What is the history of Swan sailboats?
Swan sailboats are a prestigious brand of luxury sailing yachts that have a long and rich history in Finland and around the world. Here is a brief overview of their history: The story of Swan sailboats began in 1966, when Pekka Koskenkylä, a local boatbuilder, commissioned a 36-foot cruiser-racer from the renowned American design firm Sparkman & Stephens. The first yacht, Tarantella, was one of the earliest glassfibre yachts and won many races, including the Cowes Week in 1968; In 1969, a fire destroyed the Nautor's Swan boat yard and Koskenkylä had to sell stakes of the company to Wilhelm Schauman Oy, a Finnish forest industry corporation, to finance the rebuilding and restart production; In the 1970s, Swan sailboats achieved international fame and success, especially with the Swan 65, a ketch-rigged model that won the first ever Whitbread Round the World Race in 1974 with Sayula II, skippered by Mexican Ramón Carlin. This adventure was documented in the film The Weekend Sailor in 2016; In the late 1970s, Nautor's Swan hired a new designer, Ron Holland, who created six models that were more modern and competitive on the race course. These included the Swan 39, Swan 42, Swan 47, Swan 51, Swan 57 and Swan 371; In the 1980s, Nautor's Swan entered a new era with the appointment of another Argentinian designer, Germán Frers, who has been responsible for over 900 yachts so far. His designs have followed the trends of luxury, performance, innovation and reliability, and have ranged from 36 to 131 feet in length; In 1998, Nautor's Swan was acquired by a group of investors led by Italian businessman Leonardo Ferragamo, who has continued to push forward innovations and changes intended to place Swan yachts at the forefront of the sailing world; In 2016, to mark its 50th anniversary and its return to selling racer-cruiser sailboats, Nautor's Swan launched a new model, the ClubSwan 50, designed by Juan Kouyoumdjian, who won a design competition among several naval architects.