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Review of Contessa 43


Basic specs.

sail specifications
The Contessa 43 is a large sailboat designed by the American maritime architect Douglas Blair Peterson. The Contessa 43 is built by the British yard Jeremy Rogers.

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Hull
The hull is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season.

Keel

The Contessa 43 is equipped with a fin keel. A boat with a fin keel is more manoeuvrable but has less directional stability than a similar boat with a long keel.

The boat can only enter major marinas as the draft is about 2.40 - 2.50 meter (7.87 - 8.17 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.


Engine

The boat is typically equipped with a Seapanther diesel engine at 30.0 hp (22 kW).


Sailing characteristics

This section covers widely used rules of thumb to describe the sailing characteristics. Please note that even though the calculations are correct, the interpretation of the results might not be valid for extreme boats.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Contessa 43 is about 329 kg/cm, alternatively 1845 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 329 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 1845 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.


Sailing statistics

This section is statistical comparison with similar boats of the same category. The basis of the following statistical computations is our unique database with more than 26,000 different boat types and 350,000 data points.

L/B (Length Beam Ratio)

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Contessa 43 is 3.46.

Wide Slim 66% 0 50 100
Compared with other similar sailboats it is slimmer than 66% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a slightly more speedy hull design.


Maintenance

Rig

Dimensions of sail.

mainsail specifications headsail specifications

Are your sails worn out? You might find your next sail here: Sails for Sale



If you need to renew parts of your running rig and is not quite sure of the dimensions, you may find the estimates computed below useful.



Guiding dimensions of running rig
UsageLengthDiameter
Mainsail halyard 40.1 m(131.7 feet)14 mm(0.55 inch)
Jib/genoa halyard40.1 m(131.7 feet)14 mm(0.55 inch)
Spinnaker halyard40.1 m(131.7 feet)14 mm(0.55 inch)
Jib sheet 13.1 m(42.8 feet)16 mm(5/8 inch)
Genoa sheet13.1 m(42.8 feet)16 mm(5/8 inch)
Mainsheet 32.6 m(107.0 feet)16 mm(5/8 inch)
Spinnaker sheet28.7 m(94.2 feet)16 mm(5/8 inch)
Cunningham4.1 m(13.5 feet)14 mm(0.55 inch)
Kickingstrap8.2 m(27.0 feet)14 mm(0.55 inch)
Clew-outhaul8.2 m(27.0 feet)14 mm(0.55 inch)

Boat owner's ideas

This section shown boat owner's changes, improvements, etc. Here you might find inspiration for your boat.

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Finally

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for Contessa 43 it would be a great help.

If you have any comments to the review, improvement suggestions, or the like, feel free to contact us. Criticism helps us to improve.



References