Once they hit the superyacht scene even the best designers can drift away from their roots in small racing boats with the risk, as the late Ed Dubois inimitably put it, of ‘popping out of the top’ in terms of design inspiration and currency. The Stephens brothers never made that mistake, staying informed and close to their racing roots until well past the retirement age of regular human beings. Here (left) legendary rigger and perfectionist Rod Stephens helps repair a chafe guard on Dennis Conner’s 1980 Cup-winner Freedom as Olin (right) gives Freedom’s boom the once over. Reagan’s motto ‘trust but verify’ could have been written for these two great men
afford to be a little choosy about who they designed for and which clients would best take their reputation forward. A transatlantic phonecall from Pekka to
the offices of S&S managed to illicit the possibility of a brief meeting with Rod Stephens, who was soon to be on a long- planned northern European tour of boat- yards building S&S yachts. In a hectic schedule involving yards in Sweden, Nor- way, Germany and Finland, Rod could schedule a brief meeting at Helsinki Air- port around 6am to meet the embryonic would-be yacht builder. Naturally enough Pekka took the meet-
ing opportunity. But with no established boatyard Rod was reluctant to sell a brand new design, or indeed a production version of their latest One Ton designs, Clarionet and Roundabout, to Mr Koskenkylä. Instead Rod offered what was to become the Swan 36, an earlier design that had been originally commissioned in GRP by the Italian yacht builder Benello and sold as the Gaia class (19 of these were built). But the basic hull concept of the 36
could trace its roots all the way back to the 1959 Hestia design – one of the foremost boats to put the S&S name at the forefront in Europe. Some 50 derivatives, mainly in timber, were constructed from this basic design, but where the Gaia and Swan designs differed was in adopting a sepa- rated rudder configuration – albeit a lot less radical than the One Tonners like Roundabout and Clarionet. Though few clients would ever hear the
term, designs like the Swan 36 were referred to by Olin and Rod as ‘bottom drawer designs’. Meaning they were devel- opment copies of existing designs rather than brand new ones and so were offered for a lower design fee, usually around 40 per cent less than a new one-off. After a slightly shaky start – the first
ever Swan 36 was delivered to her UK agents, Hurrell & Johnson and promptly almost sank at her launching, her builders
50 SEAHORSE
having not appreciated the need for sealant in the through-hull fittings – the Swan 36 went on to great success with 86 built. But perhaps Rod’s caution about inexperi- enced yacht builders was proved justified by the near-miss at the launching. A landmark racing statistic was
achieved by the 36 design in 1968, when her UK agents scored seven out of seven wins in Cowes Week. The 36 was to be the start of a truly great partnership between yacht builder and designer. For the 1969 season Olin created a real
gem of a design as a successor to the Swan 36, in the form of the Swan 43. This was no ‘bottom drawer’ design, but a state-of- the-art Admiral’s Cup contender designed as a series production boat to take on the very best one-offs. It proved to be a winning formula when Casse Tete was selected for the UK Admiral’s Cup team alongside the new S&S-designed 42ft Prospect of Whitby and the 50ft Camper & Nicholson-designed Phantom. Pekka Koskenkylä’s dream to become a
major player in the international yacht building world, with the Swan brand, was born with more than a little help from Olin and Rod Stephens. Together they went on to produce 22 different designs, coincidentally an identical number to that of the Tartan range, and launch a total of 588 boats ranging from the 36 to the Maxi-sized Swan 76 that was derived from the all-conquering S&S Maxi Kialoa III. Arguably the most famous Swan of
them all was the 65. After the Mexican- owned Swan 65 Sayula II won the first Whitbread Round the World Race in 1973, this triumph for the Swan brand, only six years after the company launched its first boat, put the Nautor name at the top of the production boat league. Helped, of course, in no small part by the skill of the Sparkman & Stephens design office. The speed and seaworthiness of the 65
led directly to a one-off 65ft development of the design called Flyer, designed and
built specifically for the Round the World racecourse. Flyer went on to replicate Sayula’s success by winning the following 1977 edition of the race. All 22 of the S&S Swans were commer-
cially successful, helping to create a brand of unprecedented quality and a similar testa- ment to the designers. It didn’t hurt either that these early Swan designs like the 36, 43 and 65 were so successful on the inter - national racing circuit. The follow-up to the 36 design, the Swan 37, shared the same hull shape as the 1971 One Ton Cup winner Stormy Petrel; it all helped Nautor to sell 59 of their new model in only three years. The differing but complementary roles
that Olin and Rod had within S&S were another of their great strengths. Olin would muse over hull shapes, keels, rig propor- tions and their relationships with the appro- priate rating systems while Rod oversaw the development of structures, deck layouts, rigging schedules and detailing. It’s fair to say Rod was the practical
man, who became famous for his snag lists on newly built boats. This what might be termed after-sales service was performed mainly by Rod and proved to be a valuable contributor to the S&S legacy. Tough though Rod could be with his inspections, the massive snag lists that he produced on yard visits, and again after only a day of sailing a newly launched boat, were invaluable to both builders and owners. I had the pleasure of accompanying Rod
on a couple of these almost ceremonial inspections. One on the first Swan 55, the third design in the 22-boat Nautor range, the other on the first sea trials for the Abek- ing and Rasmussen-built Maxi Baccarat. The bigger the boat the longer the snag
list and after a day’s sailing a ‘detailed’ list of issues emerged. Nevertheless Rod had missed something spotted by the owner, shipping magnate George Coumantaros… no baize in the cutlery drawer! Owners and designers often have different priorities. But Rod could be almost contemptuous
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