Plans for the original Swede 55 circa the mid-1970’s. These drawings are where most of the Spirit-of-Tradition narratives got their start.
Surprisingly undocumented for a design this important — most searches for the “Vortex 55” lead to a hand mixer — these Knud Reimers boats were among the first group to sound the starting gun for the modern Spirit-of-Tradition narrative. Drawn in 1975, the Swede 55 was all about Reimers adapting a square-meter rule, popular for that time, to a mass-produced, fiberglass 53-foot day-sailer. Something like 35 were built between about 1975 and 1985, with names like Tiana, and Rosina. What matters today is, if you look carefully at the original design to the right, is how Reimers lays out most of the arguments of the Spirit-of-Tradition continuum: A traditional looking overhanging bow and stern, a slender hull matched to a modern keel and spade rudder — all with the most current rig and sails of the time. But what makes the design indispensable is how, back in the late 1980s Steve White, owner of Maine’s Brooklin Boat Yard, decided the Swede 55 would speak to his interests more if built out of composite wood construction. White had Reimers make a few tweaks for the build; and after a reported 7,000 man-hours of production (whoa!), a cold-molded wood layup of this modern-classic splashed into Maine’s Jericho Bay in 1990, christened as Vortex. We’ll save the ugly nitty-gritty of finessing the Spirit-of-Tradition principles into the constrained square-meter rule at the heart of this boat for another day. But still, we’ve sailed Vortex a lot. We’re in a few of these photos and videos, if you look carefully. And we can honestly report, of all the Spirit-of-Tradition boats we’ve sailed and designed, the Swede 55 is as pure a modern-classic as any vessel afloat. The Swede 55 may be from another era. But she still matters today.
- LOA: 52’6″ / 16.00m
- LWL: 39′ 0″ / 11.88m
- Beam: 9’7″ / 2.92m
- Draft: 6’5” / 1.95m
- Designer: Knud Reimers
- Year Built: 1975 – 1983, 1990
- Built By: Fiskastra Varb Shipyard, Sweden; Brooklin Boat Yard, Maine.
- Hull Material: GRP and then later Cold-Molded Wood Composite.
- Gross Displacement: 16,534 lbs
- Ballast: 6,283 lbs
- Sail Area: 694 sq ft / 55m²
