Nordhavn 86

I noticed these pictures of the Nordhavn 86. It looks beautiful! I like the color….

http://www.pbase.com/alaskadave/86_nordhavncary_ali&page=1

And, on a different topic — Here’s a link to a video showing the Nordhavn 62 that went aground a couple years back. I still don’t know the story as to why this occured, and probably never will.

http://nordhavns68.talkspot.com/aspx/m/476898

I had my own “close encounter” with the bottom last year, and since then, I’ve been staying as far as I can get from shore. There’s a bit of a story from our trip to Costa Rica that is related to this topic. When we were cruising south, I had on board a friend who is also a captain. As we were rounding a point, I steered a course that was a good mile off of shore. My friend felt we should cut the corner, and corrected my course in the auto pilot when I wasn’t looking. As soon as he wasn’t looking, I moved the waypoint again, moving us further out to sea. He pretended not to notice but we wound up discussing the incident later (over an adult beverage). I explained that I’ve become a big fan of deep water. I’d much rather arrive a bit later than cut it close.

One thing that has always amazed me is watching the sailboats along the coast of mainland Mexico. The majority seem to be running within a quarter mile of shore. Perhaps I’m overly conservative (which is certainly true), but I have a healthy skepticism about the quality of the marine charts outside the US.

4 Responses

  1. BTW…that color was a cross between root beer and chocolate …hard to describe

    Pretty sure I read on the PAE site that they sent a crew from California to apply the paint

  2. The pictures don’t really do the hull color justice as it was much nicer up close…very metallic

    She sat in Anacortes all last week with just one crew member and left during the weekend…

    Seems there were some rather negative comments about the anchor gear…is there any concern there Ken ?

  3. Ken,
    Thanks to AlaskaDave for the Nordhavn Spotter shots. The “Gloss Graphite” is a striking color. My experience with major yacht builders such as Delta Marine and Sabre Yachts is that they won’t warranty darker hull colors because it causes the roving to want to surface through the gel coat as the hull gets much hotter in the sun. Of course, paints and gel coats have come a long way in recent years. I had presumed that “Nordhavn Grey” was the sensible answer as to the limit of how dark a hull should be according to Nordhavn designers/engineers.Clearly Nordhavn uses a thick layer of premieum gelcoat, but did would definitely check the fine print befoe equesting a darker color.
    The anchor pictures are powerful and I like the detail shot with all the fastners on the gunwale consistently faced.
    Your comment about the friend who altered course on the autopilot with out telling you indicates you are a more forgiving man than I. Perhaps we all presume more than we should when expecting others who a new (or did you say he had a captain’s license) to boating to realize the shoreline is not a curb on a steet representing the edge of navigable water. i’ll add this to my list of thing o have guests read and sign off on when boarding the boat.
    “Please don’t flush bricks down the toilet( it’s called a head), or alter course on the auto pilot without the captains knowledge and permission”.
    I still have my fingers crossed hopeing your San Souci will get on the frieghter.
    David

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