The Swan 65 is a large fibreglass fin+keeled masthead ketch- or sloop-rigged sailing yacht design, manufactured by Nautor's Swan. It was introduced as the new flagship of Nautor in 1973. At the time of its launch it was the largest glass reinforced plastic (GRP) constructed yacht in the market and because of its excellent racing history, one of the most famous Swan models ever built. The first 65-footers were delivered to owners in 1973, and the production continued until 1989 with 41 hulls built in total.[1]
The yacht was designed by Sparkman & Stephens[2] which was considered by many, the number one yacht design company at the time. Swan 65 was designed to I.O.R Mk III to fulfil the continuously increasing demand for bigger sailing/racing yachts in the market. In order to meet this demand Nautor had asked Olin Stephens to design a beautiful, fast and safe sailing yacht to continue the development of Swan range. Stephens combined the requested characteristics in a fibreglass hull together with a luxurious interior and technical features that were then typical for successful racing boats.
Its main dimensions are: length overall (LOA) 19.9 m, length of waterline (LWL) 14.33 m, beam 4.98 m. Up until the hull #019, the displacement was 31800 kg of which 10400 kg was ballast. From the hull #020 onwards the ballast was increased to 13900 kg resulting in a displacement of 35300 kg. Therefore, for the first 19 hulls the ballast to weight ratio was 31% which was then increased to 39% for the rest of the production.