Nordhavn

[Alaskaflyer]

thanks...just watched the 1st leg. Actually found it interesting...definitely something I'd have watched back in the day when I had cable and might stumble across it flipping channels.
Funny how 20 years old seems so old fashioned...the computers, the fashion, the cinematic production style, etc...

Someone should ask their competitor Mr. Tony Fleming to lay down a new audio narrative track for them. :lol:

 

[Simi 60]

.


So that's our experience, and your mileage may vary.

All these debates about open water crossings apply much less on the west coast of the US, just due to geography. I’ve been to Hawaii and won’t hurry back, but I’ll go by air when I’m ready to go again. I don’t plan to run our boat to the South Pacific until I’ve become tired of destinations in the Americas, which may not happen in this lifetime. Essentially every other destination is “coastal” for us. So I have no plans or desire to cross an ocean in the foreseeable future. Does that mean our Nordhavn is overkill? I don’t think so.

We can go anywhere we choose in a wider range of conditions than most boats our size would handle. Just in the past 9 months, we have been from northern Vancouver Island to Mexico and back to California. We will soon head north again to the PNW and to SE Alaska, where the boat will be for summer. We can make the run from Washington to AK on the outside (instead of through BC) if we choose, knowing we will be safe and comfortable if we do our part. We fueled the boat in Anacortes, WA before we headed down the coast. When we got to Southern California, we could have turned around and gone back to Canada without getting fuel. Silly to carry that much fuel for coastal cruising? We paid $1.70 w/ tax and know we have clean fuel and can go where we want, when we want.

The systems are simple for their capability and use top quality components. We have redundancy in every critical system. Multiple watermakers, gens, chargers, inverters, pumps, etc. Is that stuff unnecessary because we aren’t doing a 3,000mi open-water passage? There are lots of places we go where parts and service are completely unavailable. With good equipment and redundancy, you shouldn’t ever have a trip interrupted. We don’t have to change our travel plans and wait around for parts or service if we have an issue; just switch to the spare and keep on cruising.

I like working on the boat so I do 90% of the maintenance. If you do all the preventative maintenance, you won’t have to do many repairs. Everything on a NH is accessible, routed intelligently, and labeled, all of which make care and maintenance easier and more efficient.

.

Reading your posts it seems almost everything you have listed i feel we have on ours, except for redundancy on everything - upside is we have space because we don't have redundancy for everything.

I do have to ask though, how often does that redundancy ever come into play?

A broken water maker should not be a deal breaker as surely you'd have several hundred litres or more of tankage topped up
A toilet? You have 2 heads surely
Water pumps - for us 3 in the spares locker and 10 minutes to swap.
Raw water pump - for us 1 in the spares locker and 20 minutes to swap.

About the only thing I can think of that would be a deal breaker for us would be engine or gearbox failure
Or
Inverter/battery failure (considering a 2nd inverter/charger mounted ready to go alongside)
Or
Anchor windlass - though we do have manual retrieve it ain't an easy or fast process.

Generator would be inconvenient but our main power comes from 2.5Kw solar and when doing miles, a big alt comes into play

We have no water maker but do have large tankage, usually we only need a tap twice a year.
Just checked levels, last night due to heavy rain we collected near 1000 litres of fresh water.

What else?

 

[Hippocampus]

At least on sailboats,both mono and multi, it seems the most common disabling failure is steering. To get around this we had a hydrovane which could serve as an emergency rudder or replace the AP. We were at the limit where windvanes could work. Faster boats and those that didn’t want to mess with a monitor or hydrovane carried either full replacement parts for the entire AP or a second AP attached to a second arm but freewheeling or not attached to the rudder post.
Both sail and power are under AP 99.9% of the time. Once you get into nordhavn or like boats I would think the AP is hydraulic.
What redundancy do you have for steering? What for the AP?

 

[Simi 60]

.
Both sail and power are under AP 99.9% of the time. Once you get into nordhavn or like boats I would think the AP is hydraulic.
What redundancy do you have for steering? What for the AP?

I have a complete same same autopilot as a swap over spare and if I had to, could take off the hydraulic rams and set up a manual tiller.
Not sure how successfully that would be but its there.

Boat doesn't move around much and holds course well with AP off.

 

[Hippocampus]

Blue water sailboats have flipped to balanced spade rudder a long time ago. Most SD power as well. In sail, especially with CF or oversized aquamet posts as strong or stronger than older designs.
The 41 is balanced spade. The rest are two point supported and running gear totally protected. Do you think that’s a weak point to that design? Especially as it’s a twin?

