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Old 02-02-2014, 02:15 PM   #1
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Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 1,161
Training Day Aboard N3

I thought a few readers may enjoy this post made on the Nordhavn Dreamers site but talks about the importance of the relationship between boat owner and sales representative or broker. Feel free to disregard the link back to Nordhavn and just add in the name of builder or broker of your boat and then ask yourself if you receive the same level of service?? I'm sure this will stir up a little debate and lessons learned which we can all benefit from. Better hurry the Super Bowl starts in 3 hours.

One of the great benefits of purchasing and owning a Nordhavn is the support and customized training received from your assigned sales representative. At least that has been our experience over the past nine years and one of the reasons we continued to return to Nordhavn. Last week was an excellent example of what we have become accustomed too with an unexpected bonus. Jeff Merrill had been after me to schedule a training day on the boat since we purchased La Tempestad a few months ago and I kept postponing him until Mary and I had spent enough time aboard to become familiar with the boat and knew which areas we needed assistance. It wasn’t as though this was our first boat or that we were going anywhere far so I felt comfortable delaying this training. This decision also didn’t mean that Jeff wasn't going to hear from us (that just doesn’t happen between us) and he knows it. He and Pam have come to expect our emails, text messages, photo’s and phone calls whenever we are down at the boat. This may sound a little overboard but it is also fun and doesn’t let him get bored.
Back to training day, as luck would have it and possibly something to do with the name we selected for the boat (I regret not using Maria Elena as with N1 and N2) the weather was miserable. In case you haven’t heard southern California is in a serious drought condition and temperatures have been averaging the low-mid 70’s in San Diego all fall and winter. While I’m not complaining about this great boating weather, we do recognize we need the rain. We have only had two "weather" days in the past six months. The first was the day Jeff and I picked up La Tempestad and delivered her new home. It was an overcast day with a little fog, wind and light rain. So what would the chances be that second time Jeff visited the boat the weather would not cooperate? You guessed it, 100%. I couldn’t believe it as I dove down to SD in light rain and fog.
After breakfast in Point Loma we drove over to the boat and spent a couple of hours in the engine room going over all the systems and cleaning out a few strainers. Time was flying by and before we knew it, it was time to set off across the bay for lunch at one of my favorite places (Pizza Nova). As an added bonus to today’s training I knew that the famous Bob Senter (Lugger Bob) was in town on his boat and we arranged to pick him up for lunch. This was the first time I met Bob after about a year of corresponding via email on boats and engines. After Jeff safely guided us out of the tight marina he handed the wheel over to Bob as we crossed the bay and listened to him compare N3522 to hull number one which he drove many years ago. He put the boat through different power settings as he educated me on the “sweet spot” just by listening to the engine, observing the wake and feel of the boat. I thought I had already figured this out myself but was way off. Another bonus awaited us as we pulled into the guest slip at the restaurant, we tied up next to a N56MS. This was the same N56 which Mary and I had the pleasure of viewing during a boat show around 2008. Lunch turned out to be another educational session for me as I listened to Jeff and Bob discuss Nordhavn’s and experiences by other owners. On the way back to dropping off Bob at his boat he volunteered to spend a little time in the engine room to check things out. He pointed out a couple items which I have added to my “To Do” list.
Upon returning back to my slip, Jeff and I finished up a more training items including launching of the dingy and tightening up the anchor winch which Mary and I discovered was a little loose. Racing against the clock to beat traffic we had to cut this training session a little short. We covered about 85% of the items on my list and talked about meeting again soon to complete the training.
The real question will be if three times aboard for Jeff be the charm with nice weather or will it be miserable again?
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