Nautor Swan’s Focus on the Future

Nautor Swan: A Yacht Sailors Dream of Owning

As Nautor Swan celebrates its 60th anniversary year and reflects on its impressive legacy, the famous boatbuilder is also powering ahead with ambitious plans to reach far beyond its traditional niche in the market

When you hear the word “Swan”, what springs to mind? Is it the gold standard of performance cruising, or an enviable stable of instantly recognisable yachts drawn by legendary designers? Is it the iconic topside arrow running from stem to stern emphasising the sweeping sheerline? Is it bespoke events with competitive racing in wonderful locations followed by well-run social events for owners and crew? Perhaps you think of Sayula II, the Swan 65 that Mexican businessman Ramón Carlin and his crew sailed to an unlikely victory in the inaugural Whitbread Round the World Race 1973-74, a boat that Carlin’s family still owns?

Whatever “it” is, there’s no doubt it will be there because few marques cut through like this one.

“Nautor Swan is a name deeply rooted in the public imagination, even beyond the sailing community—it is one of the very few yachting brands recognised outside our world,” says Massimo Perotti, chairman and CEO of Sanlorenzo. “Swan is the yacht every sailor dreams of owning because it delivers tangible achievements: winning round-the-world races, enabling owners to sail anywhere or compete at the highest level, always without compromising on elegance or performance. We are proud to be custodians of this beautiful brand.”

Nautor Swan occupies a unique niche in sailing, one crafted by a relentless focus on quality, performance, comfort and heritage, paired with vaulting ambition and sparkling

creativity when it comes to promoting and developing its brand. And as the marque celebrates its 60th anniversary, those traits show no signs of diminishing. Indeed since joining the Sanlorenzo family in 2024, its plans are jaw-dropping.

The newly imagined Swanscape range, inaugurated by a 24-metre model developed with Rolf Vrolijk, takes them into the luxury blue water deck saloon space, while Swan Alloy sees the brand launch into the superyacht market with a 44 m aluminium sloop designed by Malcolm McKeon and Studio Liaigre, scheduled for delivery in 2028. These are in addition to the existing performance cruiser Swan line, founded with the company in 1966 (soon to welcome a new Frers-drawn Swan 73), the Maxi Swan line, which began with the Sparkman & Stephens-designed Swan 65 in 1972 and will get a new entry-level model in 2026 with the new Swan 80, and ClubSwan, which features six one-design, all-out racing yachts including the Juan K-designed 28, 36, 43, and 50, and the Frers-designed 42 and 45.

For obvious reasons, ClubSwan Racing has been open only to the various one-design fleets—until now. In the interests of inclusivity and adding value for all Swan owners, two further divisions are being introduced: ClubSwan Legacy, for yachts designed and built up to the 1990s, and ClubSwan Spirit, for owners of post-1990 Swan yachts.

Nautor Swan was also the first boatbuilder to create an ecosystem of mono-branded events and racing to attract owners to the brand. These started with bucket-style regattas in Sardinia’s Porto Cervo, Guernsey in the UK’s Channel Islands and US ports like Newport, RI, and Nantucket. Each featured entertaining racing by day, as competitive as the owner and crew choose to be, and slick, showpiece events ashore. These were well supported by owners looking to meet and compete with like-minded people and soon morphed into the Rolex Swan Cup, held every other year at Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in Porto Cervo. Again, it’s worth noting that Nautor Swan looks for premium partners and delivers experiences that make those partnerships thrive and endure: Rolex has been the Swan Cup’s title sponsor since 1984.

This year’s Rolex Swan Cup, taking place from 14-19 September in Porto Cervo, promises to be very special indeed, with a record entry list expected and a more family-oriented atmosphere ashore. It is an emotional bookending of Swan’s evolution that Tarantella, the S&S-designed Swan 36 #001, the first boat Nautor ever delivered in 1966, will be there, as will BeCool, the yard’s first Swan 128, which splashed in 2025. BeCool was designed to perform in 8-12 kts, conditions typical in her home waters of Porto Cervo and will race alongside her sister, the dual energy Swan 128 Raijin, and the new Swan 80.

To do so, the weight target demanded that the yard employed all of the knowledge it had gained in the build of the 125ft racing ClubSwan Skorpios, from carbon composite construction and resin infusion right through to foam-cored joinery and painting. As the yard itself has grown in size and output, so have the skills it has mastered.

