Swallow Boats is a UK based firm that specialises in the design of small day boats and trailer sailers
with an emphasis on innovative design, safety and aesthetics. Their designs have revolutionised the traditional day
boat market by providing boats that out perform other traditional boats, yet they retain the aesthetic and charm that
draws people to this particular size of craft.
With the use of modern timber boat building methods, Swallow
Boats have been able to design craft that are light to tow, perform well and are low maintenance. Swallow Boats has
also placed ease of use at the forefront of design and many of their craft can be set up in under 10 minutes and be sailing
away.
All of the Swallow Boat designs are available in Australia and are built under licence by Denman Marine.
We can also provide certain models ( BayCruiser 23, BayRaider 20) in GRP.
Below is some information on
the Swallow Boats range. For more detailed information please visit the Swallow Boats website
Swallow Boats BayRaider 20 makes waves in the USA!!
Swallow Boats recently introduced the BayRaider 20 to the North American market with outstanding
success. In the first showing of the boat at the Newport International Boat Show, the BayRaider 20 scooped the pools winning
the award for Best Sailboat under 30 feet, Best New Sailboat and finally Most innovative
New Product for 2011!!
Congratulations to Matt Newland and also Rig Reese of Swallow Boats USA for such
an outstanding debut.
The BayCruiser 23 is the latest design from
the drawing board at Swallow Boats with several boats on the water in the UK with one about to be started at Denman Marine
for an Australian client. The interest has been high enough inthe boat to have GRP moulds made and the boat is now being produced
in GRP as well as the popular timber composite. Both versions are available in Australia.
On a recent trip to Swallow
Boats I spent a good deal of time on the water sailing the BC23 and she was everything I had expected. She performed beautifully
in light and heavy air leaving little wake. The cockpit was very roomy and the sail handling could not have been simpler.
Being a water ballasted vessel we were able to pump the ballast out in light conditions yet with the ballast in she was very
stiff and held up to her sail well in stronger winds.
Use of modern materials has kept the weight down in the boat.
At only 700kg, she is about half the weight of other similar sized boats on the market which means that you don't need
a massive 4WD to tow her. The mast is lightweight carbon fibre stepped in a pivoting tabernacle with Dyneema standing rigging
for ease of raising and lowering. Her fully battened mainsail and furling headsail make sail handling a breeze.
BayCruiser 23 under sail
Comfortable cockpit for sailing
lovely hull shape
The BayCruiser 23 interior is light and airy with a large V-berth
forward and two large setee berths. A galley area is located amidships and there is room for a portable toilet under the aft
edge of the v-berth. There is plenty of storage in the large cockpit lockers and inside the boat.
light and airy interior
BayCruiser 23 interior layout
BayCruiser 23 at the London Boat show - note optional laid deck
Below is some video footage of the first BayCruiser 23 on sea trials in the UK
If early sales are any indication, the BayCruiser 23 will certainly become a modern classic over the next couple of years.
Keep you eye on our Workshop News page as we build the first Australian BayCruiser 23 over the second half of this year.
I first discovered the BayRaider when I was looking for a day
sailer for myself. As a boatbuilder who has built and sailed many day sailers I had pretty firm ideas about what I wanted
in a a boat.
My list of priorities went something like this.
1. Ease of use.
Being quite time poor running a small business and raising kids I wanted a boat that was available at short notice to go out
on those perfect afternoons that we get down here in Tasmania. I wanted it to be very quick to set up and get underway but
also quick to pack away after the sail. I had previously owned other larger boats that could make sailing a bit of a chore
when you don't have much time to go out.
2. The boat had to be safe and stable.
I have young kids and also love singlehanding so I wanted a boat with plenty of built in buyoancy and a good dose of
form stability. Water ballast was also high on the list as I didn't want to be carting around lead ballast when there
was no need to.
3. The boat had to perform. Having done my fair share of both racing
and cruising, I wanted a boat that had better performance than the current crop of day boats out there. I liked the idea of
a split sail area and a mizzen can certainly be extremely useful if it is set up correctly. The boat had to be able to cover
miles quickly when camp cruising as well as having a respectable turn of speed around the buoys.
4.
Finally the boat had to look good. There's a lot of ugly boats out there and I wasn't going to own one!
These attributes can be very difficult to bring together in a small boat but Matt Newland and the Swallow boats team
certainly have achieved all my aims and more in this boat.
Having sailed a number of BayRaiders I can attest to
the well thought out layout, ease of launch and retrieval (it takes less than 10 minutes from pulling up at the ramp to sailing
away!).
