Newbie question?

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lagoon

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The wife & i are selling our business & considering purchasing a boat . We have narrowed it down to a couple that we really like .Why are the nordhavn's so slow ? I know speed isn't everything , but would they benefit with a bit more power to tackle rough conditions ? Which would suite a family of 4 nordhavn 43 or lagoon power 43/44 ? or maby you could suggest another . what we are looking for is something that we & our youngest child (8years) & occasionally our eldest (18years) can spend up to a week at a time on with some comfort .
Thanks
Ron
 
The Nordhavn is slow because it has a fully displacement hull.
This mean the hull will not climb out of the water, so it cannot increase speed. If you added HUGE engines you would only get another knot, maybe and knot and a half but burn a load more diesel.

If you want a boat that can go a bit quicker, but fancy the comfort and handling of a Nordhavn you need to look at a semi-displacement boat. These will happily and efficiently go along at displacement speeds, but will start to climb out of the water and enter a semi planing mode. While not as efficient, they will increase speed to a comfortable 12 or 13 knts, with 15-16knts being the top end. I don;t know your budget, but looking at the two boats you have already mentioned I guess it is around £400k if looking new. For your reauirement with the family, you would do well to look at the Elling E3. Has three cabins, so the kids wont fight and have their own space:

ellingE3.png


e3binnen.jpg
 
More power in rough conditions? I'm a raggie, but I would have thought that rough weather was the perfect time for a displacement hull, innit? Planning hulls must surely slam like pigs in rough or even choppy waters.

Aren't displacement hulls about comfort & planing hulls about speed? Feel free to flame if you like - I don't care anyway! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
Nordhavn's go across oceans so I'd have thought they have plenty of power to cope with most conditions. From my limited experience of planing boats and considerably more in displacement cruisers I'd pick a planing or semi-displacement boat which will cover the distance much more quickly and will be more fun. Any (most?) well designed well found cruiser will keep going long after the crew want to give up. Jez's choice looks great.
 
Thanks for your replies ,
we are not looking for speed more of a home from home . As for budget we will consider between £400,000 & £400,500
im basicaly starting from scratch .
 
Do some googling, and look into Cheoy Lee, Fleming, Grand Banks, and trawler yachts in general. There will be many pages written by owners about their travels, I had to CE Mark a Nordhavn which had come from the US, the long way, under her own power. She still looked great, engine access was good, living space was excellent, and she was well finished. She was a 63, and a proper little ship.

Boats of that type are designed to cover great distances, some with a range of 4000 miles on one (large) tank of fuel. While they do not do this very quickly, they do get there, and keep the owners in a degree of comfort.

As a home from home personally I do not think you'll beat something like a Nordhavn, however having done a fair chunk of sailing and motorboating, the nice thing about motorboats is getting their quickly, and you will never do this with most trawler yachts.

Wht you need to ask yourself is how far would you be hoping to travel during your holidays, where will you keep the boat, will the kids enjoy it and thus enable you to truly relax and enjoy it, or are they going to get impatient or bored?

It's a dream situation for many of us, so just keep coming with the descritpion of what you would like from your boat, and we'll happily help and dream ourselves /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Ben
 
lagoon or nordhavn? umm depends on the family of 4 and what they want to do with the boat, naturally.

If crossing oceans/really long passages is what you want, then nordhavn or similar is likely the only way. But truly, very few punters actually want that in reality.


where will you keep the boat, what do you wanna do with her?


all boats are a compromise given the budget, so I spose some more info on your priorities is needed, but that can be hard if you haven't owned boats & used em some.


Love the Elling myself, tho for living on umm, maybe a bit, well very, yachty down below regarding big windows & such for seeing out of; but hugely seaworthy.

you want the family all joining in in one space underway? get on a Nordhavn & see if you think the pilothouse on a 43 will suit you.
 
A couple of question:

1) Do you have any preference of new over used?
2) Where do plan to keep the boat?
3) Where would you like to go in it?

Cheers
Jimg
 
If your looking sub 50ft then a broom 50 is just on the limit, now I know its a semi planing boat but there is one used one on the market and they make great boats if your spending a lot of time at sea, they look good have all the spec and hold there value in the future, if you cruise at 7/9 knots then you will get about 2mpg, a friend of mine left the uk 2 years ago in his broom ocean 42, hes now in the med and has done it all at displacement speed with no problem, the advantage of a boat with power in reserve is you acn run quick if the weather breaks, with a plodder you have to ride it out if theres no port to hand, of course you could consider a trader, oops sorry what am I thinking about ! momentary lapse of concentration there, back to reality now.
 
Hi Ron and Welcome.

The Primary questions are
"Where are you basing her...UK South Coast, East Coast West coast, Scotland Eire or Brittany, Channel Islands or Med etc."

Then, are you aiming to stay in Marinas and pay for that or travel 'Nomadic like' and live on the hook?

The reason I say this is as follows.

The Catamaran is an amazing boat with tons of space, and you get more living space on a Lagoon 44 than any other sub 50ft boat. The aft cabin is awesome and as a liveaboard it is first rate. Sea handling of Cats are fine, it is a displacement craft so will plow on where Planning monos may fear to tread. However because of the wide beam she will not be the most comfortable craft in a very large swell. At Anchor a Cat will beat any Mono hull except where it has great (gyro) stabilisers. It pitches and rolls a lot less and so is ideal for sleeping on the hook. It also has the advantage of being able to dry out so cheap nights can be had!....

But...mooring it in the UK will be a nightmare. You will be charged up to 2 x for a 44ft mooring (if you can get one) and overnights will mainly be up against a wall somewhere. France and med arebetter suited.

I love the Lagoon 44 and would consider it a strong contender. For £400k she would have avery impressive spec with every toy!.....but it depends how and where you intend to use her.

Cheers

Paul /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Thanks again for all the replies ,
i have a couple of places that i can store which ever boat ill end up owning (south coast & north wales) as for usage we would like to spend most if not all summer on her , trips across the channel , Irish sea & i would also like the odd trip to Scandinavia ( i don't know how feasible this would be )
cheers
Ron & Ju
 
Hi Lagoon,

The Cat would do that job fine. I think the Nordhaven would be a little overkill. Look at 40-50ft Semi displacement boats as an alternative with rear cabins like Trader and Broom or Atlantic 444.

Cheers

Paul /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
we are both very keen on a cat & have had a look at a couple . The lagoon & endeavour (which is very pricey in comparison to the lagoon), in both our opinion the lagoon seems the way to go & as quoted by Paul the nordhavn is probably over kill .
I think we will have to visit more marina's / sales till we make our mind's up /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
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