icebear HAS SOLD!

After nearly four years and over 42,000 miles, we have said farewell to ICEBEAR. While we will miss our ‘big bear,’ we are excited to watch her have new adventures. And, we are so stoked to sail FALKEN!

We’ll leave this page here to commemorate our time with our beloved Swan 59. Sail on, ICEBEAR!

Brief History

We bought ICEBEAR from a Swedish owner in the fall of 2019, after organizing a rental agreement with him for the 2019 season. In fact, Mia & Andy knew the boat for a long time, having first met her as THINDRA in the ARC Rally in St. Lucia way back in 2009. She was run by a Swedish crew then, and they had gotten invited for drinks in her cockpit on the docks at Rodney Bay Marina!

When ISBJØRN was in Svalbard in 2018, we’d started looking for a bigger boat, and THINDRA came up for sale on yachtworld.com and it became a foregone conclusion that we’d add her to the fleet. She’s one hell of an offshore sailing machine!

We sailed ICEBEAR over 42,000 miles, from the Caribbean to Stockholm.

Swan 59 #011

ICEBEAR is hull number 11 of 21 Swan 59’s built. She’s the tall rig / deep keel version of the boat, and has the optional aft companionway into the cockpit from the aft cabin. She was built in 1986, although the builder’s plaque says “1991”. The story, from “The Professor” Lars Strom, goes as such:

“Andy,

There are in some cases odd arrangements and special deals between customer and agent/yard affecting the year on the plaque. 59-011 was originally delivered 1987, and had a plaque showing that, but after one summer the customer sent the boat back to the yard to be stored until 1991, and then demanded a modified plaque. 018 originally delivered 1988, appears there was some monkey business also. If the year on the plaque is clearly later than the production run years, it has been manipulated, with the basic intention to get a better price when the boat is later sold.

Cheers,
Lars”

So that’s some interesting history! Since 59º North has owned the boat we have done a tremendous amount of upgrades, and she is currently easily the best-equipped Swan 59 out there sailing, and in as good shape as she’s ever been with us. The list of upgrades is below.

DESCRIPTION

ICEBEAR is a 1991 Swan 59, hull number 11 of 22. She was designed by German Frers initially for a family who had been Swan 46 owners, and who wanted a bigger boat. From the ‘Maestro’ himself, when I asked him about the boat in an email from 2018:

“I think the 59 is a very nice yacht of the family of the first Swan 46 I did for Nautor. A well-behaved, sea-kindly hull, very strongly built.”

Uniquely, she is Cat 0 coded for commercial charter, which means she’s surveyed and outfitted for sailing anywhere in the world with paying guests. As far as we know she’s the ONLY Swan of her era with this status, including watertight bulkheads forward and aft. Coding is currently in-date.

LAYOUT

Starting forward she has a real, weatherproof forepeak - refit by Lyman Morse in Maine in 2021 to our design specifically for sail and rope storage, but with two pipe bunks to starboard for sleeping when extra crew space is needed (and sail stacking otherwise).

Working aft, there are matching crew bunks port and starboard with upper and lower bunk beds and drawer/cabinets either side. These 4 bunks share one head, adjacent to the forepeak.

The main salon is like a small apartment - coffee nook settee to port, large U-shaped dinette to starboard, with ample bookshelf space both sides. We’ve had 15 people eating dinner in port in this salon!

Aft of that is the galley to port, nav station to starboard. We installed new Frigoboat fridge and freezer compressors. Instrument-wise, it’s a mix of Raymarine gear, but all the Raymarine stuff we took off of FALKEN is coming along with ICEBEAR, so that will be a nice upgrade.

All the way aft is the owners double cabin, with it’s own head and stall shower, and a separate companionway into the cockpit (custom-built by Nautor when the boat was first launched). The double bed is actually two side-by-side single mattresses, so that a leeboard can be fitted in-between when at sea, but the full bunk is useable in port (the leeboard stows under the mattress).

