Jeff said that yesterday was one of his best fishing days EVER, and that means a lot coming from Jeff; Dorado, Wahoo, Marlin… Adding to the fun, the weather couldn’t be better. Seas 1-2 feet, winds 7-10 knots. 70 degrees during the day.
Which means I have nothing to report. HOWEVER, I can suggest that you use the time you might otherwise allocate to reading my blog to review the comments at the bottom of the prior two days blog entries (Oct 14 and Oct 15). There is some great, and educational, commentary from readers of my blog that should not be missed.
Jeff is expecting to arrive in Ensenada tomorrow night at 2am! I personally would not arrive at a Mexican marina in the dead of night, but Jeff has been in and out many times, and will have no problem.
-Ken W
Which means I have nothing to report. HOWEVER, I can suggest that you use the time you might otherwise allocate to reading my blog to review the comments at the bottom of the prior two days blog entries (Oct 14 and Oct 15). There is some great, and educational, commentary from readers of my blog that should not be missed.
Jeff is expecting to arrive in Ensenada tomorrow night at 2am! I personally would not arrive at a Mexican marina in the dead of night, but Jeff has been in and out many times, and will have no problem.
-Ken W
4 Responses
(Blush) Thank you Rick! I look forward to meeting you someday.
Out of curiosity, will you be running the 76 yourselves, or with a crew? My theory has been that the 64/68 is roughly the breakpoint between un-crewed and professionally crewed boats. The vast majority of the 55s and 62s are owner operated, and I believe about half of the 64s are owner operated. So far David Sidbury and my boat are the only delivered 68s, and we’re both running the boats alone, although I do bring on crew for long runs and deliveries. And, to be fair, both David and I have our 100 ton masters licenses. My informal survey of 76s so far seems to indicate that the overwhelming majority of the 76s have at least one crew member, and I think its safe to say that all of the 86s and 120s will have crew.
Lately, I’ve been softening on the whole crew issue. We don’t like the loss of privacy, but it sure does make life easy! On our Central America run, it seemed like all I did was sit in line at various customs agents, and port captain’s offices. With a “captain” onboard, I could have handed him my passport and said, “I’ll be at my computer. Let me know when I can go ashore.” Another favorite line would be “Don’t you think it’s about time to change the oil in the generators? I’ll be on the back deck reading.” Grin. Currently, only Roberta gets to say things like that (to me!)
-Ken W
Ken,
Thanks for this blog. Every day there is something useful to learn just like the electrical power discussion and the fuel discussion. Frankly, I now look for this before picking up the newspaper!
All the best to you and Roberta.
With much appreciation,
Rick Heiniger
Future N7617 Eliana
Roberta and I have now been married 36 years, if I’m doing the math right .. and, if I’m not, don’t tell Roberta.
Throughout all of those years, we have had boats. We started with a little ski boat, and have graduated to successively bigger boats as we could afford it. We have had virtually every size boat at one time or another — except sail boats. The closest I’ve come to sailing is a fair amount of time spent on windsurfers, when I was much younger.
Just prior to our Nordhavn 62, which we bought in 1996, we owned a 44′ Taiwan-built planing hull twin engine boat, that we mostly used for cruising in the Pacific NW. The 62 was a huge step up for us.
I can’t say that we did a lot of well thought-out analysis at the time. I asked around about what the safest and best trawler was, and the Nordhavn name was clearly the leader of the pack. We looked briefly at the Fleming 55, but even they said that it wasn’t really meant for serious offshore cruising. We also looked at the Krogens, but they also said that they had no experience in crossing oceans. Nordhavn wasn’t merely the best, they were the only game in town.
When we sold our Nordhavn 62, in 2005, we did a much more serious survey of the market, and looked at virtually every production trawler, as well as several different custom boats. We seriously considered Northern Marine, and came very close to commissioning the build of a steel-hulled trawler.
Our first preference was Nordhavn, but they didn’t have a boat which matched what we were seeking. We had a tremendous experience with our Nordhavn 62, and wanted something similar, but slightly larger. All that Nordhavn could offer (at the time) was the N76, which we considered, but then decided was more than Roberta and I could handle.
Northern Marine offered to build us a 68′ boat which would have been an aft pilot house boat. We got to the contract stage with them, but then the whole deal fell apart when I start doing reference checks. Their owners generally said that they were very happy with their boats, but that they finished the build process much later than expected, and at a much higher cost. I was told to expect years of delay, and a final cost that would be materially higher than what I signed for. This, combined with rumors that they were in finacial trouble killed the deal. [Note: They did in fact lay off much of the company the company soon after our discussions, and then ramped up again with new management]. After that, we got excited about building a custom steel trawler, and spoke briefly to RealShips. We decided we liked the idea of a steel trawler, but felt that RealShips couldn’t rise to the quality level we wanted. They said the right things, but it just didn’t feel right. We then focused on a super high-end custom builder, and an architect. We then hit another road block. We hired a consultant to help us evaluate builders, and our consultant dug in his heels on steel boats. He felt that steel boats were a maintenance nightmare and had no resale value, both of which rang true.
And, that is when Nordhavn called to say they were reconsidering building an aft pilot house boat that was between the N62 and the N76. As I said, Nordhavn was our first preference, and their willingness to build a boat that was the size we were seeking made it an easy decision.
-Ken W
Ken, I was reading on the comments page that you and a partner are looking at buying a new sportfisher. Just out of curiosity, what brought you to Nordhavn, and what other boats did you own before your 62?