Mr Moncrieff's letter caused a great deal of interest in Lerwick, the town where the Swan had been built, and in Whalsay, the island where she had spent most of her working life. The man who brought all the interested parties together was James Moncrieff - Tom Moncrieff's son - who was then the chief executive of Shetland Salmon Farmers' Association. He called those interested to a meeting in the association's offices at 80 Commercial Street, Lerwick. It was attended by eleven people who formed themselves into the Swan Steering Group with James Moncrieff as chairman/treasurer and Vaila Wishart as secretary. The others were Eileen Anderson, William Anderson, Alistair Hamilton, Dave Hammond, Tom Moncrieff, John Ratter, Allan Wishart, Brian Wishart and Robert Wishart.

It was pointed out that the Swan had been on the market for two months at an asking price of £36,000 exclusive of VAT and it was agreed that unless some action was taken fairly quickly the opportunity to purchase the Swan might be lost.

The general feeling was that if it proved feasible to bring the Swan back to Shetland she should become a "working boat" and not simply a static "museum piece."

It was agreed that a professional survey should be undertaken...

...The steering group appointed Laurence Irvine to carry out an inspection on their behalf. This was done at Jackson Dock, Hartlepool on 27th and 28th November, 1990. Mr Irvine was then retired after a long career as a carpenter, then surveyor, with Malakoff and Moore Ltd and had an unrivalled knowledge of wooden fishing vessels.

In his report Mr Irvine... ...noted some decay and softening of the timber along the base of the existing wheelhouse and added "otherwise the structure generally appears satisfactory with the windows intact and undamaged."

He concluded:

The examination of the structure has not brought to light any significant defects on the original parts which were seen, apart from the fore deck beams. The decay found does not appear to have reached the stage where all the forward beams would have to be discarded in a restoration project. The deck planking (not original) would require 100 per cent renewal but with care and coating it could serve for some time yet.

The underwater hull, which was not seen, was reported by Capt. Elliott to have been refastened and a total of 688 linear.feet of strakes renewed. On this basis I assume the underwater parts to be in satisfactory condition and I can see no reason providing the vessel is regularly maintained why Swan should not serve as an example of Shetland's,fishing and boatbuilding heritage for many years to come.