Design and Construction
The 33 was conceived as a performance cruiser/racer with modern lines compared to the classic Contessa 26, and she was developed out of the Roller Skate family but built somewhat smaller. At 32.67 feet overall with a 25.42-foot waterline and an 11.08-foot beam, she displaces 8,988 pounds and draws 5.82 feet. Her proportions — a displacement-to-length ratio near 244 and a sail-area-to-displacement ratio of 17.8 — place her firmly in the lively cruiser-racer band rather than the heavy cruising camp. The hull is solid fiberglass with a solid fiberglass deck, and the keel is a fin with a spade rudder. The moulds were later sold to a Greek concern, though that business was not able to raise a head of steam and the ultimate fate of the tooling is unknown.
Rig and Handling
The boat carries an uncomplicated fractional-sloop rig. The standard sail plan gives a 202-square-foot mainsail and a 269-square-foot working jib, with a 150-percent genoa of roughly 418 square feet available for reaching work and a symmetric spinnaker near 852 square feet for downwind legs. Those numbers describe a boat tuned for club racing as much as for shorthanded cruising. On the racecourse the design delivered: Moonlight, the first 33, took a class first in the 1984 Cowes-Deauville race and first overall in that year's Starlight Series, while Jos of Hamble won Class 4 in the 1984 Round the Island race. Across the Atlantic, Chaparral IV won Block Island Week in the United States in 1986, and Act of Defiance notched numerous Irish Sea wins that same year.
Accommodations and Intended Use
Owners report the layout could sleep eight, a generous count for a 33-foot hull and a sign the boat was meant as much for family cruising as for the buoy room. Period owners also described her as having an attractive appearance and an uncomplicated rig, traits that suited a couple or small crew moving between weekend racing and longer passages. Peter Bruce's Owl, originally found neglected at Shamrock Quay in December 1991 as Ceveva and renamed, sailed to Skye and circumnavigated Ireland with the crew living aboard for five weeks — a practical demonstration of the cruising brief.
Racing Pedigree
The most celebrated example is Peter Bruce's Owl. By his own calculation she was the most successful Channel Handicap boat in the five years he owned her, and he reckons she was the most successful CHS boat in the UK over those same five years. During her second year under Bruce, 1993, she came into her racing stride, winning her class at the Scotland Rover Series, Cowes Week, and Dartmouth and Lymington series. She never failed her crew on the racecourse, and Bruce sold her in October 1999.
Known Issues
Service history on these boats is not without incident. On Owl, a short circuit in the electrics set fire to the engine insulation off the Lizard on a homeward leg — a fault rooted in the wiring rather than the engine itself. A separate, more unusual episode saw a dog tread heavily on the gear lever, causing the boat to accelerate ahead at full revs; the controls were evidently vulnerable to unintended actuation. Neither is a structural defect, but both speak to the value of checking electrical integrity and control security on any individual hull.
Refits and Ownership
Bringing a neglected example back to speed takes commitment. It took Bruce a couple of years to sort Owl out after retrieving her from Shamrock Quay, a reminder that a tired Contessa 33 is a project rather than a quick turnaround. The moulds were sold to a Greek concern and that business could not raise a head of steam, so the tooling's fate is unknown; the design has had a prolonged competitive life and remains much sought after even well beyond its launch era.
The Verdict
The Contessa 33 is a genuinely dual-purpose Humphreys design that punches above her length in racing yet carries a practical cruising interior. Her small production run and the lost moulds make her a scarce find, but the race record and offshore use argue for a capable, if occasionally quirky, 33-footer.
Pros
- Proven cruiser-racer with major regatta wins on both sides of the Atlantic
- Sleek modern Humphreys lines in a compact, manageable 33-foot hull
- Sleeps eight for a versatile cruising schedule
Cons
- Very limited production; future spares from original tooling uncertain
- Documented electrical fire and vulnerable gear-lever control on at least one hull
- Bringing a neglected example back to form is a multi-year effort
