Last boat

Have finalized the purchase of a Nordic Tug 42 (née Shining Star to be Hippocampus). She has Espar heat plus AC, WM, Riigid ding, Freedom lift, solar, Seakeeper and the usual goodies this model comes with.
A 180 turn from the last boat so a new learning curve and totally new way to boat for us. Hopefully this is our best day and having my estate sell her will be the worst. My second “last boat “ so who can say. Ours as of 4oct and then south we head.

Congratulations! Pics? Those Nordic Tugs are gorgeous.

Hippocampus said:

Have finalized the purchase of a Nordic Tug 42 (née Shining Star to be Hippocampus). She has Espar heat plus AC, WM, Riigid ding, Freedom lift, solar, Seakeeper and the usual goodies this model comes with.
A 180 turn from the last boat so a new learning curve and totally new way to boat for us. Hopefully this is our best day and having my estate sell her will be the worst. My second “last boat “ so who can say. Ours as of 4oct and then south we head.

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Wifey B: Is it ok for me to say BS here or should I do it like

Last boat....why do people even say it. :lol: Glad you're on to your next last though.

BandB said:

Wifey B: Is it ok for me to say BS here or should I do it like

Last boat....why do people even say it. :lol: Glad you're on to your next last though.

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So a boat some time ago with the name on the transom:

LAST BOAT IV

Ted

Always heard and tend to agree that this is every old boaters last setup.

No such thing as a Last Boat..... usually. There's a few of us that just need to take the "next step" and that could be up or down or sideways.


However, Hippo, GREAT boat, but we need proof.... pictures?

Congrats on your new Nordic Tug!!

Greetings,
Mr. (Dr.) H. Last boat? I believe you but thousands wouldn't...

Must admit there’s wisdom above. I never owned a totally new boat until the Outbound. Had completed the build of boats whose prospective owners dropped out before completion but never one totally from scratch. Took a full year to spec that Outbound and convince the builder the changes I wanted from his stock boat were worth it and doable. Literally hundreds and hundreds of emails and late hours researching options as I was still working. Then 1 1/2 years for build. I justified the experience as this one was my last boat.
My wife said “you’re not doing that again that’s your last boat”. And it was until she fell and broke her ankle, ripped tendons in her hip. Now healed but balance just enough off she’s unsafe on the foredeck so switched looking at power. Other friends who made the transition kept ragging on me don’t go FD go SD. Had my heart set on a small Nordie. Much preferred the quality of the N than KK or others. After a year of looking got nowhere but did get convinced about SD. A whole different way to boat. Then went to pick a brand. NT has a good rep, a bit more efficient than AT and imho better build than RT. Wanted no exterior protuberances as believe “ running aground isn’t if but when” if you’re exploring skinny waters. Got into a bidding war with our current boat but thought YOLO so here we are.
Have a house filled with various small boats of all sorts. Can only use and afford one big boat at a time. Need to have tha attitude that this is my “last boat” to justify the time and expense to bring her to total Bristol Fashion. Maybe you guys are right it isn’t the last boat. But truly think it is.

Whats wrong with declaring "last boat".

If a boater knows what he or she wants in a boat, lucky enough to find it early and adapts it to their needs, why look for anything else?

We found Sandpiper in 2000, adapted it to our needs and plan to keep it untill we can no longer boat. Only exception would be if I win the Mega Millions Lottery.

We are continuously adapting Sandpiper as we age and our boating needs change.

Deja vu
I thought I posted Congrats on your purchase.

I am interested in your feedback on the Freedom Lift. We have a 2001 Nordic Tug 42' and are considering a change from the crane davit on the upper deck to the Freedom Lift and an electric outboard from Pure Watercraft. Any thoughts or advice on the Freedom Lift system would be appreciated!

Yes, I must admit even when we sold our Clipper 34, I thought that's definitely our last boat. But maybe I was kidding myself, as subliminally I suspect still had visions of maybe a rubber ducky to potter around the Bribie Passage one day. (see pic below) Because I kept the Honda 2.3hp 4 stroke outboard I loved so much - it's out in the shed, even as I type.

Hippo,

Congratulations! I was kind of hoping you were going to find a way to buy that Duck in Michigan. Unfortunate that things were not easier. I wish you many happy nautical miles beneath you. Have fun down south.

Bill

You can start calling it the NT 34 as the newer 34's are the same length as the 32's.

Buddy just got a NT 32 and loves it, bought in mid-summer and he has roughly 150 hours on it so far.

Will get back on the Freedom lift. Don’t have enough time with it to offer an opinion.
The NT44 is the same hull/tooling as the 42. To my eye the only significant difference is inside stairs on the 44 to get to the flybridge.
Dimensions: LOA: 46’3”
Displacement Weight: 31,400 lb For both from what I can gather.
I’m still going to call it a 42 when asked.

