Issue 5 December The Contessa 32 Class Association Newsletter is all about you and what you do in your Contessa so 2015 please contact me on:- [email protected] Gosh here we are at Christmas already! Where does the time go? I must first start with an apology to Lionel & Brandy. I had planned to get their article into the last Newsletter, I failed miserably sorry. I’m sure however that as we all sit here in a cold and dark British winter their adventure will be the envy of us all. Thank you to Richard for giving us an insight into the what is becoming, I think, the infamous Solo week! We also have a unique insight into the ARC, thank you Paul and I hope you all take time out to enjoy his blog and envy his warm water sailing!! My thanks again to Vanessa and Alan for their help in putting this Newsletter together. At the Christmas Rally one of the questions being asked was what car does a Contessa 32 remind you of, some suggestions were; a Jaguar, a Morgan, a Capri, and Landrover even a Morris Minor, how about sending me your own suggestions? Lastly following our highly successful hints and tips Newsletter we’d like to introduce the C.A.L.M.E.S page (Contessa Association “Life made Easier” Society) read on for details! Class Captain, Mark Himsworth Happy Christmas! I hope this finds you and yours looking forward to jubilant festive celebrations after a wonderful 2015 in which you've been afloat as much as the rest of life permitted. No doubt you're busy hatching plans for an even busier sailing schedule in 2016, and I look forward to meeting you during their execution, or hearing or reading about them thereafter. Thanks to the very hard work of the Committee at large over the last year, and particularly the sterling efforts of Mark Oliver (racing) , Mike Sellers (cruising), and Kate Trenouth (socials), we have had a tremendously well-attended and successful sailing calendar this year, and it's a great pleasure to be part of an association which feels truly in the ascendant. My thanks, again, for the fantastic contribution made by Lynn in bringing you news of Contessa sailing wherever it happens - and do please contribute an article/ log/photo if you are able. On behalf of all of the Committee, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Foreword from George Isted I know that there are many Contessa 32 owners like myself who dream of heading away from it all on their Contessa to far-flung places with white sandy beaches, clear water and adventures to be had. Likewise, there are plenty that had had adventures both locally or on distant shores and we always enjoy reading about them in the cruising logs that are sent in. If you have a story to share of your Contessa adventures, big, small, funny or with a lesson to pass on, please do send them in to Lynn Roberts ([email protected]) or Mike Sellers our cruising rep ([email protected]). Lionel and Brandy are two of the lucky ones, they have just started an adventures on Co32 Aristophanes and will be keeping a blog of their trip (http:www.aristophanesadventures.co.uk). Lionel, posted a note on the Co32 Facebook page and was persuaded to write a short article for us from an internet café Spain. I am sure that we all wish them well and look forward to future updates. – George Isted Adventures on Co32 Aristophanes So it was 2 years ago that Brandy and I committed to sailing across the Atlantic and possibly the Pacific all depending on how we felt when we got over to the Caribbean. Brandy a former actress and myself an outdoor education tutor were ready to look for a different way of living. I had always had an aspiration to sail around the world but timings and hurdles always seemed to make this dream out of reach. After some real soul searching and a Transformational Coaching course we attended for work purposes we realised with some commitment and bloody hard work we could make this adventure a reality. We bought our Contessa 32 (Aristophanes) from Nick and Zilla Martin (Totnes) and have spent the last 2 years upgrading her and getting enough money in the bank to live off for a few years. On the 31st of August we slipped our lines from my work place (UKSA, Cowes) and set sail for Falmouth where we would start our Biscay crossing. The passage down from the Isle of Wight was very pleasant with Northerly winds which made it possible for us drop the hook at St. Mawes in just 28 hours. Aristophanes sailed beautifully and our average speed was 5.9 knots (very thankful of spring tides). Days later we set out on our first offshore passage, of course we were a little nervous but very excited all the same. We had a great forecast ahead of us with winds from the North and East. The first two days were just amazing with visits of dolphins everyday a clear night as we crossed the continental shelf. Wow what a view I have never seen the Milky Way so clear let alone some of the planets. We were feeling very good about things when on the evening of the 3rd day the wind picked up to 25-30 knots. No this was not anything we were not used to, so we reefed down and let our Contessa do its thing, which she did amazingly. "No worries Brandy I’m sure this will blow through" I was a little wrong when the wind stayed all-night and the sea began to build. Then came morning a bright blue sky and with it an increase in wind strength. We were now up to a good F8 touching 9 at times We were a little nervous of these conditions with waves breaking into the cockpit at times and the peaks coming up to the spreaders when we were in the troughs!! At this point the wind was off our port quarter so the boat was surfing down the waves very nicely. Aristophanes reached speeds of 11 knots over ground as the whole boat hummed and vibrated. On this bearing we were not going to make La Coruna so we needed to head up slightly. As we did this the apparent wind moved to a constant 45 knots and she was very hard to handle. Now we do have an inner stay on Aristophanes but I was not sending Brandy up there to attach it and she did not want to helm so we decided to get rid of the main altogether and furl the head sail way past the number two reef. This worked great and the boat returned to feeling light on the helm and we could now make our desired heading. We had some epic sailing conditions (although a little scary at times) for the whole day. A day we will never forget. As we pulled into La Coruna we both knew we had earned our Biscay stripes. We do not confess to be great sailors, far from it but the confidence we had in our boat was amplified ten-time over when we tied up. She had done everything we had asked and had no-doubt forgiven some of my mistakes on the helm! Over the next few weeks we will making our way to the canaries to start our transatlantic crossing. A day we will never forget. Since buying Aristophanes we have kept a website www.Aristophanesadventures.co.uk We will update this regularly and our contacts details are on there if you have any advice to pass on. I hope you follow our adventure! Lionel Bridgman On the 17th November George Isted received the following update on Aristophanes “We left Peniche 7 days ago to sail over to Madeira. We had been waiting for a good forecast for around 2 weeks but the winds have been very erratic..South one day North the next and so on. Finally we got a window for 10 days of Northerlies all though quite light but with no swell we thought we would make way. We sailed with a French family who have a Dufour 370 so there was a bit of unspoken race going on. The first 2 days were very light we had hours of going just 2.5 knots but with fuel capacity to only cover 250- 300 miles we sailed on without using the engine. Even at such low speeds we still covered 160 miles in a 48 hour period which was not bad considering the wind or lack off it we had. This had been Brandy's longest passage to date and it was looking like a 5 day passage was going to change into a 7 day passage...but the sea was warm and we had bright sunny skies so who were we to complain. On the third day we called our friend Tim Mcgue on the sat phone to get a new forecast and make sure there was nothing untoward coming our way. He told us that we needed to head west for around 25-30 miles and we should pick up some wind, this is what we did and found a nice consistent 10 knots that grew into 15 knots later that evening. Day 3 and 4 saw us cover over 250 miles and Aristophanes was sailing along at a great pace...we encountered some steep waves at the Unicorn Bank but our boat took it in her stride...not sure the same can be said for the Dufour 370.