 

[twistedtree]

My understanding is that the 60/63 is a stretched 55. Nordhavn isn’t a builder that just adds length to an existing mold and calls it good. They engineer each model on its own, so the “extended” hull has the prop, rudder, COG, etc in the correct places. The basic hull shape worked extremely well in the 55 so they made a longer version with the correct adjustments.

The N63 is the same hull as the 60 under the waterline. It’s a very different boat but the same proven bottom. FWIW, our 63 is 68’ overall, including swim platform and bow pulpit. For us, the layout of the 63 worked better than the 60, and we prefer the aft pilot house.

No issues with sight lines from the aft PH. Geometry says you can’t see the water in front of the bow as closely as you can with a forward PH, but we have never noticed or considered any reduced visibility. The views and visibility are very good in all directions. We have wing stations on each side of the Portuguese bridge, so no visibility issues at the dock. We were able to get dual PH chairs, which was a big plus for us. I may be wrong, but I don’t think the 55/60 had room for that.

The N55 is a hugely popular boat, but my opinion is that the hull is improved in the longer version. Our boat is not sensitive to reasonable changes in fuel load, more or less heavy chain and anchor in the bow, or general weight distribution. It sits on its lines and rides well in most conditions. The 55 seems a little more sensitive to weight distribution. Additional length improves most boats, and it works very well in this application.

The details of the N models will vary, but design philosophy and build quality are consistent throughout the line, which translates to good boats, good reputation, owner satisfaction and resale value in any part of the size range.

I can add a little bit more to this, but only a little.


A stated, the 60 and 63 have the same hull, and come out of the same mold. That mold is a stretch of the 55, and the 55 is no longer being built, so the stretch is permanent.


The first half dozen or so 60's that were built did not have the running gear moved, so it was in the same location as the 55. When the 63 came to be, the mold was adjusted and the running gear moved aft


Dual helm seats is a really nice feature of the 63, and one we missed on our 60. But one of the configurations for the 60, the one with a center hallway going forward, eliminated the forward stairs from the PH down, and opens up space for dual helm seats much like the 63.


No sight line issues on the 68 aft pilot house either.

 

[Sailor of Fortune]

Seems to me that Robert Beebe and others opened the door to cruising possibilities in a power boat by VUP, and proved the concept with Passagemaker. He wasn't the first but certainly a pioneer.

Nordhavn and the Leishmans seemed to bring proof of concept to the common boater with the desire and means without a longterm custom build from afar that had to be 3rd party managed . Their marketing did wonders and their boats performed as advertised. Some like them, some don't but you can't deny the impact they have had on Power cruising

 

[twistedtree]

Please expand more on the your findings between the brands you researched. Was it the familiarity with your N60 that swayed your decision to build another Nordhavn?

A few things that come to mind....


The other boats were all brokerage, so as-configured and built unless we wanted to do major refitting. Several were pretty tired, and would have required a lot of work. But we considered it because a new built is a lot of work and a lot of time too.


One had a really nice interior and was well kept, but the FPH configuration of all of them places the master stateroom more or less below the PH resulting in a very dark room. In comparison, the N68 master has big windows and lots of light. This was a big point for my wife especially.


The Northern Marine's varied in quality over time, I gather, so we only considered certain ones. A good friend who owns one was helping to guide us.


This is likely a touchy one, but we heard too many stories about build quality issues with respect to Seline, and we didn't want to roll the dice on that.


We looked hard at Krogen's when we were buying the N60, but didn't really like the look of the boats. We also thought the Nordhavn build fit and finish was better. When we were looking at the N68, Krogen didn't have anything really in that range, or at least had a lot less of a track record.


And speaking of track records, that was another big plus for Nordhavn. They have been proven over and over again in long distance, remote cruising, and in ocean crossings. Other builders can cite examples of the same, they are one or two, not dozens and dozens, and another dozen each year. There are of course exceptions, but in general they get used and travel wide and far. There are very few dock queens. It's not just hype. People are really doing it.


I like Flemings and have a lot of respect for them, plus a lot of admiration for builders who actively use their own products. In the tech industry we always used our own products, and referred to it as "eating your own dog food". But I see Flemings as extreme coastal cruisers, and really not meant for ocean crossings. It's just a different boat with a different purpose. Some with a whole bunch of other builders like Hampton, Outer Reef, Off Shore, etc.

