Mexico

I just returned from a three week delivery down the coast to La Paz on a Nordhavn 57. We had a great trip with stinky weather for the first part of the trip.. then great weather for most of the remaining time. Needless to say I was totally impressed with the N57, strong, smooth, fast ( for a single trawler ) totally comfortable and well thought out. The bummer is my dream boat expectations have now really raised up a bunch of notches. I managed to troll catch a quantity of Tuna and Dorado and fished until we filled the two freezers to capacity. attached are a few pics from the trip
HOLLYWOOD

very cool Hollywood. Where did the trip start?

Now all ya need to do is find an attractive boat that Measures up to those expectations. But perhaps the NH grows on you over time. And perhaps the unattractiveness is just the price to pay for a really good boat. Must admit I've never heard of anyone complaining about them.

That's a great trip! How many stops?

Did you use the paravanes and any comments? Does the N57 also have active stabilizers? I would someday like to be on a boat in various conditions to compare the 2.

What did you catch the tuna and dorado on? Lure, tackle, and speed if you don't mind. I have trolled for these a few times without luck, actually I was a bit worried about what to do if I did hook a nice one. I do keep a long gaff onboard but my freeboard is quite high and reaching over the hand rails it is all I can do to get it under water, I guess I do need a longer handled gaff.
Thanks
Steve W

Hello Hollywood

That must have been a dream tripp!
As Steve said, we need to know how did you catch those animals and at what speed.

Seasons Greetings

Mexico answers

Ok here goes...
Regarding the fishing... I use hand lines... I had two out in slightly different lengths, 1-150', 1-125'. I use a 1/4" bungee cord that stretches out to about 12' on the boat ends. The main ling was 400lb. test tuna cord. The lures were attached with a swivel and a snap. For lures I have great luck with green and yellow artificial feathers. I trolled a blue silver rubber lure that got hit a couple times but the buggers just ended up biting off the tail and never hit the hook.
The speed was everything from 7.5kts to 9.5 kts.. I have used this same setup under sail at 6kts with success. The setup gets tied to the boat so the bungee hangs limp with a clothes pin of in my case a down rigger snap at the lure end of the bungee. I attach a empty aluminum soda can with a stainless nut dropped inside to the limp bungee.
When a fish hits the lure the snap releases and the bungee typically sets the hook and acts as a shock absorber.. and it shakes the can ( which makes a racket ) and the "fish on " drill ensues!
I will see if I can add some fish pics!

Regarding the " look " of a Nordhavn... I actually have always liked the look .. I think the 40 is a bit short... the 64 is a bit tall. I prefer the look of the 57 with the outward canting ( for all you that think they are just for looks look at all the screens in the night shot.. notice any reflections?? nuff said ! ) and I really also like the 62. Just think some people think Willard's are less than pleasing...

The 57 had only active stabilizers and they worked suberb, the 40 in the pic has paravanes and he is real happy with them too.

We anchored out two nights and spent three nights underway between Ensenada and San Jose Del Cabo. Some nights we had a lot of traffic... others none at all.

AIS is worth every penny at night with four or five ships in the neighborhood.. I will add this to my next boat.

This boat is going down and around Cape Horn and I hope to get back aboard for some of that trip. Its the kind of boat you can do that without worrying that the boat isn't up to the trip. I crawled through every space in the boat and all I can say is I never saw anything that was questionable and the boat was built like a tank. For fuel buen we were doing 9kts with a fuel burn of 5.5gph. Not bad for her size and the level of comfort.

Feliz Navidad
HOLLYWOOD

Thats awesome....Great trip.

Thanks Hollywood

That's a pretty simple set up for tuna, but those feathers always work fine foo Tuna and Mahi Mahi.

Try to get the boat again when you cross from the Pacific to the Atlantic passing Punta Arenas. That's a trip!

Thanks Hollywood, for the fishing info, I'll try it out next trip. Hopefully we'll be having Sashimi!
Steve W