New Nordhavn 41

Megs20Burt! said:
And the build quality leaves something to be desired. It’s a nice boat, but when you start to look at the cabinetry, it’s look like a £20k caravan...
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My point entirely at #172. Looked at one or two and came to that conclusion but that isn’t to say that they havent got anything to recommend them - actually nice boats and quite popular, which says something.
 
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Piers said:
Given the cost of producing a small model, I suspect the N41 was conceived by two key marketing reasons,
  1. For those who love the look of a Nordhavn but had never been able to afford one - until now.
  2. Once you've bought, you tend to remain loyal to the brand. Hence, a road to buying another Nordhavn.
The subset of 2 is that it prevents a boater staying with a competitor. The words 'loss leader' come to mind.
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I think the shallow draught and low air draught are also very important marketing features.
Even the Hamiltons who have gone around the world and crossed the Atlantic twice in their N52 Dirona have said (on the Nordhavn Dreamers group) that they are tempted by the ability to take an N41 into places that their N52 won't go.
We were frustrated when in Norfolk because the swing and lifting bridges weren't working (again) and the best we could do was get up to Beccles. No chance of reaching even the outskirts of Norwich because our N40 is so tall.
Having said that, we would never swap Coracle for an N41. Our boat fits us like a glove and we can always use the tender to go up rivers where the mothership can't go. We have been to places like Gweek, Truro, Totnes, Hanham and Blythburgh for lovely days out, exploring shallow water and slipping under low bridges in the RIB with all the comforts of home waiting for us on our return.
 
Bajansailor said:
Buy an older Nordhavn 46 instead - they have a nice pilothouse, and the one in the link below has a flying bridge.
1989 Nordhavn 46 Pilothouse Trawler With Flybridge Trawler for sale - YachtWorld
Her asking price is US$209,000 - $500k less than a new 41.
You could do a lot with the spare 500k...... :)
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That's an interesting viewpoint because Dan Streech (president of PAE) put a post on the Nordhavn Dreamers group a couple of years ago to say that PAE themselves were starting to think about whether there might come a time when there would be a profitable business taking in tired older Nordhavns and giving them a comprehensive refit with new equipment and refreshed interiors. He suggested a ball-park cost of half a million bucks for all but the biggest vessels. I don't think anyone is seriously considering this at the moment but the time might come...
My personal opinion is that in the case of a vessel with a pre-tiering diesel, probably a Lugger marinisation of a traditional John Deere block, the thing one would NOT do is scrap the engine and replace it with a modern turbocharged ECU-controlled engine. When we bought our 2005 N40 with a Lugger LP668D the engineer who did the mechanical survey said to me, 'Michael, if you buy this boat you will never regret having that engine. It will last longer than you.'
 
TwoHooter said:
My personal opinion is that in the case of a vessel with a pre-tiering diesel, probably a Lugger marinisation of a traditional John Deere block, the thing one would NOT do is scrap the engine and replace it with a modern turbocharged ECU-controlled engine. When we bought our 2005 N40 with a Lugger LP668D the engineer who did the mechanical survey said to me, 'Michael, if you buy this boat you will never regret having that engine. It will last longer than you.'
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Exactly. I think that in terms of longevity, these Luggers must be up there (almost) with Gardners (eg their classic 6LX).
Many of the commercial fishing boats here have John Deeres fitted, and they usually average around 1,500 hours of usage a year - I know of boats 20+ years old, still with their original engines. OK, they have probably had a re-build along the way, but equally I have talked to owners who had reached 15,000 hours easily with just routine maintenance.

And (some) pleasure boat owners in Europe start to get worried if a boat is for sale with 2,000 hours on the engine(s).......

Starlet is a Nordhavn 46 that has travelled more than half way around the world with her present owners, from the USA to the Med, back across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, through Panama and then across the Pacific to New Zealand where they have been very happily locked down for the past year. Although they mention on their Facebook page that they will be 'moving on' soon to Australia.
STARLET (Pleasure Craft) Registered in USA - Vessel details, Current position and Voyage information - IMO 0, MMSI 367470230, Call Sign WDF6062

And Dirona is a 50 or 52, and she has been around the world with her current owners (and to lots of other places along the way as well).
They are currently in Ireland -
DIRONA (Pleasure Craft) Registered in USA - Vessel details, Current position and Voyage information - IMO 0, MMSI 367448520, Call Sign WDF4146

And they have an excellent Blog -
Dirona Around the World

Starlet and Dirona met up here in Barbados about 4 or 5 years ago - Dirona had come up from South Africa, and Starlet had crossed from the Cape Verdes with Southern Star to keep her company -
SOUTHERN STAR (Pleasure Craft) Registered in New Zealand - Vessel details, Current position and Voyage information - IMO 0, MMSI 512004016, Call Sign ZM2059
 
Like Two Hooter we own a Nordhavn - ours is a a 43- with a non electronic Lugger LP668D. They will easily do 30,000 hours with a good (but very simple) maintenance schedule.
I like the new 41, but if you can get one I can't help thinking that a classic N43 makes more sense.
Two sizeable sleeping cabins each with en suite facilities. Walk in access to the engine room.
A proper separate pilot house. Bigger saloon and galley. The flybridge is great especially for docking.
Although expensive to buy, they hold their value like almost nothing else & are probably appreciating at the moment.
Absolutely no good for canal work though!
 
