The Building of Zwerver

Zwerver was designed in 1956 by Olin Stephens of Sparkman & Stephens (NY, NY, USA) as design no. 1088 for W.N.H. van der Vorm. She was built by shipyard De Vlijt in Aalsmeer (The Netherlands), at the time aka "Gebroeders de Vriesch". Zwerver was launched in 1956.
	Sparman & Stephens was a logical choice at the time, as Olin Stephens designed all winning racing boats. The assignment was simple: the ship had to be able to win races and should therefor be light and fast. Zwerver is one of last designs of its kind. Soon thereafter new materials as polyester facilitated many breakthroughs in yacht design. S & S designed a relatively long ship compared to it's width. 17.36 meter to 3.57 meter.
Zwerver is a composite built ship: galvanised metal frame, a mahogany hull and a teak deck. S & S was very specific in defining the materials that were to be used. The hull was to be made of African mahogany, the keel of oak wood. The specs list was almost 1 inch thick.