Review of Swan 61

Basic specs.

The Swan 61 is a large sailboat designed by the Argentine maritime architect Germán Frers. The Swan 61 is built by the Finnish yard OY Nautor AB.

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Hull

The hull is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season.

Rig

The boat equipped with a masthead rig. The advantage of a masthead rig is its simplicity and the fact that a given sail area - compared with a fractional rig - can be carried lower and thus with less heeling moment.

Keel

The Swan 61 is equipped with a fin keel. The fin keel is the most common keel and provides splendid manoeuvrability. The downside is that it has less directional stability than a long keel.

The keel is made of lead. Compared with iron, lead has the advantage of being 44% heavier, which allows a smaller keel and hence less water resistance and higher speed.

The boat can only enter major marinas as the draft is about 2.95 - 3.05 meter (9.68 - 9.98 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.

Sailing characteristics

This section covers widely used rules of thumb to describe the sailing characteristics. Please note that even though the calculations are correct, the interpretation of the results might not be valid for extreme boats.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Swan 61 is about 617 kg/cm, alternatively 3455 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 617 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 3455 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.

Sailing statistics

This section is statistical comparison with similar boats of the same category. The basis of the following statistical computations is our unique database with more than 26,000 different boat types and 350,000 data points.

L/B (Length Beam Ratio)

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Swan 61 is 3.68.

Compared with other similar sailboats it is slimmer than 58% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a slightly more speedy hull design.

Ballast Ratio

What is a Ballast Ratio?

The ballast ratio for Swan 61 is 33%.

This ballast ratio shows a righting moment that is higher than 50% of all similar sailboat designs. This righting moment (ability to resist heeling) is spot on average!

Over- / underrigged

Maintenance

Rig

Dimensions of sail for masthead rig.

Are your sails worn out? You might find your next sail here: Sails for Sale

If you need to renew parts of your running rig and is not quite sure of the dimensions, you may find the estimates computed below useful.

**Guiding dimensions of running rig**
Usage	Length		Diameter
Mainsail halyard	55.8 m	(183.0 feet)	14 mm	(0.55 inch)
Jib/genoa halyard	55.8 m	(183.0 feet)	14 mm	(0.55 inch)
Spinnaker halyard	55.8 m	(183.0 feet)	14 mm	(0.55 inch)
Jib sheet	18.4 m	(60.4 feet)	16 mm	(5/8 inch)
Genoa sheet	18.4 m	(60.4 feet)	16 mm	(5/8 inch)
Mainsheet	46.1 m	(151.1 feet)	16 mm	(5/8 inch)
Spinnaker sheet	40.5 m	(133.0 feet)	16 mm	(5/8 inch)
Cunningham	6.3 m	(20.6 feet)	14 mm	(0.55 inch)
Kickingstrap	12.6 m	(41.2 feet)	14 mm	(0.55 inch)
Clew-outhaul	12.6 m	(41.2 feet)	14 mm	(0.55 inch)

Boat owner's ideas

This section shown boat owner's changes, improvements, etc. Here you might find inspiration for your boat.

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Finally

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for Swan 61 it would be a great help.

If you have any comments to the review, improvement suggestions, or the like, feel free to contact us. Criticism helps us to improve.

References

[Ref 1]: ISO 8666 Small craft — Principal data.
[Ref 3]: ISO 12215-5 Small craft — Hull construction and scantlings.