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Review of Swan 51


Basic specs.

sail specifications
The Swan 51 is a large sailboat designed by the Argentine maritime architect Germán Frers in the early eighties. Less than 100 boats have been produced. The Swan 51 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.

Interior
The boat is equipped with 10-12 berths.

Keel

The Swan 51 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 2.70 - 2.80 meter (8.86 - 9.16 ft) dependent on the load. See immersion rate below.


Engine

Swan 51 is typically equipped with an inboard diesel engine at 54.0 kW (72 hp).

The transmission is a shaft drive. A shaft drive will in the long run require less maintenence than other types of drive e.g. a sail drive.


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.

Stability and Safety

What is Capsize Screening Formula (CSF)?

The capsize screening value for Swan 51 is 1.73, indicating that this boat could - if evaluated by this formula alone - be accepted to participate in ocean races.


Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Swan 51 is about 470 kg/cm, alternatively 2636 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 470 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 2636 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 51 is 3.49.

Slim Wide 58% 0 50 100
Compared with other similar sailboats it is more spacy than 58% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a slightly more spacy hull design.


Ballast Ratio

What is a Ballast Ratio?

The ballast ratio for Swan 51 is 42%.

Low High 82% 0 50 100
This ballast ratio shows a righting moment that is higher than 82% of all similar sailboat designs. A righting moment (ability to resist heeling) significantly above average.


SA/D (Sail Area Displacement ratio)

What is SA/D (Sail Area Displacement ratio)?

The SA/D for Swan 51 with ISO 8666 reference sail is 18.1, with a 135% genua the SA/D is 21.6.

Low High 42% 0 50 100
The SA/D ratio indicates that it is faster than 42% of all similar sailboat designs in light wind.


Over- / underrigged


Maintenance

Rig

Dimensions of sail.

mainsail specifications headsail specifications

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
UsageLengthDiameter
Mainsail halyard 49.0 m(160.8 feet)14 mm(0.55 inch)
Jib/genoa halyard49.0 m(160.8 feet)14 mm(0.55 inch)
Spinnaker halyard49.0 m(160.8 feet)14 mm(0.55 inch)
Jib sheet 15.7 m(51.3 feet)16 mm(5/8 inch)
Genoa sheet15.7 m(51.3 feet)16 mm(5/8 inch)
Mainsheet 39.1 m(128.4 feet)16 mm(5/8 inch)
Spinnaker sheet34.4 m(113.0 feet)16 mm(5/8 inch)
Cunningham5.8 m(19.0 feet)14 mm(0.55 inch)
Kickingstrap11.6 m(38.0 feet)14 mm(0.55 inch)
Clew-outhaul11.6 m(38.0 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.

Do you have changes/improvements you would like to share? Upload a photo and describe what to look for.



Finally

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for Swan 51 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