leave the cockpit. The backstay shortens the tent so the full cockpit is not covered All these problems needed to be designed out of the final solution. The Boom Really it s not a boom tent at all it s a whisker pole tent. The solution I took was not to use the main boom at all. I have a whisker pole which is only used once or twice a season, it s about time it earned its keep. The whisker pole ridge is suspended with a span attached to the main halyard, a second span fixes the front to the cabin top grab rails. The pole is lashed to the backstay projecting aprox 600mm beyond the backstay. The ridge is suspended aprox 2mtrs above the cockpit sole.
I have fitted the mainsheet to the traveller by a carabiner type hook, this forms part of our MOB recovery system, and has the added bonus of being able to park the mainsheet to either the port or starboard stanchion base on the side deck, clearing the mainsheet out of the cockpit this significantly increases the usable cockpit area while in harbour, and clears the mainsheet out of the way of the tent. The Tent The total length of the tent is 2.5 metres. Starting from the front at 1.0 Mtr two zips were installed to allow easy entry from the side deck. A flap in the ridge allowed the tent to extend 0.5mt behind the backstay thus protecting the rear of the cockpit. Large windows were installed to give maximum light. webbing and double sided release buckles fasten the tent to the guard rails the webbing is led over the outside of the top wire and buckled to the bottom wire, this being a more elegant and useful solution to the string normally associated with Boom Tents.
The Construction The Materials Material Quantity Acrylic Canvas 150cm wide 6 metres Clear window Medium weight 2 metres Adhesive/ Sew on Velcro 1 Metre Double sided Seaming tape 1 roll Double sided Release Buckle 12 25mm 25 mm Webbing 6 metres 10 mm chain zip 135mm long 2 Polyester thread
The cover was made in 4 pieces to allow sewing on my Grandmothers hand cranked Singer sewing machine, the machine is probably nearing 100 years old but still works well. All seams were tacked using double sided tape before being sewn. The windows were taped in and then sewn, before finally the canvas windows were cut out. Conclusion I am really happy with the design, it has transformed the cockpit into a pleasant airy space, life below is warmer with fewer drafts. We have had a couple of weekend working parties aboard January and February and the tent has been a great asset. On its first outing it stood up to Storm Frank when we saw 35knots in Whitehaven Marina that day. We plan to cruise the west coast of Scotland this year and I am sure it will get a lot of use, there is sufficient ventilation to be able to use the Cobb Cooker under the cockpit tent, so we are looking forward to G & T while meat sizzles on the charcoal Finally, There w ill be an Open Air Service of Dedication for the 2016 sailing Season, at 18.00 On Sunday 1st May at Trinity Landings, The Parade, Cowes. Free mooring for the event so bring your Boat! The RNLI Inshore Lifeboat Sheena Louise will be blessed and music provided by the Cowes Concert Band. All proceeds go to the Hampshire and IOW Air Ambulance and RNLI. Drinks afterwards at The Globe, The Parade, Cowes. More information can be found at www.holytrinitycowes.org.uk