Wifey B: But the 42 is a 46. :lol:

I’m on the first boat now but next boat will be last boat phase. I bought one as I wanted to experience it the next couple years immediately. My problem is the one I think I want is over 2 years to build and I don’t want to commit to the contract now as I wait to see exactly how much I use this one. I can see substantial downsizing even later. Or just going back to my pontoon boat on the lake.

Ah, well, I guess you could call that a first world problem..?

Peter B said:

Ah, well, I guess you could call that a first world problem..?

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Yes, for sure. But I think almost every problem discussed on the trawler forum is a first world problem? ��

We met someone on a sailboat named Hippocampus in 2014 doing the Salty Dawg rally to the BVI. Was that you, by any chance?

There was a large catamaran in Newport Beach called the Hippocampus. Not a common name though

Hippocampus said:

Have finalized the purchase of a Nordic Tug 42 (née Shining Star to be Hippocampus). She has Espar heat plus AC, WM, Riigid ding, Freedom lift, solar, Seakeeper and the usual goodies this model comes with.
A 180 turn from the last boat so a new learning curve and totally new way to boat for us. Hopefully this is our best day and having my estate sell her will be the worst. My second “last boat “ so who can say. Ours as of 4oct and then south we head.

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I was on a 42 recently. Awesome boat. They do a great job with using the space efficiently. Gigi’s looking boat. I think you will really enjoy her!

Yes we’ve done it every year except one while we owned that Hippocampus. ‘14 was a wonderful passage there and home in ‘15.
Yes, I’m happy. Have some glitches we’re sorting out. Being a cruiser carried every tool, solvent, adhesive, electrical spare etc. known to man. Needed both cars to bring it all to Connecticut. Having trouble finding space for it all. Old rule. No matter how big the boat never enough storage. Now coastal so probably don’t need half the stuff we had when off the grid but haven’t figured out what’s not necessary. This too will past.

Did our first transit yesterday. It was weird for an old sailbagger. No tweaking, grinding, wiggling around to see telltails and set. Wife said it was the longest time she every saw me sit still on a boat. Hardest work was done by my index finger hitting +10 for the turns.
No rocking and rolling with the Seakeeper on. An occasional heave with the swell running but an unlidded cup of Java wasn’t an issue. Put something down it just stayed there. Point and shoot. We went from Novak Connecticut to East Greenwich RI. Tide/current against us the whole trip. Not a biggie!!! A few extra rpm and no issue VOG 8.2 at 1470rpm. View from the flybridge is unlike anything you get on a sailboat. Magnificent . Even in the pilot house noise was quite tolerable and no vibration. Conversation at normal volume levels.
Only downside was docking. Even with bow and stern thrusters scary for me. Electronic fly by wire and no rudder feel through the hydraulics. Sometimes too responsive even with slow idle set. Sometimes not responsive with too long a lag between action and response. Hopefully with some lessons and practice I’ll get better. It was successful. My rule is if I don’t hit anything or break/scratch anything it’s a good docking. But for now it remains scary.

Hippocampus said:

Only downside was docking. Even with bow and stern thrusters scary for me. Electronic fly by wire and no rudder feel through the hydraulics. Sometimes too responsive even with slow idle set. Sometimes not responsive with too long a lag between action and response. Hopefully with some lessons and practice I’ll get better. It was successful. My rule is if I don’t hit anything or break/scratch anything it’s a good docking. But for now it remains scary.

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All of that extra thrust seems to be the biggest adjustment from sail to power that I see people struggle with. Instead of leaving it in gear for a while and adding throttle, you end up usually being at idle and just giving bumps in/out of gear for close quarters maneuvering, only adding throttle occasionally when idle isn't enough. The upside of all of that low speed thrust is that if you get into a bad situation, your ability to stop or bail out is better, as the boat will change direction much more quickly.

If there's a lag in the controls, that's something I'd look to sort out. It would drive me crazy.

The lack of feel in hydraulic steering is the nature of the beast. Unless there's a lot of rudder load, you don't really feel anything. And you can't mark the center point on the wheel either, as it'll move if you hit the relief valves at the end of the travel. But on the upside, the rudder stays where you put it. So if you need to take your hand off the wheel in close quarters, you can, knowing it won't move.

I’m sure you’ll master it soon enough but for a little training and acclimation, you could hire the broker you had in E. Greenwich. He’s a great teacher and knows his way around all manner and size of boats like he was born with a tiller in his hand.

Thanks guys. The lag is a perception not a reality. Think it’s due to the ability to move much slower and absence of the direct feel of a steering linkage of pipe/gears not hydraulics. Dave Balfour (Nordhavn Northeast) has been excellent. Have arranged training.

On fly by wire the lag is a setting that can be adjusted to your liking. Inherently there is almost no lag in the system so the computer adds the desired amount in. If remember correctly my ZF can be adjusted in 1/2 second intervals.

Found out with an electronic helm and all electronic controls you put in the input (turn wheel) it goes to a microprocessor. From there it goes to the hydraulics and finally that processor turns the rudder. This is quite different than the immediacy response through the Whitlock linkage which had no play on the prior boat. So that small lag is normal.