Design and Construction
What distinguishes the 57CS at the structural level is its vacuum infused, sandwich hull construction, a method that keeps the boat relatively lightweight without abandoning the builder's certified series-production heritage. The lead keel with bulb gives the underbody a modern, performance-minded profile. Writing in Cruising World, the reviewer noted that more and more Contest owners are performance oriented, and the 57CS answers that shift with a hull that is built light yet remains a serious offshore platform anchor.
Rig and Deck Layout
On deck, the boat is organized around effortless short-handed control. Four winches are placed within reach of the helmsman, and the German mainsheet system exits a recess through two holes on a stainless steel plate, keeping the working end of the sail plan tidy and protected. The mainsail cheek blocks leave only about 30 centimeters of line exposed from the winch before the termination is hidden, a detail that speaks to the yard's habit of burying hardware rather than leaving it proud. Padeyes for the staysail forestay and its running stays, plus junctions for safety belts and a double bow fitting to drop an additional anchor, round out a deck engineered for both sail-handling discipline and anchoring redundancy anchor.
Accommodations
Step inside and the first impression is daylight: large windows bathe the interior, and the dinette sits high and bright, reading as an elegant salon rather than a cramped belowdecks nook. The galley runs the full length of the port topside, delivering long comfortable countertops without intruding on the dinette's privacy. The master cabin is placed aft with a central king-size bed and an en-suite bathroom reachable only from that cabin, while the two forward cabins on the evaluated boat were large, mirror-image spaces sharing a forward head accessible from both. Throughout, the interior shows a total absence of sharp edges, a quiet but telling sign of the finish standard anchor.
Cockpit and Passage
The spacious cockpit carries twin helm stations, and their placement allows clear passage from the stern straight through to the interior — a layout that matters when crew move forward in a seaway or when docking demands a clear run aft to bow. Combined with the flush decks, the twin helms keep traffic flowing without the bottleneck of a single central pedestal.
Ownership and Customization
No two Contest 57CS boats are the same, because each is tailored to the particular needs of its owner. Antonio Dalmas of Nautigamma, Contest Yachts' importer for Italy, described customization as the boat's most important feature, with the shipyard building unique boats to fully meet customer needs. Built by Contest Yachts in Medemblik, the Netherlands, the 57CS is less a fixed specification than a permitted range of owner-directed choices within a rigorous structural envelope anchor.
The Verdict
The Contest 57CS is a refined, lightly built blue water cruiser that translates a custom-yacht ethos into a semi-series Dutch build. Nissen's design trims the Contest 62's scale without losing its low-profile elegance, and the deck and interior details show a yard thinking about real passage life rather than showroom effect.
Pros
- Vacuum infused sandwich hull keeps displacement low while preserving offshore credibility
- Twin helm cockpit allows unobstructed stern-to-interior passage
- Deep owner customization with consistent structural and finish discipline
- Daylit, edge-free interior with a full-length port galley and private aft master
Cons
- High degree of per-boat variation means no two examples share identical systems or layouts
- Truncated source detail leaves some deck-hardware specifics only partially described
