There’s something intriguing about any luxury brand so iconic you can instantly recognize both its marque and products from a distance. The Nautor’s Swan brand is that strong, a brand with its unique, unmistakable profiles. Above the arctic circle in Finland, where the sun never sets in June or July and barely rises in January and February, boatbuilding has been a centuries-old tradition.
Even today, in the Nautor’s Swan building facility in Pietersaari, you find generations of the same family working to create literal magic upon the seas.
The brand’s design and technology have been raising eyebrows and dominating the world rankings since the 1960s. The first in the iconic Swan line, Tarantella, launched just 2 years after the Finnish builder opened its yard in 1966. The rest, as they say, is history. From then, Nautor’s Swan continued to evolve. That piccolo 38 feet Tarantella grew to the legendary 65, the first of the Nautor’s Maxi
Swans. Striking innovation became part of the brand’s DNA, and the naval architectural firms collaborating with the yard, read like a who’s who of design firms, from Sparkman & Stephens, Ron Holland, and up to a nearly 3-decade association with Germán Frers. Less than half a century later, the Nautor brand had become synonymous with exquisitely built and ingeniously practical performance yachts. When Nautor’s Nordic ingenuity met with a cash infusion and new ownership by Ms. Leonardo Ferragamo, sailing and racing performance took on a heightened glow and appeal.
Be Cool is a recent result, a consummate blending of sleek Nordic styling and masterful finish craftsmanship, resulting in impeccable construction and outfitting. You immediately notice her clean lines in the uninterrupted stretches of her teak decking and the uncluttered, wide side decks, which are Swan hallmarks. Indeed, anyway you view her, she is clean and spare, elegant rather than bold. In her natural habitat, she exudes an air of unfettered bliss.
Space and Specs
With its ever-present focus on safety as well as performance, Nautor’s state-of-the-art facility in Pietarsaari diligently churns out lightweight carbon fiber hulls in an exacting process. Both interior and exterior skins of Swan 98s are constructed of foam-cored epoxy carbon for one very reliable hull built for speed.
Be Cool’s has an overall length of just over 31 meters, including her double-length bowsprit, to accommodate masthead gennakers, increasing upwind performance. This, along with a square mainsail (of an impressive 267.5m²), are key features of the racing package her owner opted for over the standard sail plan. The running backstays permit the flexibility and effortless performance her owner requires for an occasional regatta or two. We have no doubt about the popularity of this option. Her length at the waterline is 26.63 meters.
Her max beam is nearly 7 meters, and her fixed, deep keel has a maximum draft of 4.40 meters. An option for a keel that can be raised reduces that draft down to 3.2 meters without impacting performance.
