Delivery to the East Coast

By water, just like the West Coast. Just a longer trip. No land involved.

On the subject in general, there is a terrific video online, easily searchable of a Nordhavn 120 being delivered from China to Vancouver.

It's beyond me why they wouldn't ship them on a ship. Who wants to take delivery of a new boat that has been stressed to the riggers of an ocean crossing and has several hundred hours on the machinery???? It's not a new boat anymore IMO. That's like buying a "new" car that has 3,000 miles on it because it was driven from Detroit.

The Nordhavn 120 was an advertising show with Nordhavn people aboard. Show off the new boat and it's ability. To my knowledge it didn't lead to any more sales of that model though. May have, but not that I know of.

I would like to think that the rigors of an ocean crossing would have served as an extended sea trial to help get the new boat kinks worked out.. For a vessel that is marketed as a globe trotter, a crossing should be no challenge in it's workaday existence.

Most Nordhavns are shipped on another ship. There was a famous incident of the shipper dropping one I believe. The 120 was a one of a kind boat and they turned it into a media event (as they like to do) by bringing it to Canada on it's own hull. Wound up in a lawsuit over dispute on excise taxes that Nordhavn eventually prevailed on.

It's not that it is a challenge. Most owners don't want crew sleeping all over their boat, cooking in their new boat, to take delivery of a new boat that is not new due to having 200-400 hours on it, as well as the associated wear and tear of a transatlantic or transpacific crossing, and so forth and so on.

This wasn't most owners though. This was a prearranged deal. Planned from the outset. This was their effort to build a flagship and a willing buyer to participate in the process. I'm sure it came as an answer to some interest but it's just not Nordhavn's market.

The N120 delivery video is worth watching. That owner will treasure the memories of the crossing.

Our last boat arrived in LA and they dealer wanted to put a 21-year-old captain on it and have them drive it down to San Diego. It was an express cruiser so I know it would've been pinned to the wall all the way down. I said no way, and you will put it on a truck and drive it down here, to SD. I then took the time to break in the engine properly through the right RPM/time intervals.

I fully understand not letting someeone you didn't know run it, but I can't for the life of me grasp why you trucked it rather than running it yourself. It's only about 100 nm.

Perhaps you didn't have all of the details as to why the decision was made to truck it, rather than run on it on its own hull.

Obviously, I don't. That's why I can't grasp why it might have been. All I know is you didn't want a 21 year old running it because you thought he'd run it fast the entire way.

There are other builders that build Asia and ship or have their offices of delivery on the East Coast. These brands also sell in Europe as well ( Marlow, Flemming, Nordhavn, OA, Outter Reef, etc) where they take delivery and do final fitting.
Had not heard about the issue with the 120' and the tax. Nordhavn had sold to that owner before, and their delivery Capt crash the 76'ish on delivery up the West Coast, and he should certainly be knowledgeable about such issues given his business and living there. The 120' never seemed to catch on, but the 96's seem to be selling well. Plus the 120' is now for sale.
An owner of a 68' Nordhavn got stuck with a sizable state tax moving the boat into his home state of Washington after taking delivery as well.

The lesson here may be when buying these foreign made boats pick your port of import and home port well...with the advice of legal counsel, not someone on the web

OB, with all due respect, I believe you spend too much time dissecting people's post. It was just an off hand comment about a new boat delivery. Nothing more, nothing less. BTW, I don't have an issue running a boat 100 miles, and have done it many times in a single day run.

I didn't intend to start a long dialogue. Yours was an offhand comment. So was mine. I still have the same feeling I did when I posted it though. Just one simple sentence not deserving of a long discussion.

You are absolutely correct.