Interesting unfinished Nordic Tug

[Badger]

Boat

Few of the photos (as well as the price scare me for what you get!)

But never would have imagined the they would have sold an unfished boat back then..

 

[RickB]

That high-water mark in the engine room looks a bit scary.

 

[Badger]

That high-water mark in the engine room looks a bit scary.

Very, I figured you are buying a hull and trailer...

 

[Conrad]

I wonder if this is actually an unfinished boat or one that is being restored after being neglected. At the very least it has been sitting outside for a very long time.
The "never used" comment may refer only to the trailer.

 

[swampu]

Looks like the gauges have a high water mark.

 

[CPseudonym]

I wonder if this is actually an unfinished boat or one that is being restored after being neglected. At the very least it has been sitting outside for a very long time.
The "never used" comment may refer only to the trailer.

I think you are correct about the trailer being the "unused" part. This boat looks like it's being "restored" not "completed". Wording can sometimes be unintentionally misleading in ads, I've read more than a few lately.

swampu, I can't decide if its a watermark on the gauges or light reflection through a dust smear. The engine room looks as though it has been wet at sometime.

 

[Northern Spy]

They sold several owner finished boats in the early 80's. I have one of them. Although Spy was professionally finished at Maple Bay, BC to a higher standard than the typical NT26 of the same vintage.

 

[rwidman]

It pretty much has to be in the process of restoration. We don't know why it was being restored though. Sunk, perhaps?

Regardless, It's hard to imagine someone trying to sell a boat and not bothering to clean things up and put away the junk before taking the photos. A couple hours of cleanup would have added a lot to the "saleability".

 

[psneeld]

asking $40...lucky to get $20 for the pieces/parts...

 

[Badger]

I swear up and down the seller says it just say for the last 30 years... probably with no windows and rainwater filled it.

I have NO time for a project like this... and I think the seller is out of line on pricing. 1982 26's are going between 55-70k fully functioning and in the water. This boat needs 10k of wiring, 20k of finish work, possibly 15k or more of motor and transmission work and electronics... Probably 50k or more to finish the boat properly.

 

[refugio]

I certainly agree that $40K is beyond optimistic - it's fantasy. But he also doesn't appear to be very motivated...

 

[Larry M]

It's documented as a commercial fishing vessel and the electrical panel label says, "f/v Leviathan Jr". Maybe it ended up in the barn and was just forgotten by a commercial fisherman with big dreams and no money?

 

[bobofthenorth]

1982 was pretty early going for Nordic Tugs - they were likely motivated by cashflow. I agree though it looks like a nightmare. And it is likely listed for more than it cost initially.

 

[refugio]

I don't remember the first Nordics, but I did know Jerry Husted (who started the company) through his previous company, Bluewater Boats, which built hulls for Ingrid 38 sailboats (a William Atkin adaptation of a Colin Archer double-ender). My dad purchased a Bluewater hull with deck and bulkheads, and worked on it in the evenings for a number of years (he eventually sold it around 80% complete).

I don't know if anyone else in the PNW remembers these ads, but in the late 90s there was a series of TV ads that featured Seattle Sonics players coming into local residents' homes. There was one ad that featured Vin Baker on a couple's liveaboard trawler - that was Jerry Husted and his wife's boat - and sight gag was mostly about the 6'11" Baker having to contort his body to fit anywhere.

 

[Northern Spy]

1982 was pretty early going for Nordic Tugs - they were likely motivated by cashflow. I agree though it looks like a nightmare. And it is likely listed for more than it cost initially.

I think it was because they had more orders than they could handle. Instead of having people cancel their orders they let them go out the door unfinished. They had 33 orders at the 26's debut at the 1980 Seattle Boat Show and 54 orders by January.

 

[Marin]

Photos can be very deceptive. They can make something look better than it really is (like our boat ) and they can make things look far worse than they are. Particularly if the lighting is crappy.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say, just based on the photos and the knowledge that Nordic Tug did sell a number of boats to be owner-finished, that this boat is pretty much what the owner says it is. The "high water" marks mentioned look to me like either the effect of the lighting or perhaps the way the surfaces were finished (or not finished).