On deck she’s got winches galore, all of which we service regularly, many of which have been upgraded or replaced during our tenure. All the running rigging is new within the last two seasons, all halyards are top-of-the-line dyneema with Tylaska shackles. Two spin poles on deck, port and starboad, and a reaching strut included. Reckmann electric roller furling headsail furler.

SPECS

Hull Type: Fin w/spade rudder
Rigging Type: Masthead Sloop
LOA: 58.67 ft / 17.88 m
LWL: 48.15 ft / 14.68 m
Beam: 16.40 ft / 5.00 m
Draft: 11.18 ft / 3.41 m
Displacement: 62,400 lb / 28,304 kg
Ballast: 22,800 lb / 10,342 kg
Bal./Disp.: 36.54
Disp./Len.: 249.54
Construction: Fiberglass
Ballast Type: Lead
First Built: 1984
Last Built: 1990
#Built: 21
Designer: German Frers

MAJOR EQUIPMENT INCL.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but includes most of the major systems and equipment that come with the boat.

Hydranet Mainsail w/3 reefs, slab reefing (2019)
105% genoa (hydranet, 2019)
130% genoa (hydranet, 2015)
Dacron staysail, hank-on (2015)
Storm jib, hank-on (unused, new 2015)
Storm trysail (un-used, new 2015)
Rod standing rigging (2015)
Reckmann electric furler (new 2015, new motor 2021)
Lewmar winches throughout, 77 primaries
Dyneema halyards, Tylaska shackles
Rocna 55kg anchor with 30m chain, 80m rope
Ocean Safety 12-man SOLAS liferafts (x2, required for coding)
EPIRB x2
Yanmar 4LHA-HTE (2015)
Northern Lights 5.5kW genset (1597.4 hours, new 2019)
Victron Quattro battery charger (2021)
…and on and on. Full details to follow.

Timeline of Refits/Improvements

Bought ICEBEAR, ex-THINDRA at the end of the summer 2019 after having rented her from the previous owner for a year of trialling the two-boat program with ISBJORN. Since then we’ve sailed over 25,000 miles on her with constant upgrades and maintenance along the way.

2019

Hydranet 105% genoa from Elvstrom Sails / Chesapeake Sailmakers
Hydranet fully-battened mainsail with 3 deep reefs, offshore construction by Elvstrom Sails / Chesapeake Sailmakers
Storm jib and storm trysail brand-new and never used, from Kemp Sails
Dacron staysail refurbished (good condition)
New Northern Lights 4.5kW genset installed
New AGM batteries (450 amp-hours at 24V…900aH 12V equivalent)
New Frigoboat fridge and freezer compressors & components installed
Old A/C and unused heater, old Watermaker etc uninstalled
New black canvas dodger, Bimini and sail cover made in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
New interior cushions made in Annapolis, MD
Vesper XB8000 AIS transponder installed
B&G VHF with wireless RAM mic installed
Gooseneck re-welded and re-attached to mast

2020

New CruiseRO A/C 40-gallon-per-hour watermaker installed (runs off genset)
Watertight doors built and boat coded to MCA Cat 0

2021

Forepeak renovated at Lyman Morse in Maine to a proper sail locker with folding pipe cots to starboard. Fresh paint, and grated floor for drainage.
New hot pink UK Sails S4.5 spinnaker (heavy-weather/cruising runner/reacher. 300 square meters)
New wheel leather custom installed by Annelie Mills in Antigua
New 12-person x2 Crewsaver SOLAS life rafts to Cat 0 standard, custom reinforced stern-rail bracket fabricated in Antigua
Mast pulled & rod rigging inspected. New toggles fabricated and installed at spreader ends
New rod forestay installed
New motor installed in Reckmann electric roller furling
Lower rudder bearing removed and rebuilt, re-bolted on to the boat
Fresh bottom paint, black Micron 66
Topsides polished & waxed
Black cove stripes re-painted
Running rigging continunally upgraded with dyneema halyards, Tylaska shackles, preventers, sheets, spin control lines etc.