Jeremy Rogers 1937-2022
British sailor and yacht builder Jeremy Rogers MBE, famous for co-creating the iconic Contessa 32 and Contessa 26, has died at the age of 85.
Rogers was born in September 1937, and as a child his mother evacuated him and his brothers to rural Canada during World War II. There they occupied themselves during snow-bound Ottawa winters building model boats.
After the war the family returned to the UK, settling in Keyhaven just outside Lymington, where Jeremy and his younger brother Jonathan began sailing Cadets. He built his first dinghy at primary school, making a Cadet while at Clayesmore School in Dorset, aged just 10.
After leaving school, Rogers completed a fiveyear apprenticeship with esteemed wooden boat builder Jack Chippendale, before setting out on his own, opening the Jeremy Rogers boatyard in 1961, aged 23.
Early yachts included a Nordic Folkboat, built in a shed behind his house, and Finn and OK dinghies, but he soon moved into a factory and began constructing larger GRP boats, including a GRP Folkboat in 1966.
This was swiftly followed by an early Contessa 26, Contessa of Wight, which took 2nd place in the 1969 Round the Island Race – a result repeated by her sistership Amarilla the following year. Contessa 26s went on to offshore success, winning the Round Britain Race and proving the design's endurance abilities in the OSTAR solo transatlantic.
From that success came the Contessa 32, co-designed with David Sadler. The Contessa 32 launched in 1971 and its popularity has never diminished. It is considered by many to be one of the best cruiser-racers ever built.
Over its five decades, Contessa 32 owners enjoyed class racing at events such as Cowes Week, while also achieving astonishing feats of seamanship sailing in remote and challenging waters. In the 1979 Fastnet Race, the Contessa 32, Assent, was famously the only boat among the small yachts in Class 5 to finish, while
Assent’s owner Willy Ker went on to sail 100,000 miles in the yacht, largely single-handed and often to extreme high latitudes.
A fast Contessa 38 Thunder, built for the One Ton Cup in 1973, inspired a partnership with
Doug Peterson. Peterson went on to design the Contessa 35 Gumboots, in which Rogers won the 1974 One Ton Cup, despite abandoning one of the races to rescue a family from a sinking boat. He was voted Yachtsman of the Year for the rescue.
Other victories include winning the British Admiral’s Cup in 1977 with the Contessa 43 Moonshine, and skippering his own Contessa 39 Eclipse to 2nd place in the 1979 Fastnet Race.
Meanwhile the boatyard was exporting Contessas all over the world. At its peak, construction was spread over five factories with 200 employees. In 1978 Rogers introduced injection moulding for the OOD34 yachts, an innovative move ahead of its time.
In the 1980s, the business went into receivership and the moulds for the Contessa 26 and 32 were sold. Rogers continued building Etchells keelboats and one-off racing and cruising yachts, but in 1995 bought back the Contessa 32 moulds and restarted production, also refitting and refurbishing older 32s.
The yard continued to innovate, creating a ‘green’ Contessa 32, Calypso, using sustainable alternatives to teak, hybrid power and other ecological solutions. In 2012, Rogers handed over the management of the business to his son, Kit, but remained a key part of the team and mentor.