swan yacht models

Fast, safe, easy to control and comfortable at sea: Milling of the Swan 78 deck

Yachts division

Nautor swan is continuously raising the stakes in building new models and push its boundaries, meeting its customers’ needs and fulfilling the expectations of the market with seaworthy, elegant, performing and timeless yachts..

The Swan Yachts division represents heritage, handcraftsmanship, products characterized by elegant and timeless lines that have made Nautor Swan an icon in the sailing world. The yachts are reliable against the sea hardships and the performing hulls guarantee both comfort and competitiveness during regattas. The design team is led by German Frers the renowned Argentinean yacht designer who started working with Nautor in the 80s.

The history of Swan Maxis begins early on, a few years after the establishment of Nautor. An expert client asked for a 17m Sparkman & Stephens. It was the year 1970, and the magnificent Swan 55 took shape. At the time, it was one of the largest yachts in the world to be produced in series and in fiberglass.

The Swan Maxi, from 88 to 128 feet, offers the highest expression of seaworthiness in any conditions combined with elegance, comfort, performance, style and modernity. The world class designers behind these beautiful yachts are Maestro Germàn Frers and for the interior design, Misa Poggi, while from the launch of the latest projects, the exterior design sees the addition of Lucio Micheletti’s pen to the team.

With the launch of ClubSwan yachts, Nautor marks the beginning of a new chapter in the Finnish boat builders’ remarkable history. ClubSwan Yachts is the high-performance division of Nautor Swan, offering a conceptual vision with the accent firmly upon the values of speed, technology and competitive sailing potential. Innovative solutions focused upon maximising these qualities are at the heart of ClubSwan Yacht development. The designer is Juan Kouyoumdijan, the French-Argentinean naval architect specialised in ocean racing yachts.

Born from the passion that Leonardo Ferragamo has for the marine world, the Swan Shadow is broadening the range of vassels the Finnish yard offers to its customers, perfectly aligned with the core elements of it brand DNA: Performance, Quality, Elegance. The three models are marking the completion of the Nautor Swan portfolio and product line up with three multipurpose motor yacht concepts able to meet Nautor’s customer needs.

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Nautor’s Storied Swan Yachts Set the Industry Standard—Here’s How They’re Made

From first sketch to final sail..

Danielle Cutler

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The Swan 78

Last year marked 20 years that the Finnish sailing-yacht builder Nautor’s Swan has operated under the ownership of Leonardo Ferragamo, passionate sailor and son of designer Salvatore Ferragamo, who bought the yard with a group of investors in 1998. Pekka Koskenkylä started OY Nautor AB in 1966 in Pietarsaari, Finland, by building a design by the noted naval-architecture firm Sparkman & Stephens: the 36-foot racing Swan 36 featuring a fiberglass hull. Nautor launched the first Swan 36 , Tarantella, in 1967. (The storied sailboat was moored at the yard’s docks on a recent visit.)

By 1968, British sailor Dave Johnson was winning races and garnering acclaim for the new shipyard, which to the present day has built more than 2,000 vessels between 36 and 131 feet, from performance cruisers to serious racers. New models include the Swan 78 shown here—which debuted just last year—as well as the ClubSwan 36, Swan 65, Swan 98, ClubSwan 125 and Swan 120, the last being the latest. All are designed and handcrafted at the renowned—and recently renovated and expanded—Boatbuilding Technology Center (BTC) facility in Pietarsaari.

Witness a Nautor racing yacht under sail at any of the races and regattas in the Swan brand’s ever-increasing lineup.

A Racing Resource

Sketching out the next model  Photo: Courtesy of Nautor

Germán Frers, who has designed Swan sailing yachts for 20-plus years, works with the rest of the Buenos Aires–based Frers Naval Architecture & Engineering team, shuttling among Argentina, Italy, and Finland. As we said goodbye at the airport last summer in Helsinki after a freezing-cold sea-trial in the Baltic Sea aboard the first Swan 78, which he designed, I asked where he was off to next. He replied, “Roma! For the regatta!”

The Swan 65’s deck  Photo: Courtesy of Nautor

You can see the size of this yacht in relation to the craftsmen standing on the wooden framework of the plug of the deck. Like the rest of the models in this series of yachts, the midsize Swan 65 is an oceangoing blue-water yacht that was conceived as either a family-crewed boat or one managed by a professional crew to be used as a racing, cruising or casual-use vessel.

Safety First

A Swan 78 foam-cored glass fiber hull  Photo: Courtesy of Nautor

The hull of this Swan 78 sailing yacht is made of foam-cored glass fiber, reinforced with epoxy as well as carbon-fiber unidirectional reinforcements. It stands at the ready in the shed for Nautor’s boatbuilders to start placing insulation, laying cable and fitting out the yacht. Nautor’s Swan vessels are known for their solid seafaring and safety record.