 

[twistedtree]

how does Bering fit in with Norhavn,Krogen,Fleming and diesel duck as far as safety,redundency and price and quality? I know they're steel but besides that how does Bering compare?

Ducks seem quite capable, but much less "refined" compared to Nordhavn and others. Consistency seems to be a bit of an issue too.


Bering's check the boxes, but just aren't proven to any degree, either as boats, the builder, or much.

 

[twistedtree]

I have a complete same same autopilot as a swap over spare and if I had to, could take off the hydraulic rams and set up a manual tiller.
Not sure how successfully that would be but its there.

Boat doesn't move around much and holds course well with AP off.

Same setup with us. So manual steering, two independent autopilots, and a manual tiller.

 

[bligh]

Wish to thank the posters. Especially the nordhavn owners. Good to see reinforcement of my thoughts.

Agreed. Great perspectives.

 

[MYTraveler]

I have a complete same same autopilot as a swap over spare and if I had to, could take off the hydraulic rams and set up a manual tiller.
Not sure how successfully that would be but its there.

Boat doesn't move around much and holds course well with AP off.

I spec'd my boat with a lot of redundancy, including 2 water makers, 2 radars, 2 gensets, 2 completely independent blackwater tanks and pumps separately serving 4 heads, 2 or more of everything electronic, 2 mains, 3 independent fuel tank systems, 2 inverter/chargers, etc. The one thing I was talked out of installing a second of was an autopilot. The builder's comment was that I am much more likely to get a leak in the hydraulic line than to lose any component of the AP system. I don't carry spare hydraulic hoses, but the lines are almost entirely copper pipe. There is a flexible hose connecting the cylinders driving the rudders. I do carry a spare of that, as well as the parts and tools necessary to repair any leak in the copper piping. I also carry a spare AP hydraulic pump and brain.

 

[skyhawk]

thanks...just watched the 1st leg. Actually found it interesting...definitely something I'd have watched back in the day when I had cable and might stumble across it flipping channels.
Funny how 20 years old seems so old fashioned...the computers, the fashion, the cinematic production style, etc...

I watched the second half this morning. Looked like the folks had some fun. That 40ft boat was sure rockin' and rollin' when she lost her stabilization. My wife sure wouldn't enjoy that!

 

[Baker]

I just wanted to add some positive reinforcement to this thread. THIS THREAD is what this forum is all about!!! Thanks to the posters for sharing all of the information. It almost brings a tear to my eye to see such a pure boating thread. As you were.....

PS....the N57 is my goal. Not sure I will get there but hopefully!!!

 

[w8n4sun]

You all need to stop with this Nordhavn talk...it's making me want a 63 or 68, both of which are not in the budget for me.

 

[phillippeterson]

You all need to stop with this Nordhavn talk...it's making me want a 63 or 68, both of which are not in the budget for me.

Would you tow the 63 as a dinghy for the 68?

 

[Hippocampus]

No for the 120 of course

 

[w8n4sun]

Would you tow the 63 as a dinghy for the 68?

Now that’s funny, that would be a question for TT!

 

[Simi 60]

I spec'd my boat with a lot of redundancy

I'm not having a go at you with my comment below and while I love the idea of all that redundancy I hate the idea of the loss of space, extra maintenance required and extra immediate and ongoing expense.

I believe its easy enough to come up with acceptable and easy compromises maintaining space, reducing maintenance and saving dollars on systems which in my eyes are mostly non essential.

including 2 water makers

, .
As I said in an earlier post, if your 1 water maker died surely you'd still have full water tanks, its not like you'll die of thirst before finding a fix - given that, would it even be an urgent fix?

We have no water maker but have big capacity across 5 tanks
We are also setup to collect rain - over 1.5 tonne of it in the last 48 hours of it
And the tender has a 200 litre bladder which is occasionally used.

2 radars

Same or different?
I do see some vessels with different arrays so gather that's for some other reason than pure redundancy, though obviously if one dies they have a spare but......radar is very much non essential for us.
In 4.5 years of full time cruising radar has probably had 20 hours of usage and if it died tomorrow it would be replaced, eventually, but no urgency to do so.

2 gensets

Again, same?
Or a smaller one for lighter loads?
I look at our genset as our redundancy to our main power source. Solar
No moving parts, no servicing required, the silent gift that keeps on giving.

