Any info on the yacht 'Nadine'

M.Y.Nadine

Dear K1W1 - I stand corrected - I saw her during the 90's in Cannes for the CFF, not in 1988. She was built at the owners request with a draft of 2 metres to get into shallow water anchorages principally in the Med, although in her early days of the 60's used to cruise from Monaco to Deauville for the summer horse racing. What is interesting is the Owner initially went to C & N in Soton but they refused to give him a transom stern, so he was advised to go to the Dutch. I have a professional B & W photo somewhere taken by Tony Morgan off Cannes which I'll dig out. She was a lovely yacht but seriously underpowered and needed that engine change to CATS.

Bernie Littles Fino tender

Would any of you fellows know of or have pictures of the 1970'S vintage Fino that Bernie Little kept in Miami?

Ttt

Just shaking the tree for information on the Fino boats of the 1970'S
Thanks

Well tbh designers forget of just how powerful the sea can be when she is Angry and full of rage ..if you don't take that into account the obvious will happen. The force that is behind a wall of water is not a thing to be taken lightly .. there is a recorded account of a wave broke through a window on a newly launched Liner .. and even slamming can in some aspects cause buckling of the bow .

And your point is.........................................

I know this is an old post, but I still want to tell what I know to be true. I worked on this boat back in 1987-88 when it was "Edgewater" I was on it in the shipyard in Miami for the refit as well as the Bahamas, Virgin Islands and the trip to British Guyana. This boat was very seaworthy and had been travelling the world in most all weather conditions for years with no worries of sinking. She had two sets of stabilizers, Vospers and Niads both. She rolled a lot, with only a 23 ft. beam and 167 ft. long after the fishing cockpit and center extension. There where underwater viewing ports in the new Master stateroom which were part of that extension, very cool when at anchor with the underwater lights turned on to attract the fish and such.
Now, to a couple of factors as to why she probably sank. She had freeing ports the full length of the main deck that were steel plates that pivoted open to clear water taken over the bow. These were a big maintenance job as the pivot points would wear the paint quickly and then bleed rust constantly. The Captain that was on the boat when she sank had these ports welded shut which in turn gave any water taken on nowhere to escape except all the way down the deck to the stern. We also had large Aluminum plates that fit over the large main deck windows to prevent any of them from being broken in rough seas. These were a real pain as well but where safety is concerned you just deal with these things. This captain had these removed from the boat as well. He (the captain) also had to have his seaplane on board which in turn ended up moving the tenders which use to be on the upper aft deck where the plane sits, moved up to the bow which was always free of toys when I was on board. The reports are that these broke free and in turn broke the now vulnerable windows. I would guess that the Dog house hatch down to the crew quarters was broken buy a toy, not just magically broken by a wave after more than 30 years at sea. Besides all this, What Captain sets out on a trip with a family on board in those kind of conditions? An irresponsible one! I bet if Bernie Little would have known these things he wouldn't have hired this man. I would be interested to know if the insurance company was aware of any of this, I think not, Luckily it sank in very deep water.

I was engineer on her in the late 80s before mods

It was the Edgewater the first time I saw it, under construction, formerly known as the Jan Pamela. Mel Powers, during the the middle of building the infamous extension supposedly burned through his three hundred million dollars and somehow could not manage to pay the outstanding debt for all the work on the boat. He owed Merrrill Stevens who must have had the power of sale, because it was they who sold it to us. Oddly we were residing in Houston at the time and so was Mel. We were in Miami all the time negotiating building the Florida Power and Light Headquarters in downtown Miami. My Ex continued the construction with his own style (also a Houston Developer) and for several months built the solid marble bar and sheets of marble in that baths and showers, put in gold dipped sinks, suede walls in the main salon, replaced the china and silver to match the dining design, etc. It took months to finish.

As soon as it made it's maiden voyage, Bernie Little began lobbying for us to sell it to him. Three years later 1991, the Edgewater" became "The Big Eagle". My last weekend on the boat, before I handed over the vessel, I hosted a film crew on board, and was in a "Woman Named Jackie". During our three years we hosted many dignitaries and well known Politicians, and many international businessmen.

A few years later, staying in touch, I called Jennifer, a former staff member of our crew, (June in 1996) and was informed our former yacht sank that very morning off the Coast of Italy. (This is what I was told). All that beautiful marble, crystal, china, and history of the iconic CoCo Channel, gone to the bottom of the sea. The next thing I heard was the owner who sank it was in jail, cutting a deal for his movie that would star Leonardo DiCaprio. I was told the mortgage meltdown held up the production and release for several years.

Found an old picture that I took while at anchor, 1988. The four large windows close to water in center are the Master Stateroom.

Yes, it's the same boat. It was the Jan Pamela, Edgewater, Big Eagle and finally the Nadine. As you can see it was painted back to the original color and has an Airplane as well as a Helicopter. the waverunners are up on the top deck. 23ft. beam and two sets of stabilizers, still rolled a fair bit in a beam sea.

This is her as I knew her in the early 80s. MY Jan Pamela. We overhauled engines. I would have sworn they were 16v71 mains. No plane. Later they flew their helicopter from sea to our shop to get parts. It was impressive but they were AHs, no tip .

It is the first time I am in this webpage. It is truly amazing that there are still comments in 2021 in a post from 2010!! Yachts kept all us together!

Heard a story about my Father, who apparently worked on the Nadine before the time it sunk. Would anyone happen to know anything about a crew member under the nickname "Gill" or "Brinkman". - Thanks

I think the boat just had bad karma.

Powers was pretty well known here in Houston, Texas

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_Lane_Powers

I must be the oldest guy here to have a connection to this boat. In 1966/67 I worked aboard her as Mathilde in Monaco. As far as I knew she did not belong to Coco Chanel, but Jacques Wertheimer - the family that owns the Chanel company. (He's since passed on but the family is still in control). I found this forum because my family want me to document my history, and trying to trace down the Edgewater connection, stumbled into this long lived conversation. What a history.