Swan has once produced the more prestigious, fast and well designed cruiser racers but on the last years has only produced well designed performance luxury boats that lacked the distinctive character that was the brand trademark and that have make them different from the others.
I believe that with this one they have returned to their origins: that will be a very expensive high tech boat but not a luxurious one. They traded luxury for performance and have it designed by Juan K the one that had designed the fastest VOR racers.
The Swan 50 look gorgeous to me and even if they present it, in what regards cruising, as fit for "comfortable short cruises or longer sport cruises" I would say that would satisfy a performance cruiser that tend to be more spartan then the habitual Swan clientele that is more luxury oriented.
It has a good storage, good tankage (500L of water and 300L of diesel for a 56KW engine) and only the galley seems small. Being the boat a semi-custom one that would not be difficult to modify since it is adjacent to a storage space. More 60cm to the galley (and less 60cm on the storage) it would make it adequate for longer cruising.
Of course, it is a carbon boat and not only the looks and design look great and very effective, specially for ocean racing (or cruising), as the dimensions point to a very, very fast sailboat that will be a lot of fun to sail. This 50ft has about the weight of a performance 42ft cruiser (8500kg), a moderated beam all pulled back (4.20m), a big draft (3.20m) with an option for a swallow draft (2.20m) and certainly a big B/D ratio that in conjunction with the beam and the chines will make for a huge stability, that we can imagine looking for the sail it can carry upwind: 142m2.
In what regards hull design nothing really new, just a very updated design with an inverted bow, chines forward to create more buoyancy and to divert the water making for a drier boat, chines on the back to increase stability and making it easier to drive downwind and two rudders for a better and more efficient control on ocean conditions or downwind........ What a boat!!! ;-)
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