26 Apr
Undertaking any bluewater passage can be daunting, but a successful circumnagivation requires another level of commitment and there’s few better choices of yacht than a Contest.
As Shane Noble’s very successful business career was drawing to a close there would be the inevitable question: “Shane what are you going to do when you retire?”
The response may have elicited the odd sympathetic look but it was pretty much the same. “I always said I’m going to sell the house and buy a wonderful boat,” the intrepid traveller and now round-the-world yachtsman recalls.
“Everyone thought that was a joke until I actually did it,” Shane confesses. “It was a big project, building the boat from scratch, regular trips to the yard, an 18-month project but that in itself was very enjoyable,” he relates.
And not just any boat – but a Contest 55CS, lauded by Yachting World as “a superb example of a fast, quality and comfortable bluewater cruiser.” Shane and his wife Lyn settled on the European Yacht of the Year 2021 winner after thoroughly researching and narrowing down the various options.
“I retired and if you do it, you do it properly,” he says. “It was always what’s the best boat for us for what we want to do?” he continues. The stunning end result is Noble Spirit, a three stateroom two head premium semi-custom state-of-the art cruising yacht from the third-generation family-run Dutch yard at Medemblik, about an hour-and-a-half north of Amsterdam. Founded in 1959, Contest has developed a dedicated following for their beautifully constructed, fun to sail, luxurious and reassuringly sea-worthy designs.
The Contest 55CS has not only met but exceeded Shane’s high expectations. “It’s a very exciting boat if you want to sail it quickly as it has a large sail area, and a very efficient hull shape but more importantly a really comfortable boat,” he explains.
The Contest 55CS
Much of Noble Spirit’s potential for powerful performance derives from its Judel Vrolijk hull with long waterlines, high topsides, beam carried right aft and single spade rudder. Shane admits he was impressed by Contest’s ‘one shot’ vacuum infusion construction, only one of a few boat-builders in this size range to obtain full Lloyd’s Register certification – a mark of excellence that is hard to achieve and which the boatyard rightly prides itself on.
But it was toward the end of their first season cruising aboard Spirit that he was really able to appreciate how Contest’s exacting standards translated into reassurance when it was most required.
“We had some very strong conditions, three metre seas and 45 knots coming around Land’s End (Britain’s most south-westerly point and a beacon for generations of sailors),” he remembers. “During the last six weeks we sailed in Scotland it was regularly 25 knots, then it was like someone flicked a switch in mid-October and we started to get the lows coming across the Atlantic and it was rough. But it was good to sail in those conditions because it gave us confidence for our future plans,” he recounts.
Like any season of extended cruising there were also more peaceful sublime moments; anchoring in the mysterious depths of Loch Ness, threading through Denmark’s islands and tying-up at historic town quays along Norway’s rugged, spectacular coastline.
Shane singles-out one bespoke option on Noble Spirit that made a major difference in the high latitudes but will also be equally useful in the Med.
“The protected cockpit has been fantastic,” he reveals. “I had this idea I wanted a fixed bimini but there were some engineering and cost hurdles so we ended-up with quite a creative compromise of a glass windscreen which means you have great visibility and then we did a spray hood extension with flaps that fully enclose the cockpit area. There can be torrential rain, 40 plus knots, freezing cold and you are fully protected and can see where you are on the 12-inch chart plotter and helm via the remote on the auto pilot,” Shane says with some satisfaction.
Reviews have remarked on the “invisible comfort” of the 55CS and praised the understated luxury of its Wetzels Brown Partners designed interior with references to both the obvious and hidden craftmanship and “small masterpieces of cabinet making”.
For Shane who is spending long periods over the next few years on board as he makes his way around the Med then across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and eventually to Australia via the vast Pacific, the expansive aft owners’ cabin, more of a suite actually, and one of Contest’s signature features, will be a quiet retreat for he and Lyn. “It’s crazy comfortable, underway, at anchor or in a marina. You have two large windows for natural light and the sea views are unbeatable,” he enthuses.
Meantime the flexible itinerary for Noble Spirit’s second cruising season will include a delivery trip from the Baltic to Gibraltar where Lyn will fly-in. Then it’s a leisurely passage along the Spanish coast to the Balearics, Mallorca, and across to northern Sardinia and Sicily. As the summer comes to a close they plan to be in Montenegro and winter the 55CS at one of Turkey’s excellent boatyards.
He says Lyn as a self-confessed Francophile is particularly looking forward to the French sections of their extended stay in the Med, while for Shane Spirit is the perfect conduit for his thirst for adventure that has taken him across the globe, from surfing safaris in Indonesia, scaling peaks in the Himalaya, to stints living in Israel.
“Sailing brings a sense of freedom, a sense of connection with nature and the ocean, but for me it’s also a vehicle for my wanderlust for travel,” he tells me. “It takes me to places and shows me things that I would never see even, as an inveterate traveller.”
No matter where Noble Spirit points her bow, her owners can be assured they will reach their destination safely in maximum comfort and having revelled in the beauty of their time at sea.