Nautor Swan’s relationship with Sparkman & Stephens produced 824 yachts between 1967 and 1989, establishing the brand as a leading builder of performance cruising yachts. The partnership gave birth to designs including the Swan 48 in 1971, the yacht that introduced Swan’s iconic wedge-shaped coach roof, as well as the Swan 65, the world’s first production maxi.

In 1981 Argentine designer Germán Frers’s star was rising fast and he was invited to draw the Swan 51. Over four decades, 24 designs and more than 2000 yachts later, Frers continues to produce high-performance, easily driven hulls, including the Swan 128, flagship of the Maxi Swan line, and the new Swan 80, due to debut at Cannes Yachting Festival later this year.

The Nautor Swan story began in 1966 in Pietarsaari, Finland, about 345 km south of the Arctic Circle. Shipwrights along the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia had been famed for their

wooden boatbuilding skills since the 16th century, but in the mid-1960s, having built a boat for himself in his father-in-law’s garage, Pekka Koskenkylä spotted the potential of another material.

“At the time, several yards were building fibreglass boats but they relied on in-house designs and performance was modest,” said Koskenkylä. “Olin Stephens understood the potential of fibreglass to create lighter, faster yachts. That’s how we started.”

The desire for Swans to deliver quality, performance and comfort were ingrained in the brand from the very origins of the company: “I had to build the best boat in the world,” he adds, “and I wanted to combine a racing boat with a cruising boat.”

That insistence on quality and craft was enabled by the generations of boatbuilding talent, the centuries of skill in the surrounding Ostrobothnian region. It is a resource that has

shaped the brand’s evolution and continues to do so. Being able to draw on know-how passed down through generations is an extraordinary asset, as it allows for experimentation and innovation built on a very solid foundation.

The continuity of tradition is most obviously seen in the multiple generations of boatbuilders working at Swan, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters.

“I am a second-generation boatbuilder,” says Stefan Lillqvist. “My father, Runar, joined Nautor in 1970, working with Pekka Koskenkylä, he was the first generation in our family. Today my son is here as well.

“The development I have seen over 25 years at Nautor is remarkable. Earlier the teak surfaces were only varnished, but today the customers are able to choose the type of wood and the finish on the surface. What stands out is the quality, even in the smallest details. Even what you don’t see is perfectly made. That is how you recognise a truly high-quality boat.”

“I am the third generation in my family to work here,” says Ralf Brännbacka. “I started in June 1970, and today my sons, Tommy and Robert, work here as well. If you look at the standard Swans of the late 1960s, they were very simple boats. Since then, both style and equipment have evolved. Thanks to our chief designer, Germán Frers, we have been able to create and preserve the Swan DNA. Because a Swan is a Swan – you shouldn’t have to ask. That is the essence of our brand.”

That essence, distilled over 60 years, has endured while the brand itself has grown, changing hands and growing in ambition. In 1998, fashion supremo and Swan owner Leonardo Ferragamo became majority shareholder having bought the company from Finnish industrial group Kymmene. “My admiration and passion for Swan was so deep that I dedicated every effort to the brand’s success, preserving its core values while evolving it into a modern, forward-looking organisation.”

The next step came when Italian shipyard Sanlorenzo bought Nautor Swan. “We chose Swan because it represents an excellence we could not have developed internally,” adds  Massimo Perotti, who will also be the proud owner of the very first Swan Alloy yacht. “Swan and Sanlorenzo share common values: both brands speak to an elite clientele of experienced owners who are passionate about the sea and appreciate refined, high-quality products.

“With a new generation of yachts, the introduction of advanced propulsion technologies and an expanding global community of owners and sailors,” Perotti continues. “Swan’s 60th anniversary becomes a statement of intent. It’s proof that the Nautor Swan brand’s most defining moments lie ahead, where tradition meets progress and the future of sailing is written under full sail.”

Sixty years after the story began, the narrative has grown in leaps and bounds. A bold future awaits as Nautor Swan brings its expertise to bear on entirely new markets with a confidence earned over decades of success.

“I am proud to be part of this story,” Perotti concludes, “not only as a manager of the company, but also as a future Swan owner. It is a pleasure and a responsibility because Swan is a reference point for the entire market. We are celebrating a birthday, but our focus is firmly on the future. With the support of Sanlorenzo we are charting new horizons, evolving while never losing sight of our legacy.”

Click here for more information on Nautor Swan

This article first appeared in Seahorse Magazine. Find more tech briefs here.