Swan 65 Venator

Written by Text:Carlos Serra / Photos: Brouwer & Kleis - Nautor's Swan /Translation: Marco Benevento. IssueNº 47

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The first large production yacht

The Swan 65, the legendary flagship of the mythical first period of Nautor Swan, had the honour of being the first luxury large length yacht to be mass produced. But not only that: the victory of the Swan 65 Sayula in the first Whitbread around the world race heightened the model to the category of a legend.

It is a design by the Stephens brothers, as are all the Swan’s from the first period of the Finnish yard. Just as the impressive Swan 36 and 43, and the following Swan 55 it was designed to be built in moulded wood by shipyards such as Lallow in Cowes or Carabela in Barcelona. But the Finnish team that had inspired the Swan turned it into a fibreglass yacht, and made history in the design of modern yachts.
Since its appearance in 1971 and during a great part of the eighties, the Swan 65 was a paradigm of what a “large” yacht, that is to say close to 20 meters, could aspire to be. Architects such as the French Presles, the Brit Primrose and the Italian Valicelli produced variations on the design, never getting to match it. It was not until well into the eighties, with the emergence of the first 70 footer and then the 80 footers, that the length of the Swan 65 started to seem small. Maxis in the style of Kialoa, Boomerang, Condor and il Moro di Venezia eclipsed the prestige that the vintage Nautor flagship had in competitions. The uses of the hull bottom design changed and the shape of the champagne glass with a pronounced bottom, the triangular keel with heavy ballast and the rudder with keg created by Olin Stephens in 1968 began to show their age.
Soon the Swan 65 became slow on the race courses, and this might have been a blessing: it became a classic from which even the door handles or the knobs of the bilge panes had to be kept. Everything on it, from the high steep coamings that speak of roaring Southern oceans to the thick perforated aluminium bulwark, so thick that it allowed to lift the boat without slings with a crane, are museum pieces now.
The owner of Venator with no doubt understood this magical condition that the boat had. He purchased her in 2004 for a relatively modest quantity because, unlike most of her sister ships, it had not been cared and pampered by its former owners. It was the number four in the series, contemporary to the legendary Sayula who won the first Whitbread and other outstanding Swan’s like King’s Legend. Very little after its launching it was equipped with an accommodation that was different to the conventional one, and later underwent refits and was mistreated. But besides that it was a real Swan 65 worth to be revived, and her owner understood it. In two years he spent almost six times the purchase price that he paid for. In 2006, after finishing the work at the Brouwer yard in Holland, he took her to the Swan cup in Porto Cervo and was awarded the prize for the best conserved and maintained sailboat.
She is now for sale as her owner is now working on a project of recovering another Stephens, also worth of enjoying such care and he can not care for two period sailboats simultaneously.

Comments  

 

0 #1 Yacht crane 2011-01-10 07:13

hi
thank you for share this information this swan 65 Venator this yacht body parts is very good such a large yacht.

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