2 completely independent blackwater tanks and pumps separately serving 4 heads

Impressive
We have had failures with macerator pumps on sewerage treatment plants and impellors on toilet pumps (we only have 2)
Half an hour and some creative plumbing, all easy access, had us pumping directly over the side for a month (not ideal but well away from civilisation) until we got a replacement.
The main deck toilet we simply bought in a bucket of saltwater to tip a bowl in for flushing.
Upside to this was a noticeable saving in our freshwater supply so continue doing the same today.

2 or more of everything electronic

After having had a lightening strike on a previous vessel kill off anything with a dollar value of over $20 I avoid excessive electronics where I can, especially as our plan (pre covid) was to be in equatorial waters with higher likelihood of lightning strike.
If I do have them - its all stand alone , not interlinked with backups stored in the Faraday cage (microwave) during storms

2 mains

There can only be one (said in my best Highlander voice )

3 independent fuel tank systems

2 joining into one and running through multiple filtration.

2 inverter/chargers

One Victron inverter charger soon to be two
But the solar mppt puts out 96 amps so I guess there's charging redundancy

Question: Do you use both and accept 50% charge if one fails or is it unused but available at the flick of a switch if the other dies?

.

The one thing I was talked out of installing a second of was an autopilot. The builder's comment was that I am much more likely to get a leak in the hydraulic line than to lose any component of the AP system. I don't carry spare hydraulic hoses, but the lines are almost entirely copper pipe. There is a flexible hose connecting the cylinders driving the rudders. I do carry a spare of that, as well as the parts and tools necessary to repair any leak in the copper piping. I also carry a spare AP hydraulic pump and brain

Same same for lines on ours

The spare AP I got for $400

Same TMQ commercial quality unit we have now taken out of a superyacht for no real reason - its not shiny anymore?
Swapped it out with ours and put the original in the spares locker away from lightning

 

[rslifkin]

I'm not having a go at you with my comment below and while I love the idea of all that redundancy I hate the idea of the loss of space, extra maintenance required and extra immediate and ongoing expense.

I believe its easy enough to come up with acceptable and easy compromises maintaining space, reducing maintenance and saving dollars on systems which in my eyes are mostly non essential.

It all depends on where you use the boat. If you can manage without a system for the time it'll take to get somewhere that you can obtain parts, or be at a dock for a few days to make the problem unimportant while you work on it, then it doesn't need redundancy. But if you travel far from anywhere and it's a system that's more than a minor inconvenience to lose, then I'd want the redundancy.

 

[skyhawk]

I think Simi60 brings up some valid thoughts

I certainly have more to learn than I even know... about which spares make sense to keep on hand, etc... but I can certainly lean on backpacking and other engineering experiences here just a bit
I'm thinking along similar lines....keep it simple, keep it light...
for things like water maker
seems to me that a good rain collection system as a back-up would be a good idea.... cheap, simple, small, light, & likely to be never needed..and better yet it could be dual purposed.
Taking it a step further.... if tankage was small or you otherwise let things get low before refilling, then I could imagine taking survival back-ups to another level such as something like this
https://www.katadyn.com/us/us/89625-8013419-Katadyn-Survivor-06-a

My perspective in thinking is even if you do for example cross the Atlantic that's only a relatively short amount of time that you're out there.
Different tune I suppose if going way out in the sticks for a really long period of time... maybe circumnavigating Antarctica perhaps?

 

[Simi 60]

It all depends on where you use the boat. If you can manage without a system for the time it'll take to get somewhere that you can obtain parts, or be at a dock for a few days to make the problem unimportant while you work on it, then it doesn't need redundancy.

The advantages of staying relatively simple

For us, pretty much everything apart from an inverter charger can be lived without and even that, worse thing that happens is our refrigerated /frozen foods get fed to the fish.
We have enough dried and tinned to go several months

But if you travel far from anywhere and it's a system that's more than a minor inconvenience to lose, then I'd want the redundancy.

Redundancy or the skills to fix or cobble together a work around?

We have lived aboard away and unattached for 4.5 years
You learn or are forced to keep things going if you don't have immediate access to repair facilities or shops.
What parts we don't carry we order online and collect at our next port.

Good example at the moment on keeping things going is the exhaust elbow on the genset.
Aluminium bolted to aluminium with frozen steel bolts.
Aluminium elbow has a hole on both sides below the BRASS water injection point, surrounding metal seems solid.
Has been sanded and wet epoxy sanded in and glassed up twice in the last 12mths as the heat leads to bond failure after about 60 hours of usage.
McGyvering it together until we are next out of the water as the whole assembly will need to be removed, sent off and repaired.