I write to you from N40 Coracle, tootling along at a breath-taking 6.8kts SOG ,en route Plymouth to Falmouth in one of the calmest seas I've ever seen.
One of the most useful features of our boat is my office. I use the pilot house/wheelhouse/bridge where my laptop neatly fits on the table and I can either have a 19" or 21" extended screen on the fold-down chart table to my left or use the wireless mouse to control the ship's 3 screens (the ship's system runs off a Vasari marine PC so I can use any of the 3 screens for anything). The printer sits behind me together with my stationery boxes - I'm still somewhat addicted to paper for some jobs and both my laptop and the ship's PC connect to the printer by WiFi.
As I type we are some miles offshore but the router is picking up an excellent cell signal, which is why you can see this post. If I needed to connect further offshore I would have to buy a satellite system but we are mainly coastal cruisers and 90% of the time we have a cell signal.
When we were looking for a boat I knew I would need to use it as an office sometimes, and it's turned out to be great for that. It's something I would look at if we ever thought of getting a different boat. I suppose on the N41 the salon table would work OK, or perhaps convert the second cabin to an office?20210418_114534 reduced.jpg20210418_114604 reduced.jpg
 
TwoHooter said:
I write to you from N40 Coracle, tootling along at a breath-taking 6.8kts SOG ,en route Plymouth to Falmouth in one of the calmest seas I've ever seen.
One of the most useful features of our boat is my office. I use the pilot house/wheelhouse/bridge where my laptop neatly fits on the table and I can either have a 19" or 21" extended screen on the fold-down chart table to my left or use the wireless mouse to control the ship's 3 screens (the ship's system runs off a Vasari marine PC so I can use any of the 3 screens for anything). The printer sits behind me together with my stationery boxes - I'm still somewhat addicted to paper for some jobs and both my laptop and the ship's PC connect to the printer by WiFi.
As I type we are some miles offshore but the router is picking up an excellent cell signal, which is why you can see this post. If I needed to connect further offshore I would have to buy a satellite system but we are mainly coastal cruisers and 90% of the time we have a cell signal.
When we were looking for a boat I knew I would need to use it as an office sometimes, and it's turned out to be great for that. It's something I would look at if we ever thought of getting a different boat. I suppose on the N41 the salon table would work OK, or perhaps convert the second cabin to an office?View attachment 113747View attachment 113748
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What router and cell service do you use?

(y)
 
Router is a Teltonika RUT 950 (brilliant bit of kit) with 2 SIM card slots. At the moment we only use one slot, EE, on a deal which covers all our mobile devices, 30Gb per month, and I can allocate the data to whichever device needs it.
EE had very poor coverage in the West Country at one time but at the moment I think they are very good. If we go anywhere that EE doesn't work I'll find out which network does work and stick a second SIM card in slot 2.
20180412_114806 reduced.jpg
 
TwoHooter said:
I write to you from N40 Coracle, tootling along at a breath-taking 6.8kts SOG ,en route Plymouth to Falmouth in one of the calmest seas I've ever seen.
One of the most useful features of our boat is my office. I use the pilot house/wheelhouse/bridge where my laptop neatly fits on the table and I can either have a 19" or 21" extended screen on the fold-down chart table to my left or use the wireless mouse to control the ship's 3 screens (the ship's system runs off a Vasari marine PC so I can use any of the 3 screens for anything). The printer sits behind me together with my stationery boxes - I'm still somewhat addicted to paper for some jobs and both my laptop and the ship's PC connect to the printer by WiFi.
As I type we are some miles offshore but the router is picking up an excellent cell signal, which is why you can see this post. If I needed to connect further offshore I would have to buy a satellite system but we are mainly coastal cruisers and 90% of the time we have a cell signal.
When we were looking for a boat I knew I would need to use it as an office sometimes, and it's turned out to be great for that. It's something I would look at if we ever thought of getting a different boat. I suppose on the N41 the salon table would work OK, or perhaps convert the second cabin to an office?
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Envious! Have not seen the boat since September
 
trialframe said:
Like Two Hooter we own a Nordhavn - ours is a a 43- with a non electronic Lugger LP668D. They will easily do 30,000 hours with a good (but very simple) maintenance schedule.
I like the new 41, but if you can get one I can't help thinking that a classic N43 makes more sense.
Two sizeable sleeping cabins each with en suite facilities. Walk in access to the engine room.
A proper separate pilot house. Bigger saloon and galley. The flybridge is great especially for docking.
Although expensive to buy, they hold their value like almost nothing else & are probably appreciating at the moment.
Absolutely no good for canal work though!
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I agree, but my other half thinks they look like fishing boats. As she will own 50% of our next boat, I have some selling to do...?
 