THe fact it is dusty and dirty is no surprise. Look at anything stored in a shed or barn for any period of time and it will look the same.

The condition of the engine would be a question. Was it properly pickled to sit this long, for example? The quality of the work done so far would be a big question, too. Is it good, bad, or indifferent? It's hard to tell in the photos.

I'm guessing the guy used a flash and that harsh light shooting straight out from the camera can make anything look bad, particularly surfaces and shapes like the ones you get in a boat. To me, considering the nature of the photography, these do not look iike used or sunk surfaces. They look like new construction that has been left to sit in a dirty, dusty, perhaps somewhat humid environment for a long time. I could take photos of the stuff sitting in our garage and storage shed using the same kind of flash lighting and it would all have the same look as this boat.

So unlike the cases on YachtWorld where all the boats look great in the pictures, this is a case I think where you would have to see the boat in person to determine what is really there. If I really wanted an NT26 and was interested in a project like this I would not be deterred at all by the photos.

I would be deterred by the price. While someone with the skills could make the interior of this boat a real showpiece, the fact remains it's still a very simple, very basic NT26. Which you have to finish building.

As in houses I have observed there is an interest in downsizing in boats, too. Not everyone of course. But there is, or was, enough interest in the NT26 for the company to recently reintroduce the model to their lineup although I don't know if they have sold or built any yet. But $40k can get you into a similarly sized boat you can start using right now and that will be in pretty decent shape.

But at the right price it appears to me that this could give someone an enjoyable project with a very nice little boat to use at the end of it.

 

[RickB]

The "high water" marks mentioned look to me like either the effect of the lighting or perhaps the way the surfaces were finished (or not finished).

I'm not sure it is just a lighting issue, look at the line in the photograph and follow it on the next photo as well. You can see where the discoloration stops at the longitudinal on the right side. That and the discoloration on the fuel hose beneath the filter indicates (to me) that the water level was high enough to possibly cover the front seal on the engine. It appears that the boat was leaning a bit to the port side.

The corrosion shown is most likely the result of a very humid environment in that area because of rainwater sitting in the bilge for a long time. I don't believe this boat lived in that shelter for very long.

 

[Marin]

Yeah, I see what you're talking about. Of course another possibility is that at some point the boat sat neglected outside, perhaps for a long time, and the bilge filled with rainwater. This IS Coos Bay, Oregon we're talking about here, not the driest place on the planet. I've seen kayaks stored right-side up in the racks in our marina become completely full of water in the course of a week. So I think it's certainly a possibility in the case of this NT26. Perhaps it's even what motivated the owner to put it inside.

Not that filling the boat full of rainwater is a Good Thing, but I suppose it's better than filling it full of salt water, particularly in regards to the engine if it ended up partly underwater.

 

[RickB]

I didn't mean to imply that it was sunk, just as you stated, it sat and filled with rainwater for some period.

Judging by the height of the waterline, it appears that the front oil seal may have been submerged so there is a likelihood of water intrusion to the crankcase and accessory case. To get that deep it had to have been there a long time.

And it is not getting wet that does the damage, it is the drying out. You can leave an engine submerged literally for years and restore it but let it get wet then sort of dry out and it is junk.

 

[Conrad]

They sold several owner finished boats in the early 80's. I have one of them. Although Spy was professionally finished at Maple Bay, BC to a higher standard than the typical NT26 of the same vintage.

Was the builder Winard Wood? I recall they had some connection back in the early days of the Nordic Tug.

 

[Northern Spy]

Was the builder Winard Wood? I recall they had some connection back in the early days of the Nordic Tug.

I'm pretty sure it was Phil Pidcock at Cove Yachts.

 

[Conrad]

I'm pretty sure it was Phil Pidcock at Cove Yachts.

That makes sense - good guy. I heard that he is retiring but no idea if someone is taking over the business. Don't think he has been building for a while; more the restoration/repair stuff.