As well as kickstarting a new one-design class, the rocket ship is the fifth incarnation of Pier Luigi Loro Piana’s famous My Song. It marks 35 years of collaboration between Nauta Design and its dedicated owner. But it is the first time that Nauta and Nautor’s Swan have worked together.
Exposed carbon fiber, wafer-thin mahogany veneer and artful lighting will turn the first ClubSwan 80 yacht into a super stylish cruiser. The brief for Milan’s Nauta Design studio was to give a thoroughbred one-design racer a second character as a daysailer and a super sporty cruiser.
Once the key design features had been established, Persico Marine was selected to build the high-tech carbon fiber hull and structures, cleverly engineered by Pure Design & Engineering. Nauta has designed the interior which took nothing away from the purity of the racing experience, while adding some welcome finesse and comfort for cruising with the family.
As a result, the modular interior which drew on lightweight furniture and fabric bags that could be quickly and easily detached and taken ashore, was created. Almost all the interior elements can be removed, from the gimbaled oven and saloon tables to the carbon-fiber toilets in the three bathrooms. Just the bench seats in the saloon are built in, serving a structural purpose and doubling as watch berths when racing offshore. Even the simple aircon system is removable.
The king size bed in the master cabin can be split in two then flipped to create a twin cabin. The bed here, as in the aft cabins, can be quickly unfastened and removed entirely for racing.
Lighting was a major part of the design, which includes spot lighting and about 100 m of LED strings, mostly concealed inside the removable furnishings. In total it added just 4.5kg to the boat, after Nauta conducted a detailed analysis of the impact of different wattages.
Though optimised as a pure racer, comfort can be added for sports cruising, and performance is already part of the ClubSwan 80 DNA, along with the canting keel, twin rudders, rotating canard and retractable bowsprit.
The big racing debut of My Song will be in Porto Cervo, during the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup from September 4th to 10th.
Nautor’s Swan was founded in 1966 in Pietarsaari, Finland. The builder entered the superyacht market in 1999. Since then, the yard has continued building high-performance sailing yachts in three different lines; ClubSwan, Swan Yachts and Maxi Swan Yachts.
Credits: Nauta Design