That was the plug for the 28
Laurie passed away 6 months ago age 96
Laurie made all Swanson's Sails and rigged the yachts
Mitchells made Top Hat Triton Bluebird and many more back in the 60's through to the mid 80's
My Swanson 38 still has LR Mitchell Sails
Jb

excal36 said..
I sailed on a Swanson 28 on a Wednesday race, the boat was owned by Laurie Mitchell sailmaker crewed by ken and Jim Swanson . The sailmaker complained about the design the two crews complained about the sails.A very funny day but also a day in which u could not help but learn.
The Swanson 42 in the 76 Hobart was cutter rigged with 12 crew and had not raced before.
The same boat raced in 79 and finished a lot higher up the fleet.

There were two in 1976; the new boat (which I know) and another, which finished just ahead and then sank in the 1998 Hobart. The 1979 race was famously fluky and the S42 was still beaten across the line by displacement half tonners, two long-keel planked '50s- '60s design around 36ft long (Orani and Christine), other longer keelers from the '60s (Mercedes III, the steel Adria), a steel Adams 45 cruiser, some S&S 34s, two Swanson 36s, a Jarkan 10.5, Dunco 37, etc etc etc.

The same boat raced in 1980 and finished behind both Swanson 36s, a Swano 32, S&S 34s, a Jarkan 10.5, steel cruisers like the Adams 45, and a load of boats like East Coast 31s and Currawongs. The first "fast cruiser" of anything like comparable size, a 46 footer, was 21 hours ahead of the Swano. A 42 footer that finishes hours behind a cruiser/racer from the same designer than is 10 ft shorter and a few years older is not really a fast boat. The same boat finished well back in the 1979 Noumea race.

None of this is criticising the boat, it's being realistic. As a simile, I loved my 1977 Kombi Campervan, but no one would ever call it fast. There's nothing wrong with boats that are a bit slow, but surely we should recognise it.

jbear said..
That was the plug for the 28
Laurie passed away 6 months ago age 96
Laurie made all Swanson's Sails and rigged the yachts
Mitchells made Top Hat Triton Bluebird and many more back in the 60's through to the mid 80's
My Swanson 38 still has LR Mitchell Sails
Jb

Wow that brings back some memories. As a kid I recall many visits with my dad to Laurie Mitchell to collect sails. There's probably still some old ones stuck in the back of the garage.
Sorry to hear of his passing but at 96 he had a pretty long innings.

Only thing you shoud explain, how are you going to keep up and sail three boats ?

Just to clarify the comment in this thread that the "big maxi boats now are sailing with cutter rigs so the cutter rig must be good..." or something like that....assume this was a throw away comment which didn't need response..... but....the facts are that these latest launched maxi boat rigs are apparent wind rigs not cutter rigs, as evidenced the first time we saw Comanche fly down the harbour at the Syd-Hobart start 2015 or whenever it was, and the whole hull, canting keel and rig design is a holistic effort to achieve speeds not seen before when heading anywhere off upwind in 15kts+. See the below more than slightly acerbic article from Bruce Kirby to explain it more...............with the canting keel, planing hull design even when heeled and so many sail combinations to hoist fwd of the mast these type of yachts are virtually unbeatable offshore in long races as they build hull speed and increase the apparent wind and feed off it in the bear away effort. All great unless you are headed for the cliffs or beach............

www.sail-world.com/Australia/Comanche-an-opinion-piece-by-Bruce-Kirby/-138357?source=google.au

Ran7 has taken this theme to the Fast40 class with impressive results



Albeit I would shudder at the costs of these campaigns...............still a very small fraction of the AC75s I assume...............obscene.........

Chris 249 said..

excal36 said..
I sailed on a Swanson 28 on a Wednesday race, the boat was owned by Laurie Mitchell sailmaker crewed by ken and Jim Swanson . The sailmaker complained about the design the two crews complained about the sails.A very funny day but also a day in which u could not help but learn.
The Swanson 42 in the 76 Hobart was cutter rigged with 12 crew and had not raced before.
The same boat raced in 79 and finished a lot higher up the fleet.

There were two in 1976; the new boat (which I know) and another, which finished just ahead and then sank in the 1998 Hobart. The 1979 race was famously fluky and the S42 was still beaten across the line by displacement half tonners, two long-keel planked '50s- '60s design around 36ft long (Orani and Christine), other longer keelers from the '60s (Mercedes III, the steel Adria), a steel Adams 45 cruiser, some S&S 34s, two Swanson 36s, a Jarkan 10.5, Dunco 37, etc etc etc.

The same boat raced in 1980 and finished behind both Swanson 36s, a Swano 32, S&S 34s, a Jarkan 10.5, steel cruisers like the Adams 45, and a load of boats like East Coast 31s and Currawongs. The first "fast cruiser" of anything like comparable size, a 46 footer, was 21 hours ahead of the Swano. A 42 footer that finishes hours behind a cruiser/racer from the same designer than is 10 ft shorter and a few years older is not really a fast boat. The same boat finished well back in the 1979 Noumea race.

None of this is criticising the boat, it's being realistic. As a simile, I loved my 1977 Kombi Campervan, but no one would ever call it fast. There's nothing wrong with boats that are a bit slow, but surely we should recognise it.

Could you please tell me the name of the S42 that sank in 1998? I read through the coroner's report and news items and can find no details of the boats that sank. I recently bought S42 Resolution and would like to contact other Swanson owners. I'm in Pitt Water preparing to sail to Melbourne in 2 or 3 weeks.

sirgallivant said..
Only thing you shoud explain, how are you going to keep up and sail three boats ?

Hi John,
I hope we catch up soon.

Just letting you know I sold the planned three shares in Sea Ya for my asking price.
I own the other one and will continue to race Sea Ya with the new owners.
The situation with the new owners is working well

I am selling my quarter share of my Jeanneau 35 (Sanity) berthed at the CYCA.
We each get a long weekend every four weeks plus because my allocate week day is Friday. I get a four day break with the boat every four weeks. Friday is also good because of the ability to race the RANSA twilights.

The boat is in turnkey condition being professionally cleaned and polished every four weeks