Like a Swan” has almost become an accepted industry definition of quality in both design and construction. Over the years we can see a long series of designs that set the aesthetic standards of the day. The edge deck that is commonplace on almost all performance-oriented production models today was first used by Nautor’s Swan back in the early 1970s. This new Swan is a wonderful example of just what you can do within a “performance cruiser” parameter when you have 66 feet of LOA to work with combined with the design talents of German Frers.
This is a very handsome design with relatively high freeboard that stays high to the transom. The sweeping line of the cabintrunk merges into the long cockpit coamings, giving the deck a very clean and uncluttered look. The nearly masthead rig is tall but not overly so with an SA/D of 18.82, if I use the “loaded” displacement figure they provide. The headstay is pulled back from the stem about 20 inches and the asymmetrical chute will tack to the stem. The chainplates are outboard and the sweep angle to the spreaders is 23 degrees. No overlapping headsails will be used. The sailplan shows a provision for a high-clewed staysail. I wonder if that clew height is in order to have the staysail sheet to the short jib tracks located on the outboard edge of the cabintrunk? The roach of the main just barely overlaps the backstay. The mast and Park Avenue-styled boom are both carbon fiber. There is no mainsheet traveler.
This is not a light boat by today’s standards, with a D/L of 187, again using the “loaded” displacement. The press release says, “The hull shape is designed as an intelligent balance between speed and space.” I think all designers would like to say that. The L/B is 3.73, indicating a boat on the narrow side of moderate. The stern shows those signature Swan/Frers radiused corners to the top of the transom. The stern is broad, but not overly so, and the bow is not fine compared to current racing models. In profile there is considerable rocker to this design as you would expect with that D/L and the forefoot knuckle is raised well above the DWL. Note how far forward the deep rudder is, and the interesting “bent blade” planform with the leading edge kicking forward about 18 percent of the way down from the root. You can get a shoal draft version with a daggerboard or lifting keel drawing 14 feet, 1 inch board down and 5 feet, 11 inches board up. This model comes with twin rudders. The deep draft “regatta” model draws 12 feet, 6 inches.
There are two layouts offered for the 66. One has the owner’s stateroom aft and the other has the owner’s stateroom forward. There are a variety of stateroom and berth layouts that I think may be interchangeable. No worries though. You will be very comfortable on either version. With the owner’s stateroom aft you can get two double staterooms forward plus crew’s quarters. Each stateroom has its own head. With the owner’s stateroom forward you get a huge galley aft that runs alongside the cockpit well. This version also has room aft to stow the dinghy in a garage under the cockpit sole.
The Swan 66 is built with a sandwich layup in the topsides but a solid layup below the waterline to improve durability. The deck is a carbon fiber sandwich. There is tankage for 211 gallons of fuel and 264 gallons of water.
I like the way the fixed ports in the hull echo the windows in the cabintrunk. The deck has a low bulwark. The drawings do not indicate any handrails on the deck. The cockpit is huge and features twin wheels, long seats and high seat backs, perfect for cruising. I’m sure the entire anchor roller mechanism with anchor deploys from the flush well forward.
I like this design.
LOA 66’1”; LWL 56’10”; Beam 17’8”; Draft 10’6” (standard); Displacement 77,160 lbs. (loaded); Ballast 20,735 lbs.; Sail area 2,133 sq. ft.; SA/D 18.82; D/L 187; L/B 3.73; Auxiliary Cummins 130-hp; Fuel 211 gals.; Water 264 gals.
Nautor’s Swan USA, One Washington St., Newport, RI 02840, (401) 846-1090, www.nautorusa.com.
OBE: $3,995,000
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Rosebud
Racer
The TP 52 class has been a tremendous success. The box rule approach to big boat racing lets boats race on a one-design basis while allowing room for designers to experiment with design features. By using a “box within a box” type rule that sets minimum and maximum dimensions boats are almost ensured of similar boat speeds. But while the TP 52 class continues to grow there are a small group of owners who want bigger boats. Rosebud from the Farr design office is the first of the new Storm Trysail-Transpac 65 rule boats. Once again Bill Lee of Santa Cruz was called on to work with a group of designers to formulate the new rule. Roger Sturgeon, owner of Rosebud, along with his project manager, Malcolm Park, also was very involved with the creation of the rule. Westerly Marine of Santa Ana, California, built the new boat.
One of the keys to the STP 65 rule was that it would create a boat that could also compete under the IRC and ORR rules. This would help minimize obsolescence. The box sets limits of 65 feet, 7 inches for LOA; displacement between 28,600 and 29,480 pounds; beam from 14 feet, 9 inches to 15 feet, 9 inches; a lifting keel drawing a maximum of 15 feet, 9 inches; and a large rig. The lifting keel will be fixed in the down position while racing but can retract to a draft of 10 feet, 10 inches for entering the harbor or doing some gunkholing. The D/L of Rosebud is 54.8 and the L/B is 4.18, making this a very light and quite narrow boat. Note in the profile how the hull flattens out right around the base of the keel fin. The Farr office does this in order to attenuate the “bump” in the longitudinal distribution of volume caused by the additional volume of the keel. Jet fighters do this too.
