Friends:

My wife and I are quickly narrowing down the list of boats that will be our
home for the next 10 years.  We have done a lot of research and been on a
fair number of boats.  All, of course, have pluses and minuses.  One
question we have for the PUP list is: what types of power boats, i.e.
trawlers, do you see out there in the more distant areas - Mediterranean,
South Pacific, Aruba, South China Sea?  Nordhavn's, Diesel Ducks,
Kadey-Krogens, Selenes?  Any observations would be most welcome.

Jonathan

Jonathan,

My wife and I have cruised a lot of "off the beaten path" places, and the
quick answer to your question is that there aren't a lot of power boats out
there doing world cruising. It's a large world and there aren't that many
trawlers out there.

Personally, I'm biased towards Nordhavn, but only because my perception is
that they cost the most, and have the most experience in the category.
Nordhavn tracks mileage for their boats and the last I checked Nordhavns had
run over 4 million miles. I don't know the statistics, but my guess is that
well over half of all the power boats cruising in the boondocks, worldwide,
are Nordhavn. That said, most of the systems are the same between the boats
(engines, hydraulics, davits, winlasses, etc), so my guess is that any of
the brands you mentioned will get you anywhere you want to go.

One thought for you...

Contact the organization behind the Fubar (http://www.fubarodyssey.com ).
See if you can get the roster for their last trip to Baja. That will show
you what boats people are using for that run. Also, see if you can find the
roster for the boats that crossed the Atlantic on Nordhavn's NAR rally (it
was open to all makes.)

If you really do believe you are destined for "out of the way" places, focus
on getting a solid boat that can withstand a lot of abuse. I won't name
names, but not all boats are made to handle the rigors of constant use in
challenging conditions. A boat that looks pretty at the dock may fall apart
when it gets bumped around a bit, or when you live on board non-stop.

Also -- focus on "maintainable" and "simple" (some advice I probably should
have paid more attention to).

Good luck with a tough decision!

-Ken Williams
Nordhavn 68, Sans Souci
www.kensblog.com

.....

Friends:

My wife and I are quickly narrowing down the list of boats that will be our
home for the next 10 years.  We have done a lot of research and been on a
fair number of boats.  All, of course, have pluses and minuses.  One
question we have for the PUP list is: what types of power boats, i.e.
trawlers, do you see out there in the more distant areas - Mediterranean,
South Pacific, Aruba, South China Sea?  Nordhavn's, Diesel Ducks,
Kadey-Krogens, Selenes?  Any observations would be most welcome.

Jonathan

Jonathan

I agree with what Ken has said about there not being a lot of passage making power boats out there cruising. We left China with our boat on it's own bottom in June 2007 and spent the following three and a half years in SE Asia. All we saw were sail boats with an occasional coastal cruising power boat. We were an anomaly and drew quite a bit of attention where ever we went.
We are in the Med now and I see more power boats simply because I see more boats of all kinds. I do believe that power boat cruising time has come and we will see more sea going trawlers in the future.

Sincerely,

Randal Johnson
www.mydoramac.com

"It is not the strongest of species that survives, or the most intelligent,
but the ones most responsive to change" - Charles Darwin

You should certainly examine Nordhavn http://www.nordhavn.com/ closely,
that's the standard, with models to fit comfortable budgets and popular
expectations.

Would also urge a close look at Steve Dashew's FPB
http://setsail.com/series too--better built boats with greater
abilities but with different
goals in terms of willingness to make tradeoffs of home-style luxury for
technical virtues like self-righting abilities, hull vs. reef abilities,
high fuel efficiency for independence, high speeds to stay with weather
fronts, and so on. If you go as far as possible down that road (like going
from pickup truck to HUMVEE or armored personnel carrier) then you're with
Dashew. If you study his website you'll know if you're sufficiently serious
about cruising.

Michael T. Jones | Chief Technology Advocate  | mtj@google.com |  +1
650-335-5765