 

[rslifkin]

The advantages of staying relatively simple

For us, pretty much everything apart from an inverter charger can be lived without and even that, worse thing that happens is our refrigerated /frozen foods get fed to the fish.
We have enough dried and tinned to go several months


Redundancy or the skills to fix or cobble together a work around?

We have lived aboard away and unattached for 4.5 years
You learn or are forced to keep things going if you don't have immediate access to repair facilities or shops.
What parts we don't carry we order online and collect at our next port.

Good example at the moment on keeping things going is the exhaust elbow on the genset.
Aluminium bolted to aluminium with frozen steel bolts.
Aluminium elbow has a hole on both sides below the BRASS water injection point, surrounding metal seems solid.
Has been sanded and wet epoxy sanded in and glassed up twice in the last 12mths as the heat leads to bond failure after about 60 hours of usage.
McGyvering it together until we are next out of the water as the whole assembly will need to be removed, sent off and repaired.

For something like the inverter, you still have a work around. My plan would be to adjust wiring as needed, fire up the genset and head for the nearest place to plug in and wait a couple days for parts. Depending on where you are, how much food is onboard, and cost of dockage, that might come out cheaper than dumping and having to later replace all that food.



Depending on the system and usage, redundancy isn't necessarily to get you home, it's sometimes there just as much to avoid a potentially unpleasant situation while you're fixing it, or to allow you to delay the fix a few hours until conditions for doing it are better.

 

[Peter B]

I once got to go aboard a brand new Nordhavn 55 at our Sanctuary Cove Boat show here on the Gold Coast, quite a few years ago now. It happened to coincide with a time my brother was up from Melbourne, staying with us, so he went with me. I had a Clipper (CHB) 34 back then, he is not really into boating.

We both fell in love with the boat, but also both agreed on only one criticism - the cockpit needed to be longer. They must have heard us, because the 55 became the 60, and the rest is history, as well described by others, Twisted Tree in particular, having now a second Nordy, was right up there.

I love those Nordys so much now I doubt I could rest with getting anything other than one, a bit like John Baker.
So, maybe just as well other issues keep me out of boats.

However, should one win the Powerball, all bets would be off. Kite flying...I would buy a 43 to 60, depending on availability, and live aboard, and spend a lot of time around NZ, especially Stewart Island, based in Patterson's Inlet - a boating paradise, but cool enough weatherwise to keep the masses away. But it's only a dream...sigh...

Hey, Twisted, how about putting up a new pic in your avatar - or better still, some on the thread - particularly keen to see a profile view..? And, of course, once things are ship-shape inside, we'd love to see pics of inside as well.

 

[Hippocampus]

Simi just before leaving the islands we took all the watch snacks, jugs of water (contaminated tanks or watermaker failure) and all the storm food for when it’s too bumpy to cook and all the dried/canned food (frig/freezer failure) out of the boat and gave it to charity. Our rule has always been twice as much as needed for expected time of passage. Was amazed how much stuff if was. Think many boats aren’t suitable for your program (or my past program) for no other reason than the absence of adequate storage. Enough space and well secured. Now crawling through various Nordhavns see someone thought of that need.
Would note there are very few areas of the world where rain collection gives you an adequate source. First it needs to rain for quite awhile to get rid of the dirt and salt the top of a boat collects. Second you need a large surface collection area which is hard to arrange on most boats. A squall or even most thunderstorms isn’t adequate. You need RO to get rid of the salt. You need a day of rain. Usually in most places you get a bunch of rainy days together and then nothing. That’s true even in rainy seasons. Of course you’re out of luck during dry periods.
Every cruiser I know who collects rain uses it to wash the boat, dishes or shower but doesn’t depend on it for potable water.

 

[Simi 60]

.
Every cruiser I know who collects rain uses it to wash the boat, dishes or shower but doesn’t depend on it for potable water.

We don't depend on it, the 1500 litres we collected has gone in on top of the 1500 that came out of the tap last year.

Bear in mind that in this part of the world rainwater tanks on houses was pretty normal in a lot of houses in Australia.
Often those houses had asbestos roofs and the tanks had frogs in them.
Don't remember hearing of anyone dying, the opposite probably happened, tougher and less susceptible to disease.

We don't collect unless the decks have been well scrubbed and the roof has had several hours on it.
Water then runs through a 100 micron sock and then through a double layer chux before going into tanks
No asbestos, no frogs.