I don’t have a set of lines for this boat but I’m going to guess that the half angle of entry, indicating just how fine the bow is, is about the same as the half angle of the deck. In this case it is 12 degrees. The knifelike rudder is pushed forward on the hull so that it will stay immersed at the top when the boat heels to 22 degrees. In order for the rudder to maintain its grip in the water it has to stay immersed, and this can be a problem at high heel angles. Rosebud is designed to sail upwind at 23 to 24 degrees of heel. The sheerline appears dead straight to my eye and I’m sure the freeboards are designed to fit the rule minimums. In IRC configuration 700 kilograms will be added to the bulb, as the IRC does not penalize vertical center of gravity for a given displacement. Note that the bulb is a beavertail type with a chine that begins at about the 50-percent chord position and continues aft. This chine on the bulb will further lower the VCG.
Belowdecks Rosebud is all business. There are pipe berths for the crew. These begin about 6 feet aft of the mast and extend aft beyond the rudderstock, indicating the importance of keeping weight aft while racing this yacht. Forward of the berths there is a small galley to starboard and a head to port. Forward of the mast is all devoted to sail stowage. The engine is connected to the retractable prop unit by a short shaft for optimal weight distribution. The nav station is nestled under the cockpit sole between the engine and the drive unit.
The rig is big, as you would expect with an SA/D of 40.15. The bowsprit is fixed and could prove vulnerable in tight starting maneuvers. The triple spreaders are swept 20 degrees. And no running backstays are indicated. The small bullet-shaped cabintrunk has been pulled aft to avoid conflict with tight jib sheeting angles, which can be as close as six degrees. On a typical mom and pop cruiser you’d be happy with a sheeting angle twice that big. Just for mom, there are three pedestal winches in the cockpit so she should be able to crank that jib in by herself in all but the strongest breezes. “Come on, dear. The main has to come in too!” Halyards and other control lines are led under the deck, through the cabintrunk, to banks of stoppers set into divots taken out of the aft corners of the cabintrunk.
At this time there are two other STP 65s under construction. Rosebud has one regatta win to her credit and a not-so-notable Transpac race finish due to tactical decisions. I’m certain we will see Rosebud’s name at the top by the end of this sailing season.
OBE: $3,300,000
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Spirit 76
Classic cruiser
Here’s a boat to get your juices flowing. Show me a sailor who wouldn’t want to sail this boat and I’ll show you a dead guy. To begin with, it’s 76 feet LOA and built in a vintage style with museum-quality detailing. The 76 is a development of the previous Spirit 70 but with more interior volume, including room for a crew. Design credit is given to Spirit Design. I assume this is Sean McMillan and the late Michael Newman, owners of Spirit Yachts. What I really like about this design is that whether it suits your taste or not you can’t deny that the designers have made a bold design statement here. In a world of increasing generic, bland boats the Spirit 76 shows me strength of individual design conviction.
We can see similar shapes to the 76 in some of the big “daysailers” that are being built in Maine. There is nothing purist or classic about the overall design. Instead, it’s a hybrid design that combines classic yacht design elements with modern performance-producing features. You could argue that low freeboard, narrow beam and copious overhangs were classic design elements. You could be right. I think there have never been boats like the Spirit 76.
The D/L for the 76 is 148 and the L/B is 4.71. Draft is 10 feet with a stubby fin with a long bulb tip. The rudder is an unusual spade design with marked fillets fore and aft at the root and a winglike tip that most probably is used to increase the apparent aspect ratio of the rudder, i.e. make it work like a deeper rudder. To my eye the keel looks quite far forward in this design but if you cover up the last five feet of overhang aft with your finger the keel looks fine. A long, skinny boat like the 76 is not prone to helm issues. The sections show modest deadrise amidships. The buttocks aft are hollowed to give the transom the attractive heart shape with a hint of tumblehome at the top. The 15-foot, 9-inch draft of Rosebud makes the 10-foot draft of the 76 seem shoal.
The Spirit 76 has three staterooms. The owner’s stateroom is aft with a centerline double berth that extends under the long bridgedeck. There is a head to port that the owner shares with the port stateroom. This stateroom has stacked single berths. Adjacent to this stateroom there is a double berth stateroom to starboard. The nav station is on centerline directly under the small forward cockpit well. Note there are two cockpits and two companionways on this design. The saloon features big, U-shaped settees and lots of space to sit around and entertain. The galley is forward with crew quarters forward of that. The crew has their own deck access and their own head. It’s a good layout, I’m just not sure what that area is for opposite the galley. I see “F” on the drawings and I would assume that means “freezer,” but I’m not sure what those two small stools are for. When I end up with an area like that on one of my own designs I just call it “the area of mystery.” The long, drawn out stern counter has the volume to stow a dinghy in a compartment aft of the rudderpost. The engine is under the forward companionway steps.