That's exactly what my wife said when she first saw one & she's right... but they're brilliant boats to live on & the woodwork & fittings are exemplary. Granite worktops, Grohe taps and showers. Bombproof build quality. Trac hydraulic stabilisers. I could go on....
 
JB said:
Envious! Have not seen the boat since September
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Sorry to hear that. Hope it didn't seem I was boasting.
Megs20Burt! said:
I agree, but my other half thinks they look like fishing boats. As she will own 50% of our next boat, I have some selling to do...?
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One Christmas I was given a fake lobster pot to hang on our boat deck. The original design was inspired by North Sea trawlers. Some people like the look and others don't. But on the other hand there was the pair of engineers who were on board and we heard one say to the other, 'When does a boat become a small ship?' and the other replied 'This.' There was the trip boat which passed us while we were at anchor and I distinctly heard a teenage girl say 'That's the boat I want!' And in the 36 different berths we have had in harbours, ports and marinas since we bought Coracle I don't think there's been a single instance where nobody has come over to look at it and ask questions about it. Recently a father and 10 year old son came and hailed me through the harbour railings - the son is a Nordhavn fan and he was very excited because our little 40 was the first one he had seen in real life. Not as exciting as N120 Aurora, and not a real globetrotter like Dirona, but nevertheless a real live Nordie and he wanted to talk to me about it. I think the secret to Nordhavn's success is that they inspire dreams. All boatbuilders try to do that. Most of them use scantily-clad models sunbathing on decks in perfectly still sunlit waters to try and inspire dreams in their customers. The Nordhavn dream has more to do with grey mists on the sea's face, and grey dawns breaking.
 
TwoHooter said:
Sorry to hear that. Hope it didn't seem I was boasting.

One Christmas I was given a fake lobster pot to hang on our boat deck. The original design was inspired by North Sea trawlers. Some people like the look and others don't. But on the other hand there was the pair of engineers who were on board and we heard one say to the other, 'When does a boat become a small ship?' and the other replied 'This.' There was the trip boat which passed us while we were at anchor and I distinctly heard a teenage girl say 'That's the boat I want!' And in the 36 different berths we have had in harbours, ports and marinas since we bought Coracle I don't think there's been a single instance where nobody has come over to look at it and ask questions about it. Recently a father and 10 year old son came and hailed me through the harbour railings - the son is a Nordhavn fan and he was very excited because our little 40 was the first one he had seen in real life. Not as exciting as N120 Aurora, and not a real globetrotter like Dirona, but nevertheless a real live Nordie and he wanted to talk to me about it. I think the secret to Nordhavn's success is that they inspire dreams. All boatbuilders try to do that. Most of them use scantily-clad models sunbathing on decks in perfectly still sunlit waters to try and inspire dreams in their customers. The Nordhavn dream has more to do with grey mists on the sea's face, and grey dawns breaking.
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If I can get her onboard one and have a good look around, she might feel different. When she watched the N41 video, she said and I quote "that looks a lovely boat, I thought they only made those ugly fishing boats..."

Work in Progress...
 
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Megs20Burt! said:
If I can get her onboard one and have a good look around, she might feel different. When she watched the N41 video, she said and I quote "that looks a lovely boat, I thought they only made those ugly fishing boats..."

Work in Progress...
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When Lin and I were looking at the Fleming, it was the stabilisers which finally clinched the deal. No rocky-roll, even when the Yarmouth lifeboat hammered past us in the Solent.
 
Piers said:
When Lin and I were looking at the Fleming, it was the stabilisers which finally clinched the deal. No rocky-roll, even when the Yarmouth lifeboat hammered past us in the Solent.
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Still need to work on the looks, THEN I can focus on the stabilisers. I'm up against it folks, I think its the Portuguese bridge and forward facing windows mainly. It's hard work. If it has to be an N41, I won't complain, some people can't even afford food, let along a boat.
 
Megs20Burt! said:
If I can get her onboard one and have a good look around, she might feel different. When she watched the N41 video, she said and I quote "that looks a lovely boat, I thought they only made those ugly fishing boats..."

Work in Progress...
Click to expand...
If you're interested in a Nordie but your other half can't stand their appearance, you could do worse than considering the old 50 or 57.
On top of their design much closer to "normal" pleasure boats, they are actually even better than most of their current stuff, in more ways than one:
Faster hulls with strong bulbous bow, no awfully tall superstructure where you're always going up or down, mechanical engines...
What's there not to like?
 
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