Swan 44

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The Swan 44 is a sailing yacht from the Finnish shipyard Nautor's Swan . The building material is glass fiber reinforced plastic (GRP). From 1972 to 2002, 209 ships of this type were built. There are six different versions. While the external dimensions of the different versions differ only slightly, the shapes of the hulls are significantly different. These differences characterize the advances in yacht building over thirty years. The Swan 44 is a seagoing ship that is suitable for both longer journeys ( cruising ) and regattas . The Swan 44 can be sailed with two people or with up to 14 people.

Sails

The Swan 44 is slup rigged . The ship has a mast, the tip of which protrudes 19 meters above the surface of the water. The mast is staged with a forestay , a backstay , two shrouds , two lower shrouds and two backstays . Two pairs of spreaders control the lateral bending of the mast. The mast is stuck through the deck and is down on the keel of the yacht. The development in yacht building over the last 30 years of the 20th century can also be seen in the sails of the Swan 44. While the foresails initially overlapped the mainsails and were much larger than them, in the 1990s the relationship shifted back to larger mainsails and smaller foresails. The sails of the Swan 44 can be operated by a small crew, some ships are equipped with electric winches to simplify operation . A spinnaker or gennaker can also be set on courses where the wind comes from behind .

Versions of the Swan 44

Swan 44 001-062 Swan 44 063-076 Swan 441 Racing Swan 441 Cruising Swan 44 MKI Swan 44 MKII
Years of construction 1972-1975 1972-1975 1978-1979 1979-1989 1989-1994 1996-2002
Designer Sparkmann & Stephens Sparkmann & Stephens Ron Holland Ron Holland Germán Frers Germán Frers
number 62 14th 5 40 19th approx. 49
Construction numbers 44 / 001-44 / 062 44 / 063-44 / 076 44/100? -44/119? 44/120? -44/169
Length over all (m) 13.48 13.48 13.52 13.40 13.75
Length of waterline, LWL (m) 10.33 10.33 11.20 10.56 10.56
Trunk speed according to LWL (kt) 7.8 7.8 8.1 7.9 7.9
Body speed according to LÜA (kt) 8.9 8.9 8.9 9.0
Width (m) 3.83 3.38 4.06 4.18 4.18
Draft easy (m) 2.30 2.40 2.50 2.18
Loaded draft (m) 2.23
Displacement (t) 12.7 12.7 11.2 11.1 11.0
Displacement loaded (t) 12.4
Ballast (t) 5.14 5.67 5.0 3.5 3.8
Ballast content (%) 40 45 45 32 35
Diesel tank (l) 150 188 265 250
Water tank (l) 330 370 340 380
Motor (hp) 37 40 50 50
Mainsail (m²) 33.8 36.7 36.4 38.1 38.1
Headsail triangle 100% (m²) 47.5 49.7 53.0 44.6 44.6
Genoa 130% (m²) 61.8 64.6 68.9 58.0 58.0
Genoa 150% (m²) 71.3 74.5 79.4 66.9 66.9
Spinnaker (m²) 171 179 191 160 160
Height of mast top (m) 19.0
CE certificate Category A Ocean Category A Ocean

Underwater ship of the Swan 44

Hull of a modern Swan 44 MKII. The narrow fin keel (left) with the keel bomb and the free-standing spade rudder (right) are clearly visible.

The progress in yacht building over the past 30 years can be seen in the development of the various versions of the Swan 44. The Swan 44 is a performance cruiser. The aim of the designers was to build a seaworthy ship that can be used both with a small crew for cruising and with a larger crew for regatta sailing. It should at the same time offer comfort on longer journeys and have the characteristics of modern racing yachts.

The first Swan 44 was drawn by Sparkmann & Stephens , an American design office. The relatively short keel was modern for the 1970s. At that time, most yachts were still equipped with a keel that extended about half the length of the ship. Sparkmann & Stevens' goal was to build a fast ship. Therefore, the keel was shortened and the area wetted by the water was significantly reduced. The less wetted area in contact with the water, the faster a ship can travel.

The keel of the Swan 441 was even shorter and from the Swan 44 MKI a fin keel was used. The fin keel consists of a keel fin and keel bulb . The keel fin resembles a narrow, very stable wing. the keel bomb consists of a lead weight. This construction makes it possible to accommodate the greatest possible weight as low as possible on the ship. Because of this weight, the ship sails more upright when the wind pushes the sails to one side. Since a keel is also intended to prevent a ship from drifting away to the side, the so-called drift , the keel area cannot be reduced at will. Modern yachts can reach high speeds with less wind. At this higher speed, the lateral resistance of the keel fin increases. Thus the same lateral stability could be achieved with the newer constructions with short keel as with the earlier long keel.

A similar development took place in the shape of the oars. The Swan from SparkmannStevens still had a so-called skeg rudder. The rudder blade was attached to the trailing edge of a rudder fin that reached to the lower end of the rudder. The Swan 441 already had a free-standing spade rudder. Modern, more stable materials in boat building made it possible to simply mount the rudder freely under the boat hull. The disadvantage of such a free-standing rudder is that when passing through the ocean, after a collision with floating debris or with whales, the entire rudder is lost and the ship is unable to maneuver. The advantage of the spade rudder is again the smaller, wetted area and thus a further increase in speed.

However, the speed of a yacht cannot be increased at will. Once a ship's hull has reached its hull speed in the water , it will initially no longer be faster, even if the propulsive energy continues to increase. A ship's hull shows a bow wave and a stern wave in the water. The speed of propagation of this wave system in the water depends on the frequency of the wave, i.e. on the distance between the wave crests of the bow and stern waves. The longer a ship is, the further the two wave crests are from each other and the faster these generated waves can propagate in the water. Since a ship, when it is moving faster, moves up the bow wave from behind, that is to say moves uphill, it can only move as fast as the bow wave spreads. Only when the energy increases so far that the bow wave is passed over, the ship begins to glide and can drive away from the wave system and reach much higher speeds. The Swan 44 only glides in exceptional cases and usually travels in displacement mode. Therefore, all of the structural improvements in water resistance mentioned above primarily only mean that the yachts need less power to reach the same speed. Thus, with the Swan 44 MK I and MK II, a higher travel speed is achieved even at a lower wind speed.

Web links

Commons : Swan 44  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Swan 441  - Collection of images, videos and audio files