We are Martin and Henny living on Snow, 43 feet (13.18 meter) sailing yacht. She is a Sparkman and Stephens designed Swan 431 build in 1976 hull number 3.
She is built as a racer cruiser, she is very strong and is a true sailing machine so quite overbuilt, a nice feature for a cruiser.
At the same time, she is quite luxurieus and foresees in most comforts. She is beautifully built by Nautor Swan and has a rich teak interior. Quoting the sales brochure from 1976″From the standpoint of size, the Swan 431 is today the optimum “go any ware boat’ neither too large to create crewing problems, nor too small to suffer from the “sardine can syndrome”. We could not agree more, she is exceptionally spacious to live on.
We try to keep her close to the original while at the same time making her a comfortable home. We upgraded her with modern technology but try to keep her a low energy consumption ship. The design is so well thought off, with decades of knowledge behind her. We know the less we change, the better she is as our live aboard and as a sailing yacht. She is still close to the original sail plan; everything is the official measurements. All lines are directly handled at the mast and her flush deck is great to work on. We really appreciate the directness and non-complexity of handling the lines. We love the uncluttered deck.
When thinking about what our cruiser liveaboard yacht should be, we have to thank the incredible S&S Swan Association and their forum members for creating an unbelievable source of knowledge on all S&S Swans. That forum sold us on the quality of S&S Swans in our years of planning. Many, many years we have read their forum and studied the Swans on their site and I still do. Thank you, Mateo Salamon, for creating this site, Lars Ström for your expertise and members for their contributions.
Our plan is to live and sail on the oceans indefinitely. To go round all capes and boldly go where all cruisers have gone before. Our traveling is not so much about seeing the world as it is more about being a world citizen, living everywhere but in our own place.
We planned this life for a long time and tried to retire as early as possible and be free in reasonable comfort. We are traveling on Snow from 2018. We worked in the airline and ICT industries. Although we enjoyed our careers, we wanted to change our lives to be free, to be adventurous, to be together, and to still have the energy and strength.
Next to sailing, we share other passions, Skiing (hence the name Snow), Argentina Tango dancing, Opera, Hiking, and we try to play classic guitar.
What people say about Sparkman & Stephens and S&S Swans
She is a sailor’s sail ship.
They don’t build them like this anymore
These Swans will take you anywhere
Random quotes we hear
The firm’s legacy remains sterling, even today; to wit: a high-end broker recently concluded a listing summary: “She is a Sparkman & Stephens’ design. What more needs to be said?”
Quote from the Sparkman & Stephens website
“In any design the most important factors of speed seem to be long sailing lines and large sail area, with moderate displacement and small wetted surface. Then comes beauty, by which is meant clean, fair, pleasing lines. Though per se beauty is not a factor of speed, the easiest boats to look at seem the easiest to drive.”
Olin J. Stephens
Sailing Snow 