Go, Go Gadget

Sculpting the deck  Photo: Courtesy of Nautor

A robotic milling machine extends the reach and precision of the human arm to sculpt the plug of the yacht’s deck.

Easy Does It

Placing the furniture  Photo: Courtesy of Nautor

Craftsmen carefully hoist and place the hand-built furniture into the hull, which already has the system’s wiring and plumbing installed. Nautor employs a “teak hunter” who handpicks the wood that will be used for veneers, which are stitched onto the plywood, foam-core furniture.

Danielle Cutler started covering yachts, marinas, and the yachting industry in 2005. Besides writing and editing yacht content for Robb Report, Danielle has worked for Yachts International and the…

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Nautor's Swan

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Nautor's Swan Yachts for Sale

The Nautor’s Swan shipyard is located in the small Finnish town of Pietarsaari, just a short distance from the Arctic Circle. On this icey stretch of coast, Nautor’s Swan have been building boats since 1966 and the Swan range is known throughout the world. In a build environment where temperatures can fall to minus 30 degrees celsius, and the sea can be frozen for up to five months of the year, advanced engineering excellence is a core part of the yard’s DNA.

Nautor’s Swan handles everything from the design to the finest details in a fully integrated in-house building process. The smaller Nautor’s Swan hulls, for cruising yachts, are hand laid-up and vacuum-infused, while the larger models are constructed in foam-core carbon, which has huge weight-saving benefits.

Swan yacht buyers can also enjoy membership of ‘Club Swan’ – a non-profit organization for past, present and future Swan sailing yacht owners. The Club organizes various regattas, including the ‘Rolex Swan Cup’, the ‘Swan European Regatta’ and the ‘Swan American Regatta’ and these are run in association with the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, the Royal Yacht Squadron of Cowes and the New York Yacht Club, respectively.

Today, with more than 50 years’ of heritage, Nautor’s Swan is globally recognized as an undisputed leader in the international sailing market.

History of Nautor’s Swan Yachts

The Nautor’s Swan Shipyard was founded in 1966 by Pekka Koskenkyla, a man with an inspiring vision to produce high-quality, high-performance sailing yachts for those passionate about cruising, racing and seeking contact with the ocean and nature. Pekka, educated in the USA, had the foresight to engage Sparkman & Stephens of New York, one of the most acclaimed yacht designers at the time, to design the first sailing yacht. The vessel was built in fiberglass and trimmed with wood – materials which would dominate the production of vessels in the years to come.

The first sailing yacht model from the Nautor’s Swan shipyard was the Swan 36, and this led to the Swan 37 and Swan 43, with the latter winning the Admiral’s Cup in 1969.

That same year, fate’s fickle hand dealt the Nautor’s Swan yard a catastrophic blow. The Assembly Hall caught fire and burnt to the ground, destroying with it a dozen hulls in various stages of production. Pekka was forced to sell stakes in the company to finance the yard’s rebuild and see production resumed.

When the yard was re-established, the larger and more elegant Swan 55 and Swan 65 yachts were born. Partnering cruising capability with racing prowess for the typical owner and recreational yachtsman, the designs were immensely popular. Testament to their racing ability, it was a Swan 65 (named SAYULA II) that won the first Whitbread Round the World Race in 1973/74.

In the late 70’s and early 80’s, Nautor’s Swan engaged naval architect Ron Holland as their designer of choice. Holland designed five boats for the yard, of which approximately 300 units were produced.

The mid to late 80s saw Swan enter another new era of design, this time with the appointment of German Frers. Along with a string of great successes in models under 80 foot (24m), Frers was also responsible for Swan’s first Maxi models; the Swan 80, Swan 90, Swan 100, Swan 105, Swan 110 and Swan 115 – with the 115 seeing the yard cross over into superyacht territory.

Frers’ contribution to Nautor’s Swan also permitted them entrance to the ‘one design’ racing sector, with the design of the Swan 45 in 2001. This was followed by the ‘Club Swan 42’ in 2005 which was developed in association with the New York Yacht Club.

In 2002, a new yard, close to the sea, was opened in Jakobstad. The new yard is dedicated to the assembly of the Maxi Swans, building the Swan 60 through to the Swan 115.

In 2017, Nautor’s Swan opened their Boatbuilding Technology Center. Here, there are facilities dedicated to joinery and high-tech lamination, a post-cure oven, painting halls, and areas for warehousing and logistics. The close proximity of the engineering and manufacturing departments results in an efficiency that is rarely seen.

Nautor’s Swan has been controlled and managed by Leonardo Ferragamo and his group of investors since 1998.

Nautor’s Swan is recognized as a leader in the international sailing market.

The Nautor’s Swan collection

Known today as ‘Swans’, the modern yachts built by Nautor’s Swan owe their success and acclaim to the original Swan 36. This first design, which featured a number of significant innovations, offered a level or performance and safety that equalled that of traditional wooden vessels yet the lighter fiberglass hull provided greater steering ability and enhanced living space. The Swan 36 marked the beginning of what would become one of the most prestigious boat yards in the world.

