Contest 45 CS Buyer's Guide
Shopping the brokerage market for a Contest 45 CS means looking at a 2010-onward Georg Nissen design built by Contest Yachts, a 44-foot-9-inch cruiser with a 38-foot-4-inch waterline and a bulb-keel, spade-rudder hull carrying 11,244 pounds of lead ballast against 29,760 pounds displacement. She was styled below by Birgit Schnasse and remains a cruiser with long-range capability rather than a light-displacement coastal boat.
Layouts on the Used Market
Owner three-cabin layouts are more common on the used market, but both two- and three-cabin versions are available, and ex-charter examples are common. The three-cabin arrangement trades some owner privacy for separate guest quarters, while the two-cabin version opens the saloon. Either way the aft owner's cabin sits behind a door at the galley end with its own head, and the side-running port galley, starboard chart table, and center cockpit that seats eight carry through the model.
Equipment and Common Upgrades
Most boats on the market carry electric winches, radar, autopilot, and a chartplotter as standard fitted gear. Beyond those, buyers will often find a watermaker, air conditioning, heating, a code zero or spinnaker for offwind speed, and canvas in the form of bimini and dodger, with dinghy davits, teak decks, EPIRB, and life raft also frequently present. For energy independence, solar and inverter appear as less common owner upgrades, and a bow thruster or furling main shows up the same way. The load-bearing clusters for a buyer are power and energy (watermaker, heating, occasional solar/inverter), sail handling and canvas (code zero, spinnaker, bimini, dodger), and safety gear (EPIRB, life raft) — each tells you how turnkey the boat is for extended cruising.
What to Inspect
The teak deck is laid by a vacuum foils fabrication method the builder describes as unique, so examine the deck seams and bonding for age-related lifting or moisture ingress vacuum foils technique. Structural bulkheads are foam-cored and fully laminated into hull and deck with extra laminates at the keel, and a survey should confirm those laminations are sound around the keel bolts. The hull itself is vacuum-injected, and the Selden keel-stepped mast with hydraulic jib and main furling deserves a check that the furling seals and hydraulic lines are serviceable.
Availability and Buyer's Takeaway
These yachts typically appear in the Netherlands, Italy, and the United Kingdom. For a buyer, the short checklist is: confirm the teak deck vacuum foils bond, survey the foam-core bulkhead-to-keel laminates, verify the Selden hydraulic furling and keel-stepped mast, and decide between the more common three-cabin ex-charter boat and a two-cabin owner version. Prioritize examples with the commonly fitted navigation trio and a watermaker if liveaboard range matters.
Price & volume trends
Monthly asking-price and listing-volume trends for the Contest 45 CS. The line shows the median ask each month; the bars show how many listings appeared.
Monthly breakdown · 6 rows
| Month | Listings | Median ask | Δ vs. last mo. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 25 | 2 | $483,615 | — |
| Sep 25 | 1 | $525,035 | +8.6% |
| Jan 26 | 1 | $458,480 | -12.7% |
| Feb 26 | 1 | $436,597 | -4.8% |
| Apr 26 | 5 | $525,035 | +20.3% |
| Jun 26 | 1 | $442,194 | -15.8% |
Where they're listed
Contest 45 CS listings appear across 3 countries. Netherlands has the most listings with 3 (42.9%), followed by United Kingdom and Italy.
Country view
7 listings · 3 countries| Country | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | $525,035 | 3 | 0 | 42.9% |
| United Kingdom | $419,981 | 2 | 0 | 28.6% |
| Italy | $443,201 | 2 | 0 | 28.6% |
Comparable models
Similar length, displacement, and era. Open a row to compare that model's market page.
Similar boats to compare
9 similar designs| Model | LOA | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Performance Sun Odyssey 45 | 45.01' | $ 167,922 | 122 | 40 |
| X-Yachts XC 45 | 45.47' | $ 501,129 | 17 | 3 |
| Swan 45 | 45.37' | $ 315,000 | 13 | 1 |
| Moody 45 Classic | 46.03' | $ 376,705 | 10 | 2 |
| Freedom 45 AC | 45' | $ 89,000 | 10 | 0 |
| Contest 50CS | 49.18' | $ 702,473 | 10 | 5 |
| Conyplex 55CS | 54.95' | $ 542,501 | 10 | 3 |
| Dufour Classic 45 | 45.92' | $ 104,817 | 9 | 1 |
| Contest 45 CSYou are here | — | $ 454,143 | 8 | 0 |