2010 McNaughton 57 Custom Deck Saloon – NOW SOLD

Grabau International is delighted to announce its successful sale of the 2010 McNaughton 57 Custom Deck Saloon ‘BIRD OF PASSAGE’.

Wood epoxy, twin screw, bluewater cruising yacht with fantastic provenance and very cleverly configured for effortless all-weathers long-distance liveaboard cruising.

FURTHER BROKER’S COMMENTS:

Lovingly constructed by her owner using locally sourced Swedish pine, sheathed in high-tech epoxy resins and glassfibre, BIRD OF PASSAGE is an enormously capable and well-proven world-cruiser that is the culmination of a 10yr project by her owner and the Maine-based naval architect Tom McNaughton.

Conceived specifically to create a safe, predictable and easily-handled long-distance sailing, BIRD OF PASSAGE is configured with a full length encapsulated keel, large and fully protected rudder, twin Volvo diesel engines (no need for a bowthruster) complete with independent fuel tanks, pilot house with internal steering and throttle controls, non-slip decks (no external teak) and simple sloop rig, easily controlled from the cockpit. Having now completed a leisurely 9-year circumnavigation, BIRD OF PASSAGE has returned home to Aland Islands and awaits her next adventure.

OWNER’S COMMENTS:

In 1999 I commissioned the services of renowned Maine USA based Naval Architect Tom McNaughton, for a custom design of a yacht suited for sailing around the world. Having cruised extensively around the world in my previous two yachts, covering tens of thousands of sea miles, it was time to put all of this knowledge and experience into my ‘ultimate’ long-distance cruiser. Tom rose to the challenge and came up with a striking 17-metre deck-saloon sloop design to be built in sheathed strip plank. Her design was configured using the very latest technology in computer-aided modelling to be sure that all our parameters would be met.

The year after I started construction of the boat in my new boathouse in Nora, Sweden and we named her BIRD OF PASSAGE. Handcrafted by me over the following 9 years, she was finally ready for launch in 2009. Having fully tested all of her systems, she was rigged in 2010 and we set out to enjoy our first season of sailing in the Baltic later than year.

In 2011 I left the Baltic and sailed south. My wife and I have since spent 9 fantastic years circumnavigating the globe, finally returning to our home in the Aland Islands in the Baltic summer 2020. Each year, she has been decommissioned for 4-6 months (so we could return home), so her total sailing time has been closer to just 5 seasons.

Originally designed to feature a hydraulically-actuated retractable keel, giving 1.5-3m draft options, this was quickly removed and replaced with a fixed 1.85m draft keel in 2013 in the quest for absolute reliability. In 2014, I modified the Selden boom to become a Park Avenue style boom which allows much easier sail handling when sailing short-handed. Aside from this, there has been little reason to change anything else as every aspect of her design and build was extensively researched before the first spruce tree was cut.

We have greatly enjoyed our years with BIRD OF PASSAGE and have written about our travels (and indeed the design and build process) extensively in our online blog. With over 30,000Nm covered aboard her, we will be sad to see her go, but also joyful that she will pass to a new custodian who will surely continue to use her for safe and comfortable world cruising as we have done.

We wish her new owners fair winds and following seas.

For those that missed out, Grabau International has a number of other similar yachts available for sale including:

Perry 60 – full details here

Mystic 60 – full details here

Laurent Giles 51 – full details here

Do you have a yacht like this to sell? Grabau International are always looking for new high quality cruising yacht listings both in the UK and internationally. For further information about our tailored brokerage services, please look here or feel free to contact us.