The rig of the 76 features 24-degree spreader sweep and three sets of spreaders. The extended aft overhang allows the backstay to clear the roach of the big mainsail. The SA/D of this design is 25.71 using the brochure’s listed sail area of 2,510 square feet. I don’t have I, J, E and P, but this number looks about right to me. There is no mainsheet traveler that I can see on the drawings.
OBE: $5,280,000
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Contest 60CS
Bluewater cruiser
The Contest 60CS is the design work of Georg Nissen and the boat is built by Contest Yachts in Holland. The promotional material says this boat “offers easy sailing for two people.” The very complete specs include as standard a 15-horsepower bow thruster, so I suppose a competent couple could handle this boat. With the help of that powerful bow thruster you could snug this big boat right up to the dock. I do wonder about the leap to the dock though, considering the freeboard. This is a very good-looking boat with conservative styling. There is nothing I see here that I would call daring or exciting, but it is a clean and well-proportioned design.
The overall hull shape is very typical of today’s production boats. The ends are short to take advantage of waterline length and beam is carried well aft. The D/L is 165, and that is on the light side for a fully found cruiser of this size. The L/B is 3.45, which puts it right at textbook “medium” beam. The prop shaft exits the hull through a nacelle just forward of a small skeg that fairs into the spade rudder. Draft is 8 feet, 2 inches. The bow looks to be on the fine side for a cruiser and I would suspect this boat would perform well on the wind.
There are four interior layouts available for this design. Ranging from a four-stateroom layout to a layout with accommodations for two couples plus crew. All four layouts share a near identical middle section of accommodations with a small change to the port settee and galley in some layouts to make more room for forward accommodations. The layouts all look fine. The galley is large. The owner’s stateroom aft is very spacious and has its own head with shower stall. Layouts A and B feature a small stateroom forward with stacked upper and lower berths. In layout B it appears that you walk through this stateroom to access the forward stateroom. In layout C this area is turned into an “office” with a large desk and swivel chair.
The saloon is wonderful with big settees and a centerline seat for the starboard dinette area. The centerline seat houses the television, so you can view it while sitting on the port settee. The problem is that this means only three people could watch television. But I’m not sure that is really a problem. The aft stateroom stops short enough in the stern to allow room for a dinghy garage. Regardless of the layout you might choose comfort will not be an issue in this yacht.
Look back over the years at all the rigs that have been touted as revolutionary and the absolute ticket to “ease of handling.” And what do we have today? You’d have to look hard to find a current production model that does not have a rig near identical to that of the Contest 60CS. This is a simple sloop rig with a provision for a heavy air staysail. The tack fitting for this staysail folds down so it is not in the way when the staysail is stowed. I don’t have any rig dimensions but I would guess the SA/D for this design is around 18.20. Note the headstay stops just short of the masthead and is pulled back about 14 inches off the stem to leave room to fly an asymmetrical chute. The mainsheet is conveniently aft of the cockpit area but I see no provision or room for a traveler. If there is a traveler it is a very short one. If you have a strong boom vang you can do without a traveler. But I still like them because they offer more control of mainsail shape, even though they do get in the way.
The deck layout features twin wheels in an aft cockpit raised slightly above a guest cockpit forward with a fixed dining table. The table includes a refrigerated beverage box. Sheet winches are electric and easily reached from the helms. All hatches aft that access deck storage areas are flush. The anchor launching system folds back to stow in a well. The decks are very clear of obstructions and pad eyes on deck are folding to make them less obtrusive. The “bathing platform” aft is operated hydraulically.
There is tankage for 450 gallons of fuel and 436 gallons of water. The Perkins 148-horsepower diesel should push you along briskly when the wind dies.
LOA 61’8”; LWL 55’1”; Beam 17’10”; Draft 8’2”; Displacement 61,729 lbs.; Ballast 23,149 lbs.; Sail area 2,162 sq. ft.; SA/D 22.1; D/L 165; L/B 3.45; Auxiliary Perkins M150; Fuel 442 gals.; Water 429 gals.
Contest Yachts North America, 1826 Mast Tower Rd., Vancouver, BC V6H 4B6, Canada, (800) 993-7245, www.yachtsaleswest.com.
OBE: $2,400,000
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Like a Swan” has almost become an accepted industry definition of quality in both design and construction. Over the years we can see a long series of designs that set the aesthetic standards of the day. The edge deck that is commonplace on almost all performance-oriented production models today was first used by Nautor’s Swan back in the early 1970s. This new Swan is a wonderful example of just what you can do within a “performance cruiser” parameter when you have 66 feet of LOA to work with combined with the design talents of German Frers.
