This website focused on beautiful yachts has been around for a while. Occasionally, I am asked what kind of boat I am sailing. So allow me to introduce Gamle Swede: Daysailer, cruiser, occasional racer, floating retreat and boat office.
Gamle Swede was the reason, I started to focus on classics like Skerry Cruisers in the early 1990s as a professional writer. I published in Australian Yachting, in the States in Wooden Boat, in England in Classic Boat, in Sweden in Segling. It was challenging to publish in the home country of the Skerry Cruiser. I wrote for Klassiker, the German magazine of the Freundeskreis Klassische Yachten, and the Lake Constance Magazine Internationale Bodensee Nachrichten, in Yacht and Yacht Classic.
Floating retreat, Daysailer, cruiser and occasional racer
On the occasion of Swede 55s relaunch, I initiated Swedesail in 1991. This led to this portal — initially focused on Swede 55 — to spread the gospel of beautiful yachts:
Soon I documented the S30, the Jubilee S40, followed by articles on the classic Skerry Cruiser, the Skärgårdskryssare rule and remarkable boats, on Naval Architect Knud Reimers and Fisksätra Varv in Västervik.
Since setting sail from Västervik in May 1980, Gamle Swede has been delighting. After a about two decades of light-hearted sailing some jobs had to be done. I started in 1998 and more or less finished 2024 with the general engine overhaul.
Sailing the Trave from Lübeck through Travemünde with countless tacks, regardless of how much oncoming traffic there was, was great fun. Likewise, the passage through the narrow channel of the eastern Fehmarn Sound or the narrow gap between Relshaleøen and Trekroner in Copenhagen.
Thanks to Knud Reimers’ elegant line, Gamle Swede was welcomed at the Max Oertz Regatta for classics, which rarely works with a fibre glass boat. The Schlank & Rank race, sailed since 2009, is fun as well. The encounter with Molich X and Ylva is interesting. As you note, we even show up dressed in white shirts at the event.
Gamle Swede is a well-kept and probably the only unobstructed Swede 55 close to the original. Apart from minor alterations, I have not given in to the common temptation to change the boat. Instead, I kept it as it is, besides winch upgrades, meanwhile in the third generation. The fancy full steel Andersen version matches the boat, like the classy shroud tensioners from Andersen. Dyneema for halyards, reefing and trim lines are helping as well. Reefing is a matter of minutes with the Andersen 28 ST two gear winches in the cockpit.
The new 30 m2 jib provides significantly more drive and required larger winches for the foresheet, this time Andersen 52 ST, with the option of motorised operation. The runner handling was simplified with a continuous endless rope like a Dragon.
Gamle Swede upwind with new 30 m2 jib and new 44 m2 mainsail – Photo Wolf Hansen/Swedesail
Being an expert for classic boats, I learnt the best is keeping them as they are. Knud Reimers, Sven Olof Ridder, Olof Hildebrand, Torild Larsson from Fisksätra Varv and Seldén as mast builder knew well what they were doing. I just removed a few dispensable fittings. The modern feathering propeller, low-stretch Spectra, advanced winches with today’s power-to-weight ratio and chart plotters were not available in the Seventies.
Pure sailing with functional equipment
The pleasure of upwind sailing is a sensation, with the endlessly varied mix of height and speed. So commonly furled, and quickly worn out sails were no choice. Gamle Swede is one of very few yachts sailed with a profile headstay, permitting a nicely shaped and durable batten jib. Besides that, it is fun to sail Gamle Swede in a hands-on manner and with a little style.
The 16 m2 Storm jib has been replaced by a universally used 20 m2 Yankee with a high clew. Reimers had suggested a 19 m2 Storm jib. In the narrow waters of the Trave or Fehmarnsund, this sail offers good visibility ahead. Everything dispensable and bothering, like the Sprayhood, has been removed.
