Black Swan 1899

An historical yacht

Black Swan was designed by Charles E. Nicholson and built at the esteemed Camper & Nicholsons Gosport shipyard. Black Swan represents one of the most important classic sailing yachts from our heritage, and is a vessel admired by yacht afficionados around the world.

Black Swan began life as Brynhild, a design commissioned by John Selwin Calverly who had heard of Nicholsons’ success designing small racing yachts and his desire to conceive a larger vessel. The brief was for a yacht that was an all-rounder, not designed for racing but able to participate in the handicap classes. Unconstrained by any rating rule and able to design a yacht that truly reflected his ideas on yacht design, Nicholson excelled.

After Calverly’s death, Brynhild was quickly acquired by a new owner and proceeded to change hands several times through the 1920s and ‘30s. An engine was installed, and then in 1937 she was converted from a yawl to a ketch and renamed Black Swan.

After World War II, Black Swan was sold to George Guérin who had her refitted at Camper & Nicholsons with John Nicholson, son of Charles E. Nicholson, managing the work. In 1958 Guérin sold Black Swan to Felix Mechoulam and she stayed in the Mechoulam family’s ownership for some 40 years. Black Swan was sold again in the early 1990s and underwent a significant refit at the Beconcini yard in La Spezia. Financial troubles then resulted in her being seized by the bank and laid up in La Spezia from 2008 to 2015.

Edouard Poullain her current owner, a passionate yachtsman for classic yachts, recognised Black Swan as a unique opportunity to save this historical yacht and under his ownership she is sailing again.