 

[Hippocampus]

See such tanks in the western Caribbean as well. But they seem to rather drink beer or Guinness ��.

 

[twistedtree]

Now that’s funny, that would be a question for TT!

Just winch it up on the deck

 

[twistedtree]

I'm not having a go at you with my comment below and while I love the idea of all that redundancy I hate the idea of the loss of space, extra maintenance required and extra immediate and ongoing expense.

I believe its easy enough to come up with acceptable and easy compromises maintaining space, reducing maintenance and saving dollars on systems which in my eyes are mostly non essential.

, .
As I said in an earlier post, if your 1 water maker died surely you'd still have full water tanks, its not like you'll die of thirst before finding a fix - given that, would it even be an urgent fix?

We have no water maker but have big capacity across 5 tanks
We are also setup to collect rain - over 1.5 tonne of it in the last 48 hours of it
And the tender has a 200 litre bladder which is occasionally used.


Same or different?
I do see some vessels with different arrays so gather that's for some other reason than pure redundancy, though obviously if one dies they have a spare but......radar is very much non essential for us.
In 4.5 years of full time cruising radar has probably had 20 hours of usage and if it died tomorrow it would be replaced, eventually, but no urgency to do so.

Again, same?
Or a smaller one for lighter loads?
I look at our genset as our redundancy to our main power source. Solar
No moving parts, no servicing required, the silent gift that keeps on giving.

Impressive
We have had failures with macerator pumps on sewerage treatment plants and impellors on toilet pumps (we only have 2)
Half an hour and some creative plumbing, all easy access, had us pumping directly over the side for a month (not ideal but well away from civilisation) until we got a replacement.
The main deck toilet we simply bought in a bucket of saltwater to tip a bowl in for flushing.
Upside to this was a noticeable saving in our freshwater supply so continue doing the same today.

After having had a lightening strike on a previous vessel kill off anything with a dollar value of over $20 I avoid excessive electronics where I can, especially as our plan (pre covid) was to be in equatorial waters with higher likelihood of lightning strike.
If I do have them - its all stand alone , not interlinked with backups stored in the Faraday cage (microwave) during storms


There can only be one (said in my best Highlander voice )


2 joining into one and running through multiple filtration.

One Victron inverter charger soon to be two
But the solar mppt puts out 96 amps so I guess there's charging redundancy

Question: Do you use both and accept 50% charge if one fails or is it unused but available at the flick of a switch if the other dies?

.

Same same for lines on ours

The spare AP I got for $400

Same TMQ commercial quality unit we have now taken out of a superyacht for no real reason - its not shiny anymore?
Swapped it out with ours and put the original in the spares locker away from lightning

So much of this is about where and how you cruise. You have a big solar array and a climate that makes it a reliable source of power. For us it's a supplement, and only when weather cooperates.


I like your rain catchment. We don't have that, and also cruise in areas where water available from shore is not potable. So for us, I consider a water maker vital, and have two.


Radar optional? Yes, a different world indeed. Mine is on every minute that I'm underway.


And I think you make a really good point about the tradeoff between redundancy and space consumption. On my last boat I had only one generator, and a big reason is because I didn't want to give up the space. Now on the 68 I have more room, so able to do it.


Then on the flip side, I built the 68 with dual fresh water pumps so you can just switch between them. Regardless, I would carry a spare, and figured a good place to "store" the spare was hooked up and ready to run. Well, that lasted about a week and I pulled out the second pump and relocated the first. They were totally in the way, and just not enough space without making other access impossible.

 

[twistedtree]

We both fell in love with the boat, but also both agreed on only one criticism - the cockpit needed to be longer. They must have heard us, because the 55 became the 60, and the rest is history, as well described by others, Twisted Tree in particular, having now a second Nordy, was right up there.

The cockpits are an interesting one. I haven't asked Jeff Leishman directly, but I think they were all small to minimize the amount of water you could end up carrying if you took a wave across the stern. A cockpit full of water can wreak havoc on stability. The smaller the cockpit and the bigger the freeing ports, the less exposure you have.


But it is a common complaint on the older models, and all have since grown the cockpit.


One related story. When my 60 was in build, I'm told that Jeff visited the factory, saw my boat with the big cockpit, and also saw the older, smaller freeing ports that were carry over from the 55. "Those need to be bigger", was the comment, and my 60 was the first with much larger (longer) freeing ports.