Summer 2024 saw the launch of the truly remarkable 22-metre Contest 72CS Duende for Berend and Judith Nieuwenhuis. With a long yachting career, mostly in sail including once previously with Contest, the return to the Medemblik shipyard for their first ever new build was driven by both brand and thought-filled future proofing.
In conversation, cutting quickly and simply to the point, Berend who has sailed for more than 40 years, says of his and Judith’s reasoning in returning to Contest for a new build Contest 72CS, “I want to sail all my life and to do that, at some time, I will need a skipper. With Duende we now have space enough for family and skipper together.” Both Berend and Judith acknowledge that this move to skippered assistance is no small step. The pair are very used to handling large craft alone, with just the two of them aboard.
From smaller sailing yachts they have upscaled through time, transitioning via a 20-metre motoryacht back into sailing with a pre-owned Contest 55CS and then, before the new Duende, a 20-metre, Hoek-designed pilothouse cutter.
“Most times it was only the two of us,” says Judith, “with Berend as captain and me running around with the lines and everything, and people would ask where is your crew?
There is no crew, I’d laugh, just us! Although sometimes, of course, in more difficult situations it’s nice to have extra hands. With Duende we have a stern thruster as well as bow thruster, so that makes it much easier for the two of us to handle.”
“But we are experimenting now with finding out together the best way to live or not with a skipper,” continues Berend. “I’m now 70 and who knows what the next years bring.”
“That is why we built this boat for the future,” Judith emphasises. “And it is such a clean, uncluttered design, it’s easy in every way, built for safety and comfort, and you can see and do everything so simply.”
In planning for a shared occupancy, which when the skipper’s off board can equally be enjoyed by the extended family, Berend and Judith with the Contest team developed a different and very versatile cabin arrangement and space allocation.
Working from the premise that much of the time they’ll be sailing alone without guests, there’s no immediate need for the number of normally expected cabins at this 22-metre length. So, what would have been a port-hand suite forward of the mast is now a media lounge with a deep sofa converting to sleeping berth for when wished.
A side bulkhead door then opens across to the starboard double cabin, creating a remarkable full leisure suite, also. There’s a forward door, too, which leads to a further lounge area again with convertible sofa berth which becomes part of the skipper’s up-and-under bunked personal suite, which is alternatively perfect for family when on board. A real demonstration of well-thought, flexible space for up to eight aboard.
Aft of the mast, there’s of course the super spacious saloon, with wrap-around galley to port of the broad wing-stepped companion- way, and a hi-tech nav station to starboard with corridor access behind to the sumptuous master suite. And though this half of the arrangement may seem perhaps more conventional, as with the rest its outfitting is exceptional, taking it to quite another level. To start, just look at the extraordinarily, beautifully grained teak interior joinerwork.
Judith and Berend did not hold back! Everything is to the highest, most detailed specification.
“We knew if we wanted to buy a new boat it needed to be a Contest,” says Judith, “and as it might be our last, we knew also that it had to be done perfectly, in a way that it will last forever, for us and maybe the next generation, in much the same way that our previous Contest went on to our family.”
Switching Focus
With their first generation 55CS, Berend and Judith had initially stayed north for a season exploring Denmark, Sweden and Norway before heading back down to their alternate home and berth in Mallorca from where the Balearics, Sardinia and Corsica were again enjoyed for a number of years. But with business obligations, later leading into a planned exit, their full focus shifted to the Netherlands.
With the sailing coming northwards, too, for best time-benefit, thoughts turned to a pilothouse design and the pre-owned aluminium-built Hoek 68 El Pino which hosted them well for the in-between times. Looking to that exit and subsequent tim freed, future options were explored and the thinking turned to why not a new-build and back to Contest where they’d always felt comfortable?
“We’ve known the Contest team, more like ‘family’, for a very long time, at exhibitions and shipyard, and as good friends,” say Berend and Judith jointly. “It’s always a pleasure to visit. Time is always made for you, to talk, drink and eat with Arjen, Marcel, Nico, Pieter, there’s always nice conversation and a laugh. And the support has always been good. Marcel is a very special person. Our next boat had to be a Contest.”
And so Duende began to take shape. Berend had strong views on rig, heading straight to carbon for the performance and comfort advantages, with a full North 3Di sail wardrobe plus extras such as Helix top-down furling asymmetric for simplified wide-angle downwind work. In this package, spars were also swapped out from standard Seldén to Axxom, with hydraulic furlers from Reckmann, and winches kept electric.
For optimal manoeuvring, as mentioned, in addition to the retractable bow thruster, a stern thruster was specified. Although there’s the option of a tender-well in the foredeck, the choice was to have the dinghy aft because, as Judith says, “On our previous boat we had the dinghy in front of the mast but sheets or lines can get snagged, so it’s nice now to have it behind, especially on the longer crossings.” And unusually they have davits as well as transom garage space, the latter now mostly used as a huge lazarette and bathing/boarding area with its fold-down door.
