General Concept
The idea behind the Swallow's Nest 60 is to create a true pelagic
vessel; one that can spend long periods of time between ports of call.
Optimized as a habitat for ocean travel, the Swallow's Nest 60 has a hull
form similar to others in our Gulliver and Greatheart design series.
This family of hulls have been derived from the ultra-seaworthy Pacific Northwest
fishing vessel types, refined in this case for service as yachts.
Hull construction on the Swallow's Nest 60 is all aluminum, chosen for
lightness, ruggedness, low maintenance, efficiency of propulsion, and ease
of motion. The Swallow's Nest 60 particulars are:
- Moulded Length: 60' - 2"
- Waterline length:
51' - 2" (half load)
- Moulded Beam: 15' - 0"
- Water Draft: 5' - 10" (full
load)
- Air Draft: 11' - 10" (light load)
- Displacement 64,500 lb. (half load)
If the design were to be converted for construction in steel, naturally
the beam and hull body depth would be increased in order to carry the added
weight of structure and it would in essence become a new design.
In steel, a larger engine and more fuel will be required; beam will be on
the order of 17 feet; average displacement will approach 80k
lb depending on equipment choices.
Power
The
Swallow's Nest 60 was created to take maximum advantage of the John Deere 6086
TFM. Alternate engines are the Lugger 6 cylinder Turbo, or the
Caterpillar 6 cylinder Turbo. The JD or Lugger will provide a bit of
weight savings over the CAT engine, yet
they provide nearly the same horsepower.
The
gear will be a Sabb HVP 85 E for controllable pitch, or if fixed pitch
is preferred a standard Twin Disc gear would be specified. The Sabb
gear is designed to provide both gear reduction and pitch control. The
wheel is a
three blade Controllable Pitch Propeller
by Helseth, of Norway. With a CP propeller, boat speed can be dead
slow, or just a bit more to troll for salmon, or quite a bit faster for
tuna... The propeller always turns the same direction, so maneuvers are made
simpler because there is no requirement to stop the propeller. One can
just feather the blades around to reverse, etc.
Along with the sail rig, the CP propeller will
contribute to maximum efficiency under power, in particular while
motor-sailing when one can choose a suitable engine rpm and feather the propeller
as needed in order to provide just the right boost to boat speed.
The Rig
Sails are provided as emergency get-home power, as roll
dampening devices, and for the possibility of motor-sailing during passages.
Motor sailing provides a synergy that has to be experienced to be appreciated... With
this combination, the range of the vessel is vastly increased. When
the wind favors there is the very welcome potential to spend long periods
without the engine running at all.
The Swallow's Nest 60 has been shown with a gaff ketch rig, as
above. A Chinese junk rig is shown below onboard the
Greatheart 60, the inspiration for the
Swallow's Nest design.
Please see the web page on the Junk Rig
for more information on the various reasons one might favor this rig. With either rig, the spars are all aluminum pipe for lightness, strength,
and ease of maintenance. With a graceful taper at the top, to the casual observer the spars are usually taken to be wood.
Active stabilizers have been specified in order to
provide superior roll attenuation and simplicity of use.
Interior & Exterior Layout
Right forward is a "work room" to be used for interesting
projects and tinkering with fun stuff along the way.
Aft of that is a generously sized owner's cabin, with "island" berth
forward and plenty of storage. Aft of that are twin head compartments,
so the owners have one that is private, and the kids have one to share
between them.
Aft of the twin heads are two kid's cabins, each of which contains a
flip-down guest berth, desk, and bureau. These two cabins are designed
to be able to open to each other via a folding "accordion" type of door,
which will self-stow into a pocket adjacent to the companionway. When
both are open, the effect is to produce one large shared bunk room.
When one or both are closed, there is 100% privacy.
Aft of the kid's cabins (still on the lower deck) is a fairly large
"store room" which has been named "the basement..." Every boat
needs a "garage" or "cargo hold" where the inevitable accumulation of
interesting stuff can be stowed...! Just aft of the store room is an
aft-located engine room.
Up in the Pilot House there are two swivel pilot chairs, which allow them
to be used as lounge chairs when facing aft, or as piloting chairs when
facing forward. A table with a fold-up leaf is just aft of the
seats.
This design has made use of an excellent feature... a "widebody" saloon /
galley area in order to maximize the interior space. In other words,
the house sides have been moved out to within around 5 inches of the bulwark
top. That 5 inches allows a "catwalk" to be placed at the top of the
bulwark for occasional access to the house sides. The general
idea with the galley / saloon / pilot house has been to keep the interior
completely open, as one large space. The piloting area is thus a part
of the living area, and vice versa. In the saloon / galley, a large
dinette is located to starb'd, and the galley to port.
On each side of the pilot house, a door leads out to a small side deck,
allowing easy access to each side for docking; up to the PH roof via a
ladder on each side; and to the fore deck via a few steps. A third
door is located on center right aft in the "saloon / galley" allows access
to the aft deck. Due to there being no side-decks, the aft deck
accommodations can extend right up to the aft face of the house.
On center aft... another cool surprise... a flip-down swim deck to
provide easy access to the water; to the shore boat; or to a quay or side
dock via a passerelle plank that will be arranged to swivel to either side
or aft, and will also be able to articulate up and down.
Summary
The Swallow's Nest 60 is quite 'power boat like' in terms of the pilot
house and general hull form, however adequate sail area has been provided for
good sailing. Altogether a fine ocean traveling habitat for
family adventures.
Design Genesis
Several of our designs share the
same essential source hull type, in this case
derived from the North Pacific
fishing trawlers which operate in all
weathers in the Gulf of Alaska, a place where the
ocean is... well, not so nice. We
refined the fishing trawler hull type to create
a more yacht-like shape and that became the
"Greatheart / Gulliver" series. See
the following links for vessels in the Greatheart series...
Greatheart
36 |
Gulliver 46 |
Greatheart 48 | Greatheart 54 |
Greatheart 60 |
Swallow's Nest 60
We then modified
the hull to create the "Vagabond"
series which makes use of a proportionately longer waterline
and a more upright stem and transom. Combined, this reduces the
overhangs and increases the WL length to gain more interior space with
less overall hull length. Check out the following links for boats in the Vagabond series...
Vagrant 49 |
Vagabond 50 |
Voyager 52
| Valdemar 53
For more information on this or other designs, please
inquire
Sister Ship,
Greatheart 60 -
Click for Larger Image