The Swans of the ‘70s and ‘80s were designed by the award-winning naval architect Ron Holland. German Frers took over as Swan’s naval architect of choice from the mid to late 80s, and he designed many highly successful models under 80 foot (24m) for the shipyard.

Swan’s first Maxi yacht models were also designed by Frers: the Swan 80, Swan 90, Swan 100, Swan 105, Swan 110 and Swan 115. The 115 brought Nautor’s Swan into the superyacht sector and the skills of Frers’ have again been employed for the design of Swan’s latest sailing yacht, the Swan 120.

Whether you’re looking for a pre-owned Swan or considering a new build from the Nautor’s Swan Shipyard, Northrop & Johnson are able to advise on every aspect with brokers who have specific sailing yacht knowledge and experience.

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First look: Swan 55 new model from respected brand

• Toby Hodges
• January 25, 2023

The new Swan 55 should appeal to owner-drivers, couples and families and follows the successful launch of the Swan 58 just last year

Product Overview

Why bring out a Swan 55 when you only launched a Swan 58 last year? Because they’re different boats aimed at different types of sailors and owners, says Nautor. Both are drawn by the legendary German Frers, but where the 58 is a small 60 and may often be used with professional crew, the Swan 55 is more aimed at owner-drivers, couples and families.

The Swan 55 has a modern, beamy hull form, albeit combined with some of that deep V hull which has helped make the Swan 54 so seaworthy. It also has a lower style fixed bowsprit and a completely new beach club transom design which opens and extends out on rams to create a massive bathing platform as well as revealing a lazarette and tender garage for a 2.5m RIB.

More big-boat features include options for a staysail on a ram, an electric Code fuler on the sprit, a captive mainsheet and a hydraulic gangplank. The cockpit has the smart twin telescopic tables seen on the 58, which can combine to seat 12 around, and features five electric winches as standard.

The interior of the new Swan 55, which is aimed at owner-drivers, couples and families. Photo: Eva-Stina Kjellman

The interior invokes the cosy feeling of the 54, but with more space, in a three cabin, two heads layout, which includes a practical utility cabin with workbench and stowage in the port aft section.

A real draw is the master cabin, which is up forward again like the 54, and the options this now allows. Swan is considering offering it as a ‘super suite’ – if the Pullman cabin is removed, this space can open out to be used as a full office or TV suite adjoining the cabin and so become an indulgent two-cabin fast cruiser!

A performance version with square top mainsail and longer bowsprit is also offered.

Swan 55 specifications

Hull length: 16.60m 54ft 6in Beam: 5.00m 16ft 5in Draught: 2.50m 8ft 2in Displacement: 22,450kg 49,494lb Price: €1.8m ex VAT Builder: nautorswan.com

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Nautor Swan presents new 23m dayboat Arrow

Finnish shipyard Nautor Swan has pulled the wraps off a new 23.2-metre motor yacht model called Arrow. Revealed during the Cannes Yachting Festival 2023, the model is flagship of the builder's motor yacht division and was initially conceived as a chaseboat, but has evolved over the design process until it became an independent dayboat.

To be built in carbon composite and GPR, the yacht is set to be launched in summer 2024. 

Finnish designer Jarkko Jämsén is responsible for the yacht's exterior design, and he said he was inspired by the strong connection to the ocean that he saw on sailing yachts. "This is what I think draws people to sailing initially," he said. "We set out to maximise the sensation and enjoyment of being on the water and being outdoors, and then we combined that with all the comforts of a motor yacht."      

To this end, the yacht has a walkaround deck design and 50-square-metre beach club with fold-down terraces that sit slightly above water level. The cockpit roof can be opened or closed depending on the climate and glass doors are able to pivot and slide to allow in even more air when needed.

Below deck, the yacht benefits from a standard three-cabin configuration for up to six guests, plus additional crew quarters for two people. There is an alternative arrangement which sees two spacious double cabins with a lounge area amidships, for clients who prefer to relax on the interior. 

Arrow has a beam of 6.9 metres and three inboard Volvo Penta engines allow it to reach a top speed of 40 knots.

“When we started designing the first model we thought it would be just an incredibly beautiful “chase boat” to go alongside our Swans," commented  Leonardo Ferragamo, Nautor Group President. "When it was launched the result was overwhelming as it became a boat of its own, creating its specific niche in our waters and becoming a great day boat."

He added: “The high acceptance gave us the strength and determination to follow this path designing a second version, Swan OverShadow, a Gran Turismo compared to her sister, with inboard engines. We thought they both needed a bigger sister, and the market was pushing us in this direction. This is how Swan Arrow was born, strongly enhancing the coherence of the unique identity that we have created."

The yard also used the Cannes Yachting Festival as an opportunity to present its new 23.9-metre Swan 80.

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