How Gamle Swede is kept and maintained
As osmosis prevention, I sanded the underwater body down to the Gelcoat and sealed it with epoxy. Riva boat restorer Jürgen Renken from Hamburg and his colleague Alexander Mühle Corcoran, as well as Jan Böhm from the former Lütje boatyard, had been helping and advising me in keeping Gamle Swede. This is how Gamle Swede was cared for in the past 2 1⁄2 decades from the keel bolts upwards to its current condition.
The feathering 3-blade propeller type Variprop offers low resistance and stops the boat safely on the spot when turning the long boat in narrow harbours. A sailor’s eye for the wind and a little practice in boat handling helps. A high-maintenance bow thruster, creating a lot of turbulence when sailing, is not necessary. Adhering the Keep it simple principle, I rather spend leisure time sailing.
Searching for a berth in Aerosköbing – Photo Swedesail
Gamle Swede is motored by the durable and reliable Volvo Penta MD17C three-cylinder engine. In winter 23/24 it underwent an extensive overhaul by a specialist and was run in at reduced revolutions like a ‘new engine’ in the 2024 season. The first oil change done in summer after 25 operating hours, the second in autumn with 74 operating hours. My sailing friend Guido says there can’t be any better treated boat engine in Europe than this one.
Windows and skylights have been replaced, hatches, companionway doors and the interior refurbished. The bathroom got a new Corian washbasin. Together with a sailing friend, I replaced the bulkheads between the bathroom and the forward cabin step by step, followed by the anchor locker bulkhead in 2019/20.
For the sake of usability, Gamle Swede came with a nearly wood-free deck. The Treadmaster, the Gelcoat and the aluminium foot rail only need to be cleaned and polished. This makes the condition and appearance of the precious teak in the cockpit all the more important. After an experiment with Owatrol, I had the steering/traveller beam refurbished by the renowned Lütje Yard in Hamburg and the cockpit table rebuilt as a light weight teak-coated sandwich. Having written a book about the last Riva Tritone 258 in 2010-12, Gamle Swede obtained the steering bar and folding table in the glossy lacquered finish. The sliding hatch and storage shelves in the coamings were refurbished by Riva restorer Alexander Mühle Corcoran.
On the technical side, a lot was done as well. The corrosive steel Saildrive bracket and engine bed were sandblasted and galvanised in a forward-looking manner. Keel bolts were tightened with a custom-made tool that comes with the boat. Updated access to 220 V land currency and charging. I replaced onboard outlets and sea cocks with non-corrosive ones by Trudesign. Further, Gamle Swede comes with many custom-made parts, from the anchor roller to the flag holder.
Gamle Swede is a sensation upwind in smooth water from Beaufort of 1 to 1 1⁄2. From 2 1⁄2 onwards, the music starts playing. At force 3, the runner is tightened a little further. Then you ease the traveller and pull the backstay to open the mainsail leech. Dependent on the sea state, from a force of 3 1⁄2 to 4, the mainsail is reefed. This helps the boat to sail a little more upright and just as fast.
If you are a windsurfer or a true sailor with dinghy and catamaran experience, you will fully enjoy sensitive sailing. To refine the steering pleasure, I enlarged the Gamle Swede steering wheel by 20 centimetres (7.87 inch). You sit on the leeward coaming with one leg on deck and one inside the cockpit, looking at the luff and tell-tales of the jib.
Sailors often show up in ports to see the boat and ask about Gamle Swede with shining eyes. Occasionally, I’m asked if I’m selling. The boat should be kept by an experienced sailor who understands Swede 55 and keeps her well as it was done in the past decades.
I enjoy staying in Danish ports, where people live in a easy and relaxed manner by the waterside. Looking at the → understated Knud Reimers design is pleasant. Serious enquiries welcome via E-Mail.
Photo above by Wolf Hansen/Swedesail: Gamle Swede at the final leg of Schlank & Rank 2021. Updated May 23, 25→ Subscribe Newsletter and you won’t miss future articles.