Owners of the boats are also really pleased with their boats and performance. Here's a few comments;
The
wind is a steady 15-18kts and the boat is flying along on a reach about to plane.“When we turn around
into this we’ll have near 25kts across the deck- how about a reef?” I asked my crew Adrian.“Let’s
just take on the water ballast” he suggests.Three minutes later 300 litres of water have filled the sub
floor tank and we turn back for the beat to windward.The boat is totally different, “keelboat” like
and stiff as a church sailing high to windward with full sail. The helm is light – just enough weather helm and the
NACA foil sections are providing plenty of lift. . The self tacking headsail is making the beat a simple affair – just
put the helm over and ‘round she goes.Any spray is diverted by the spray dodger which we can carry under
the sprit boomed mainsail.Am I grinning? You bet - it doesn’t get much better than this! - Account of
the launch of "Linda Lass" - Aussie BayRaider 20 #1
Andrew,
Our first sail in Eden was in 18 to 22kts. It was a great sail and we
were the only boat on the bay. We used the ballast tank after an hour of fast sailing - great fun!
I put the boat
through every point of sail including a controlled jibe with the wind at about 22kts she is every thing I could have hoped
for Andrew and when we where moored up,as you said an old boat builder walked down to say how good she looked sailing and
how see reminded him of boats he had built... with the gunter rig etc.
regards,
Tom Nelson
Hi Andrew,
Arrived safetly if not speedily at Coles Bay. Spent most of yesteday morning rigging and derigging the
boat, very valuable for spotting little problems. We launched her about 12 and spent approx 4 hours on the water in 15 knots
+ . Popular vote saw fully ballasted and 2 reefs in the main which was a good introduction. Sailed back to the jetty under
mizzen and jib with the wind onto the jetty and didnt disgrace ourselves. Very hard to avoid a crowd of onlookers down here
and she drew a lot of interest, so we were pleased to have such a thoroughbred for a boat, she behaved impeccably. All we
wished for and more. Thankyou so much for such a beautiful well constructed craft. Will keep you posted on further adventures
Donelda
Andrew,
We
had a wonderful day yesterday , after test rigging the boat several times and practising reefing the sails we set out with
much trepidation.
The bayraider is great for our family
, as novices to larger boats we started with just the mizzen and jib and then later used the main with two reefs. With the
ballast in the boat was fantastically stable and reassuring leaving us able to concentrate and how things work and then later
just enjoying the day.
The only tricky
bit was launching and retrieving with the wind blowing into the boat ramp and threatening to scratch the beautiful topsides,
but the easy furling of the jib and ease of dropping the mainsail into the boat made us look like we had some idea of what
we were doing.
The outboard will be nice but it was
satisfying being the only people launching a boat at the boat ramp that only used manpower and the wind.
Can't wait til I get out sailing again.
Ken
Hi Andrew,
We sailed the Tamar Valley
Classic a couple of weekends ago, I heard Piers had been in contact re a handicap. Don’t know if you know much about
the race but it’s a sail up the Tamar river with a run component and a road ride component.Wind direction is usually
NW so we were hoping for a fast reaching/ downwind run. Spent the first hour drifting with no wind to speak of, then had a
southerly breeze for about half an hour before the southerly came in properly and it was a sheer hard slog. We basically had
to tack the whole race, but certainly didn’t disgrace ourselves. The water ballast was a godsend as we didn’t
stop to reef, and as a result made up a lot of time on the other Div 2 boats that were down to storm jib and reefed mains
and still overpowered. The wind was gusting to about 30kts with the squalls, so we showed them what we were made of. Was a
bit disappointed that there weren’t any other female skippers racing. I think I earned a bit of respect though: I’m
sure the men in the keel boats wondered what this little dinghy was doing out on the water,especially when the wind blew up.
You will be pleased to hear as a testament to your workmanship we won Piers’ award for the prettiest boat on the water.
Ended up in 12th place overall, 2nd of the Div 2 boats. Not bad for a first effort.
Cheers
Here's a bit more information
on the BayRaider and what makes them such a great boat.
Introduction
The BayRaider is truly an exciting development in the daysailer market and has many unique features that
has made her such a popular choice for many owners. Safety has been at the forefront of the design and she has been designed
in accordance with the stringent European Recreational Craft Directive and carries CE certification for wind speeds up to
force 6 and significant wave heights of 2m.
The Bayraider's key safety features include high form stability,
water ballast, plenty of built in buoyancy, a unique asymmetric capsize buoyancy system (ACB) which allows a single person
to right the boat and a simple rig that allows a quick reduction of sail when needed. Lets have a look at some of these features
in detail.
Water Ballast
The BayRaider has the ability to carry 300kg of water ballast in a sub floor tank which is the equivalent
of having 4 large adults lying in the bottom of the boat. The ballast can be taken on and dumped underway in a matter of minutes
so if the wind pipes up it is simple to add the ballast for extra safety and when it comes time to haul her out, the ballast
can be dumped before you have to haul the boat out on the trailer.
