5 more Cult hulls enter the Historic Classic Boat Archive (300+)

The year 2025, marked the 50th birthday of the Sailing Newspaper and, with that, the Classic Boat Club, the community dedicated to Classic Boats and all enthusiasts, new, as well as of ‘old’ date… It is a place dedicated to the celebration and preservation of the beautiful boats of the Golden Age of Sailing, the Classic Boats, and among its components, we find several ‘tools’ aimed precisely at this purpose. Among them, the Archive of Historic Classic Boats, a huge registry of excellent designs built over the years. This aims to contain and narrate hundreds and hundreds of hulls, presenting their history, images, data and market values, including those enhanced by certified historicity. Obviously, however, this is an archive that is constantly being updated. That is why, after the 5 in the previous article, we are now going to add 5 more Classic Boat Cult, ready to join the over 300 already surveyed!

5 new Cult hulls enter the Historic Classic Boat Archive (300+)

Let’s make up for the last premise: these 5 hulls will also not be the only new boats to be added in this 2025. And any suggestions, are always welcome. That said, here are the new additions: two Swans, a Panda, a Bavaria and a Contest to expand the ranks of the already very rich Archive of Historic Classic Boats..

• Classic Boat enthusiasts? or sailing in general? There is great news! The Classic Boat Club, the community dedicated to all fans of the ‘vintage’ world, a place for appreciating and sharing the design culture of the last century. Become a member: it’s super easy and offers lots of benefits. Find out all about it HERE!

PANDA 29

specs: Nordcantieri; 8.75 x 2.50; 1968-1974; Alan Buchanan

Designed by Alan Buchanan in the late 1960s, the Panda 29 is a small but solid hull built for more than five years by Italy’s Nordcantieri. Designed for coastal cruising, or offshore cruising, over medium distances, it was a hull in its own way appreciated, today still able to garner a small number of admirers. Armed with a masthead sloop, strong classic lines, with skeg, she was a boat with well-conceived volumes, constructively solid and good sailing qualities, even in challenging contexts.

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– Learn more about PANDA 29, its market value and the Shipyard’s production

36S CONTEST

specs: Contest; 10.92 x 3.55; 1984-1994 (#88); Dick Zaal

Designed by Dick Zaal for Conyplex, and launched as a series in 1984, the Contest 36S represents one of the Dutch shipyard’s most successful bets. Made in 88 examples over a decade, this 36-footer is designed to combine strength, comfort and good performance, in keeping with the typical Contest philosophy. The hull -a medium displacement and classic marine lines- stands out for solid construction and seaworthiness, while the sail plan (sloop to masthead) is well balanced with respect to the hull. Also available in an aft cockpit version, it is a design suitable for long, anxiety-free cruising.

– Learn more about the CONTEST 36S, its market value, and the Shipyard’s production

SWAN 36-2

specs: Nautor Swan; 11.16 x 3.65 m; 1988-1996 (#55); German Frers

First unveiled in the late 1980s, the Swan 36-2 is perhaps the Nautor/Frers creature that seems to deviate most from the yard’s previous production, and yet, it is so only in appearance, because of that little ‘swan’ deckhouse and the large windows that this one features, coincidentally, in the same year that the Italian Genesi also introduced them. Aesthetics aside, however, the 36-2 remains a Swan worthy of the name, balanced in both performance and design. It is in the details, in fact, that Frers shows all his hand here, designing a hull capable of reducing the elevated perception of its own freeboard, and joining the deckhouse in a delicate edge just forward of the mast, thus offering comfortable interior volume without affecting the lines. Thus emerges a ‘new’ design, fully the child of the 1980s and, however, fully the child of a hand that knows every measure well.

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– Learn more about the Swan 36-2, its market value and the Shipyard’s production

SWAN 371

specs: Nautor Swan; 11.28 x 3.46 m; 1979 (#87); Ron Holland

Among the first projects born after the breakup of the S&S/Swan binomial, the Swan 371 emerges at a juncture of transition, taking the form of a high-performance 11.2-meter, and in its own way also capable of recovering the yard’s stylistic features now iconic after the successes of the previous decade. What makes it special is the marriage between Swan canons and the hand of Holland, who knows how to balance the elements at play here, resulting in a hull capable of enjoying no small success: no less than 87 examples built

– Learn more about the Swan 371, its market value and the Shipyard’s production

BAVARIA 1130

specs: Bavaria; 11.28 x 3.45 m; 1983; Axel Mohnhaupt

The Bavaria 1130 takes a step back in time and confronts a major milestone for the German shipyard. Designed by Axel Mohnhaupt, it is the seventh model to leave the factories, but it is the first to break through the 10-meter wall, and not by a small margin. It’s 1983 -just 5 years after the brand was founded- and Bavaria churns out a hull that is profoundly a child of its time: ultra-short, wide beam and masthead rig, with a relatively small mainsail and huge overlapping genoa. It is an unexpected growth step, to say the least, and launches the yard into the world of the ‘big boys’.

– Learn more about the Swan 371, its market value and the Shipyard’s production

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