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Old 08-16-2013, 06:51 PM   #18
twistedtree
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City: Vermont
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 10,092
The GB 47' is a great coastal cruising boat. It's our favorite too which is why we bought one. But as you noted, they are not suitable for long passages, and certainly not for ocean crossings. There just isn't enough range and sea worthiness to do it. Going slow I can get 600 NM range out of the Europa. The Nordhavn can cover 3000-4000 NM. And the N60 comes with 1/2 plate glass windows, plus storm plates for crossings.

The other thing is interior space. Even comparing an N47 to the GB, there is much more interior space on the Nordhavn. It comes at the expense of the full walk-around deck, but there is much more space.

Last (if there is ever a last), is the value of a true pilot house that is light-isolated from the rest of the boat so you can run at night without constraining other activities elsewhere on the boat. The combined salon/helm on the GB is great for day cruising, but really unsuitable for night operation. Even the GB Aleutians and the Flemings, both of which we seriously considered, don't have properly isolated pilot house. They are more separate than on the Europa, but appear more geared towards separating the staff from the guests that for providing 24x7 operation. At a minimum, blackout curtains would have to be installed.

But all this is really just an illustration of how different boats are geared towards different usage models. The trick is to understand your intended use and find a boat that matches. The majority of people on this site do port hopping while operating during the day, so these things don't matter, and you subsequently have a larger range of boats that can meet your needs. The list of production boats suitable as passage makers and geared towards operation by a couple, not a crew, is very short indeed.

OK, sorry for diverting the thread.....
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