With the ballast tanks full she is very stable
and has positive stability to 119 degrees which is more than many lead ballasted racing yachts. To see how hard she is to
capsize with the tanks full have a look at the videos below.
First, a 90 degree pull down/knockdown. Notice how
high the boat floats on her side. The engine, which is centrally mounted in a well aft would be well clear of the water at
90 degrees.
Capsize testing the BayRaider 20 "Linda Lass" in Tasmania
she pops straight back up un-aided from a 90 degree capsize with the ballast in
A video of the BR20 "Linda Lass" sailing in Southern Tasmania
BayRaider 20 capsize testing in Australia by Denman Marine
ACB
The BayRaider employs a unique Asymmetric Capsize Buoyancy(ACB)
system which greatly assists in recovering the boat should she ever encounter a 180 degree inversion. Essentially, one of
the side buoyancy chambers is flooded when inverted which gives the boat a noticeable angle of heel. It is then simple for
even a relatively small person to right the boat as seen in the inversion video above.
Built in buoyancy
The BayRaider has 4 independant buoyancy chambers that provide over 1000kg of buoyancy which gives great
peace of mind.
The BayRaider also makes a fantastic camp cruiser with plenty of onboard stowage for all the gear
needed to get away from it all. There is plenty of room in the forward end of the cockpit for two to sleep in comfort and
with her shallow draft, she can be pulled right up onto the beach at the end of the day.
For daysailing, the cockpit
accommodates 4-6 with ease and an optional spray dodger can be fitted forward to keep the crew dry.
BayRaider interior looking forward - note plenty of room under the dodger
really simple to rig - either on the trailer or on the water
beautiful and simple to sail with plenty of room for friends/family
reaching at speed - fantastic performance
Performance
All the great features of the BayRaider - the
hull form, water ballast, simple rig etc add up to a really great performance packacge that can suit any level of sailor.
With the rig reefed down and the ballast onboard, she can be a docile craft for the nervous crew and with full rig, no ballast
and an experienced crew she can really perform. She will go upwind at 5-6kts and can do 10 kts off the breeze with the standard
rig. An optional asymmetric spinnaker kit is available as wellfor those keen sailors who can't do without a kite.
Ease of use
A lot of thought has gone
into making the boats very user friendly. The boat is quite light and is therefore easy to move around both on and off the
trailer.
The mast is in a tabernaclce which allows one person to easily raise the
rig and when lowered, the mast stays in the tabernacle for trailering. The rudder is also a simple affair and the blade rotates
up 180 degrees so it remains on the boat when trailering, launching and retrieving.
The
rig is very simple with a self tacking headsail and the higher sprit style boom on the main is certainly more crew friendly.
The new BayRaider 17 from Swallow Boats has developed from the larger BR20. She has many of the same safety
features of ther larger sistership such as self righting ability and water ballast but she is a smaller package overall. The
aim of the design was to have a fairly light and easily handled vessel that could be beach launched as well as ramp launched.
The BayRaider 17 is available as a completed boat, partially completed boat or as a kit for amateur home construction.
The first Australian kits have been sold and she is a fairly easy boat to build utilising stitch and tape construction. All
the ply components are precision CNC cut which is a huge time saving. If you would like further information on the BayRaider
17 please contact us
Capsize testing of the BayRaider 17 - note the wetsuits for the cold Tassie water.
Custom built trailer for the BayRaider 17 makes launching and retrieval very easy
Below are two videos we made about the BayRaider 17 at Denman Marine. The first one is a general sailing
video and the second one is a video detailing the capsize and inversion testing of the boat. Enjoy!
Swallow Boats Kits
We are now able to offer a range of kits for a number of boats in the Swallow Boats range. The popular
Storm 15, 17 and Trouper 12 can be computer cut to save many hours of time and get you on the water quickly. The kits can
either be just a panel kit or can contain everything needed to finish your boat including sails. Each kit comes with a very
comprehensive instruction manual that will make the building a simple affair. If you would like more information on the kits
email andrew@denmanmarine.com.au
CNC cutting the Storm 15 kit
Constructing the Storm 15
Swallow Boats Storm 15 on launch day
Storm 15 with balanced lug rig under sail
Denman Marine specialises in custom wooden boat building and repair.We utilise
both traditional methods such as carvel or clinker and modern methods such as strip planking, cold molding or clinker plywood.
We can custom build to any design - for example those by Iain Oughtred, Paul Gartside,
John Welsford, Mark Bowdidge, Francois Vivier, Atkin , Bolger B&B etc.
We are sole Australian agents for Swallow Boats including the BayRaider and also importers and re-sellers of the world
renowned Joubert BS1088 Gaboon Marine Plywood ( Lloyds certified and FSC certified).
