swan (43) twohanded?

Dear forummembers,

I am fond of a 43 S & S Swan. But in managing the sailboat I wonder if that is possibly done by a couple.

In the old brochure the seller estimated the boat as relativily light designed being a cruiser/racer.

Not only when weather becomes serious, what is wise and necessary in numbers of crew.

How special is sailmanagement on a Swan 43?

According to steering, should that be light or heavy? Trimmingcause?

Please let me know,

Natneder

as no 43 owners have jumped in .... probably out sailing. anyway,when these ladies were new furling gear and self tailing winches were rare so handling sails was hard work. today state of the art gear and smaller sails makes it MUCH easier. couples regularly double hand much larger boats. personally i would
not be concerned it really depends on your experience and sailing goals.... trans atlantic or coastal. these boats will happily do both.
hope that helps.

mike

Mike,

thank you kindly for your remarks,

I agree with Mike. I bought REBECCA almost a year ago and don't feel she is too much for my wife and I to handle. Self tailing winches are on the list as well as an intermediate stay for a small staysail and storm jib.

John McKay

Not a 43 owner but a 44 and we do sail her two handed a lot and she is no problem at all. Brought her back from Ireland to Southampton with only two of us, very easy sailing.

I have been sailing my Swan 43 now since 1998 and can say with confidence that the 43 can be sailed easily shorthanded.  I often single hand the boat but double handing the boat is very reasonable.

Some modifications that you seriously should consider to make this happen (assuming the 43 is in stock form with stock rig).

1. Definitely convert your mainsail to incorporate the Dutchman sail flaking system (http://mvbinfo.com/) where the mainsail will almost self flake when lowered. Without this feature it is very difficult to lower the mainsail single or shorthanded.  The mainsail when lowered ends up all over the deck and is very difficult to flake onto the boom, especially if there is any wind. It also makes reefing very easy.  I would say this is the single most important modification for shorthanded sailing of the Swan 43.

2. Self tailing winches would be very helpful for the jib sheets.

3. Although not as long lasting as dacron, a carbon/mylar or other high tech sail cloth for your main and headsail would make sail handling (from a weight stand point) easier when shorthanded.  I sail with both dacron and carbon/mylar sails and the weight difference is significant.  My rule of thumb is if you cannot lift and move the sail bag from down below to the deck and hoist it up by youserlf either the boat is too big or you have to reduce the size/weight  of the sail.  I singlehand with a 154% overlapping genoa and full main and can manage this easily (I am 5'-6" and 165 pounds).  Obviously one can also sail very well with a 100% genoa but performance suffers offwind or if the seas are lumpy.

In general the 43 sails very well and has great sailing and sea keeping qualities and I am sure you will enjoy her.

Check out the 43 maintenance and info link on this web site.

Good Luck.

Hiro

Hello Hiro,
as a not too young sailor I am quite sensitive to anything that can make sailing easier and I was very interested by your mentioning an efficient flaking system for the main.
I have studied the one you mention and already asked a quotation but I would like few more comments from an actual user.
First: presently my main sail lower slides up to the height of the upper reef cringle are sort of "floating" in the sense that they are kept at their place on the sail only when a proper string along the luff is tight. When I reef I loosen the string and the sail can move away from the slides; in this way I do not need to open the track and free the slides when I hook the luff cringle to the reefing hook. This is quite convenient for reefing, does not affect the sail performance but makes lowering and flaking the main more messy indeed. My first question is: do you think that this setup might be still compatible with your proposed flaking setup?
In your case, do you have to free the lower slides when you reef?
The second question is less important but still... I know that all my competitive friends will shrug disapprovingly at those slits in the canvas: is it really true that the disturbance introduced in the sail aerodynamics is negligible?

Daniel, 411/004

Hello Daniel:

The "Dutchman" flaking sysetm should not have any impact to your sail slide configuration.  It is not overly sensitive to how the main sail is attached to the mast.

Secondly the entire system in my opinion causes negligible air flow disturbance.  I actively race my boat and find no impact to performance.

I will try to take some pictures of my installation next time and email it to you.

Feel free to ask any other questions.

Regards,

Hiro