Inspired Thinking
There are excellent smaller touches also, with many built out of the couple’s own personal experience and thinking, including a rather clever fixed standing shower on the aft deck.
“A hand shower is fine,” says Judith, “but it’s so nice if it’s not too windy to shower standing tall and hands-free, and Berend had this idea to use the Starlink antenna mount as the upright, and it’s really good!”
The hull colour, a rare yachting shade, came from shared thinking, too, as Judith and Berend tell together, full of smiles, “We were once anchored in a Mallorcan bay when this big sailing yacht suddenly appeared, and immediately we both said what a beautiful colour. This is not normal. This is how our new boat has to be!”
Researching the couple’s dream colour, the Contest team contacted that superyacht’s custom-builder and, with the admired finish now specified as a special BMW Frozen Bronze, Contest’s coatings partner Alexseal was commissioned to duplicate and supply.
“And it looks just beautiful on Duende, especially with the tall black rig!” they say with smiles a mile wide. Judith says of the interior detailing, “We put much in the hands of Gillian Brown at Wetzels Brown [Contest’s long standing interior design partner] because there are so many options, and of course you need to choose whatever is best for not just a yacht but a sailing yacht.
Gill has that experience. She knows what works and is best. So, she had a big part in this interior, from materials and colours to lighting and everything.”
This applied right through to cutlery and crockery, even linen too, to which Judith added the neat touch of having the cabin names stitched in for ease and consistency in allocation. The detailing is endless, in the technology on board also, extending from personally specified pump and valve installations to the electronic navigation and yacht management systems, and on through the expansive service machinery.
If the thought of this is all too tiring and a lie-down required, checking the photography and those extraordinarily deep, comfortable mattresses and other furnishings, the philosophy is clear. This is all to superyacht standards.
And all of this is now well tried and tested after a summer cruise back down to the Med, having first scooped 1st Place overall at the 2024 Sevenstar Contest Cup! A great learning curve, says Berend, “We hadn’t sailed Duende much at all before the Cup, but with the event’s two days’ windy sailing, and with Wouter from North, and Contest’s Marcel as captain, and Nico, our project manager, in the afterguard also, it was a very good opportunity to learn about the boat. It was they who won; we just collected the Cup!”
So, with everything finished and set, at a rather more leisurely pace it was time to head to southern Spain and home port of Dénia between Alicante and Valencia. Departure date was 1 July, arriving as August ended. Two, full, enjoyable months, with new skipper aboard for parts, other times alone or with family of grown sons, wives, and grandchildren.
With Berend no stranger to what it takes to run and sail a yacht of ‘size’, it was a big change in direction sailing with such a highly qualified and ocean-experienced professional.
Berend may not yet have crossed the Atlantic, that’s to come, but Biscay has been crossed five times, the Azores also reached. So, this took some getting used to.
“A wonderful guy, always looking after us, and so eager to sail and never missing trim or anything. It was very different. He’s too good for us!” laughs Berend. “And a balance has been found for next season with his opting for more of a shore life and helping just when we need while we’ll continue for now mostly with just us two and then family and friends.”
Beyond the Bay
Back on board, on the way down south, the Bay of Biscay was crossed in gentle winds which was great for those grandchildren who thrilled at the marine life, making spirited use of Duende’s Starlink internet for species identification. “There was so much wildlife this time, with different birds, whales, and thousands of dolphins. More than ever before,” says Berend.
A restful few days were then enjoyed in among the Rías Baixas, a series of four estuarine inlets just north of Vigo, with the next favoured stopover, Porto. “Beautiful,” says Judith, “always a very good stop and we had a good time there, berthed in the marina just below the bridge.”
Then came not Cadiz, as often before, but a good alternative, Rota on the opposite, northern end of that wide bay. “A very pleasant old town, surprisingly nice,” says Judith, “and with really friendly marina staff.” Staying close to shore in orca-avoidance mode it was then through to Gibraltar, with the best stop after that, Duende’s new home port, Dénia, just a few short kilometres from her happy owners’ second home from home in Xàbia!
“It’s been a remarkable time,” they say, “We went off with a brand-new yacht, with zero going wrong. We have not had to fix anything, do anything, It has been so good for us.Before, we’ve always had secondhand boats in which you take on all the problems of the previous owners. Well, not this time!”
As for the future, well, with all the freedoms of exiting the business and blessed with a yacht such as Duende, Berend’s and Judith’s current thoughts suggest possibly Greece for summer 2025 and then perhaps the Caribbean.
“We’ll just see what happens, time for us is just enjoying sailing, enjoying life. It’s not like we have a list of things to do. That’s not us, our plans are always changing and every year we come up with something different!”