Nautor, like all of the boat manufacturers, has had good years and bad
years. And Swans have good points and bad points:

Ours was a 1982 Swan 57 centerboard sloop. We bought her in 1994 from a
couple who had spent seven years in the Caribbean, living aboard, had never
owned a boat before, and didn't understand the word "maintenance". The
following apply to original Nautor work, not the accretions of time.

Some of the wiring was solid and not tinned. All of the 13 year old wiring
was marginal and we replaced it.
The hull was wet -- had to be dried and epoxied.
The masthead and steering sheaves were plain bearing, nylon and stainless.
We replaced them all with Harken sheaves.

But:
Sayula II (Swan 65) won the first Whitbread. She did a 180 in the Southern
Ocean and came up with essentially no damage.
We had a rigger go over the whole rig. Even though the rig was 13 years
old, and we told him, "We're going around the world -- replace anything you
have the slightest question about", he could find nothing to replace (all
Norseman fittings).
All of the veneers are thick enough so once we had cleaned up and touched up
below, you could not tell the boat was not new.
All of the cushions we took around the world were original and had been
lived on 24/7 for seven years. They looked fine.
Everything in the boat is part of the structure, all tabbed into the hull.
The mast step is an H shaped weldment fabbed from 1" aluminum, a foot high,
18" wide, and four feet long. The detailing is excellent.
We never worried about the boat being strong enough. Many of the voyagers
we met had serious problems.

So, although I can tell horror stories about almost every manufacturer, I'd
rather have a Swan, any Swan, than any other stock boat. There are other
stock boats I would happily sail offshore and many I wouldn't take out of
sight of land.



--
Jim Woodward
www.mvFintry.com


..
"Paul Schilter" paulschilter@comcast,dot,net wrote in message
news
Jim,
Swan did you say. Are they all they're said to be?
Paul

"Jim Woodward" jameslwoodward at attbi dot com wrote in message
...
snipped

Same comments. Here the question about thickness applies even more.
Our
Swan 57 had a 1/2" plywood cabin sole.


--
Jim Woodward
www.mvFintry.com


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