That’s a great idea with the bungee/ rubber band. Wish I was there with you!

Just an idea , but if you run the shot cord through a fairlead six inches above your cleat. you could use a wedge to increase or decrease the tension. Our old family boat steers herself most of the time certainly long enough to grill a couple of mackerel for lunch make a cuppa check the charts sun yourself on the foredeck with a beer.use the facilities etc etc.not quite as fast as the Contessa but no slouch..

As a long distance trucker, and novice sailor, i regularly listen to 'malin head, dogger bank, fairisle... cyclonic.....'. To which, I send you respect and sincere wishes in your adventures. X

Very cool. Love the 26!

Hi Neil, will follow more of your videos. My last boat was a Contessa 26 (Shamaal) Beautiful boats. Thanks for bringing back memories. Pete C

Top class. Great boat to boot.

Great job, Neil! Enjoyed riding along with you ... look forward to more video!

Good trip. First upgrade when you get home; spray hood!

Neil, Beautiful British coastline!!! TY

Great video, I'm local to Felixstowe and new to sailing. Enjoyed it.

Thoroughly enjoying your videos, as a new subscriber I am catching up! Thank you Neil, and I look forward to the next one.

Looks like you got caught up in those overfalls off orfordness point. Thanks for sharing. 👌

Shotley is a friendly marina, a regular stop for me too.

Enjoyed the video. I love contessas. I had a Co32 for 16 years. I would recommend a more balanced sailplan - reefed main and partially furled Genoa. Your foot seemed too loose and the leach too tight - I would move the car aft when you have the full genoa out. This will make the sail more efficient and decrease heeling.

Excellent - really good to watch! I spent a year solo aboard my little Virgo Voyager back in 2000 and had a great time - hope you are too!

Good effort. Keep it up. Enjoying the videos.

excellent video of the reality of sailing and welcome to Shotley. If i'd seen this video when it aired I would have wandered over to say hi as I've got a boat at Shotley myself. Hope you got home in one piece.

Now in my seventies I have owned and sailed many boats. My fondest memories are for my 26 back in the eighties. Wet? Yes. Small? Yes. I even crossed Biscay in her, no GPS, radar or plotter. Would I do it now? Not on your life.

Nice video 👍👏 I stopped sailing a good few years ago for different reasons, but I do still miss it a lot now 😢

You may be interested to know that there is a fellow contessa 26 sailing around Qweensland, Australia His channel is Keven green. He sails from Sydney and gese up the east coast every so often. Grerard.

Nicely done in the conditions. 👍. I have a dodger on my Swanson 30 (29.4) it makes a huge difference in not getting so wet !! You might want to put one on your boat. Yep, all good to have chartplotter and use weather apps to have some idea of the likely conditions. A neat trick you used as a kind of self steering setup, without a wind vane.

Thanks for your videos. learned to use bungees and sheet to tiller for steering. No autopilot or engine that works, so things can get quite exciting!

I had the same rubber- band set up on my Ohlson 38.It worked better than the pilot beating.Well done mate.

Cool project, great boat! Fun vids too. hope you're going to keep making vids.

Love it mate

Hello, just bought a c26 (big project) all so just found your channel. Subbed. Phil gosport UK 🇬🇧

have had dozens of boats, one an Invicta was a bit like yours, none of my boats had a spray hood until I bought a sea dog 30 which had a fixed screen, spray hood and full cockpit cover, had that boat the longest (20 years) am retired now and can not afford the harbour dues for it so downsized to the same type of boat I had 40 years ago a Corribee, its brill but the first thing I realised is I need a spray hood. Watching you get a face full makes me think you could do with one as well. Like your video's.

honking along 👍😘

Wondered of you have looked at 'sheet to tiller' self steering? I used it on my old boat, a Mirage 28, and it worked well. My current boat, a Gib'Sea 96, has a wheel, but I often wonder if I should rig up the emergency tiller with sheet to tiller some day.

I've never understood why yachtsmen sail open cockpit yachts. Just a simple doghouse/shelter to tuck into out of the wind and spray and rain would make sailing so much more enjoyable and a helluva lot safer. Of course a fully fledged wheelhouse even better!

That's the calmest sea that I have ever seen with 30 knots of headwind. Or did he say 13 knots?

re water down the neck, when riding my motorbike in the rain I wrap a towel around my neck under the collar of my jacket. It works really well - try it.

use the mainsail as a counterbalance to the headsail. just a little of Reefed Main will do it. Admire your courage

What could have been the most interesting part of this video you didn't even bother to post it? entering the lock and the way you tight your boat in the lock to get safe with the changing level of water and how you leaver the lock, this is all these small but technical informations that make sailing videos so interesting. Specially when you have to do all these stuff on your own because you are sailing solo, Maybe if you still have the recording you can post them in another video that could be very cool to watch Cheers !!

👏👏👏

Wow. So just sheet to tiller type operations? No tiller pilot? Very impressed.

It is what it is buh , jobs a good un 👍

👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

Shotley is not Felixstowe, it’s like saying Southend is Sheerness

The boat name….

You need a 'dodger'…😀

We sail for pleasure , so why do away with any modern aids if you can afford the? Dodger is on my list, when funds allow but auto helm and chart plotter first.