Swan 36.

Among sailors, the name Swan is well known for a level of quality and workmanship considered to be among the best of any production boat built. This is a reputation that is well deserved and one recently reinforced when I had an assignment to inspect a damaged Swan 53.

This 44,000-lb. boat had fallen over in a boat yard in Italy and three boat stands had punctured her port side. Subsequently much of the interior joiner work was removed to reveal the extent of damage and eventually the boat was sold as is, transported to Annapolis where it was hauled and blocked ashore.

When I first inspected the boat I found that one boat stand had punctured the galley, splitting the structural bulkhead forward of the aft cabin. With substantial damage less than six inches away, a precisely fit locker door opened and closed without as much as a scuff. In fact, after all the damage and abuse, there was not a door or locker on the boat that bound. I was impressed.

The Swan 36 was introduced in 1988 and was truly an international collaboration between the Finnish builder, Argentine naval architect German Frers and English designer Andrew Winch, who was responsible for styling. The design was a departure from the wedge-shaped decks styles that had become a Swan trademark. The 36 features a fin keel and partially balanced spade rudder and length overall is 36'7".

The hull of the 36 is a single skin fiberglass composite of fiberglass cloth and resin and is reinforced longitudinally and athwartships with foam filled, hat-section stringers and frames. The deck and cabin trunk use core material for strength and rigidity. The forward and side decks are overlaid with teak decking, glued rather than screwed, to the subdeck to avoid the deteriorated deck core some older Swan models are noted for. In order to keep weight down, the teak decking is quite thin and harsh abrasives and repeated pressure washing will eventually wear out the teak.

The raised cabin trunk is perhaps the most notable styling departure from previous Swans but gone also is Swan's conventional extended bridgedeck in favor of a more conventional cockpit with a sill at the companionway. There is an anchor locker on the foredeck, one large and two small opening hatches in the cabin top and stainless steel handrails and lifelines.

Another distinctive feature is a pair of large cabin skylights that start inboard of the centerline of the cabin top and wrap around to extend down the cabin sides. This is a styling feature I don't particularly like but it does provide lots of light for the cabin below. The transom has a small sugar scoop platform and ladder for easy boarding from the water or ...