"Morning Cloud" now "Grand Cru" Interesting old video of "Morning Cloud" now "Grand Cru". I bought the boat from that gentlemen about two years ago. She was OK but needed an entire refit. Put her immediately into the yard for 8 months and over $1 million dollars. Used her for a year and and just finishing a complete paint job, Zero Speed Stabilizers (Naiad), pulled the shaft and rudders, comment above correct, they are beautiful but VERY costly. That being said, they are also VERY VERY quiet. Also other work. This refit about $500,000. Hope to now cruise for the next three to four years. As Carlton Mitchell once said to me "Do your homework BEFORE you leave the dock".
Jongert Congratulation on your beautiful "boat". The quality of your refit really verifies the term "better than new". I had the opportunity to see your boat during her original construction in the eighties at Jongert in Medemblik, also I was much more interested in their boats with long masts on , I did like her very much. That was boat building with passion. It was always very interesting to watch their launches and their logistic masterpieces to get this large yachts to open waters without damage. The yard was located in the middle of this little village only connected to the Isselmeer via small channels with locks and opening bridges.
Audi TT Nilo, you are correct. The above example is from their "egg shaped period" . I am not sure but I think it is a Tony Castro design. My interest was more headed towards their classic line. Beautiful boats of highest quality but the later ones had less sparkling sailing performance (mildly spoken).
Actually I think the 'large' trawler market is very much alive. I have been following it quite a bit over the last 12 or so month. I spent most time researching Nordhavns and actually their N76 is high up on my list for a next boat. I don't know how many big new boats Nordhavn sold in the last 12 or 18 months but their brokerage sales were very good. I think they brokered two N86 and easily some five N76. The brokerage market for big Nordhavns is now pretty much dried out. There is a N76 left with a 'particular' interior which has been on the market for a long time and another N76 in the NE which I think has a somewhat particular history including an engine refit, etc. I have been looking at Northern Marine and things look slow both new and used (from what I can observe). Another brand I am looking at is Cantiere delle Marche. They seem to be pretty succesful marketing and selling their 'Darwin Class'. To come back to your initial question: I think the market for large trawlers is very much alive and personally I think it will have good demand 'down the road'. Fuel efficiency (among other aspects) is definitely a topic that will stay on the map IMHO.
Northern builds a good boat, but things have been slow for them. In an effort to help, I made an arrangement with Andy so they could be present on YF. We believe in their products and wish them continued success. I've always been selective about the builders that grace our pages because they're a reflection on this community. That said, we no longer provide coverage for CDM and I would hesitate to recommend them.
Cdm Before you are concidering buying a Darwin class or other CDM product, IMHO, you should have a closer look at one of their unpainted and unfaired caskos. Or have a test ride in anything other than calm sea.
Thank you for your feedback and clarification. I have heard good things about Northern Marine's build quality. I definitely like the looks of their line of LRCs as they call them. I love to read and inquire about all kind of things over the internet. Having said that, well done homepages of boat builders are a relatively rare thing. I would encourage Northern Marine - and many others! - to better present and represent their product on the internet. E.g. if I see a builder doing hull number 20 of a given model but all available information, drawings and pictures are from hull number one that was built 10 years ago ... sort of makes me wondering how they were able to sell 20 boats of that model in the first place.
CDM/Northern What are the problems with CDM? Also Northern does make a nice product BUT pay close attention to their electrical wiring.
Slow trawler market The slow trawler market is very slow in Europe, especially in the 70 to 90 ft range. If I would be looking for a second hand full displacement trawler type yacht in the 70 to 90 ft range and steel would not be the requirement, I would definatly look at the Horizon Yachts Bandido 75 from the year 2008 towards 2010 and sold by the Drettmann Group of Bremen. These boats are of great quality, are equipped with only the best materials and by the best suppliers and most of them have a nice interior design and layout and their owners are really motivated to sell. They want to upgrade to bigger boats. Means, they are very realisticly priced. You have to like the exterior design but in regard to the tugboat design of a Darwin class trawler, they are real beauties. Search on the Net for Bandido 75, you will find some good examples.
I am not a trawler type but still I like Northern's boats. I share criticism of their web site in that in their news and article section the last article is November 2011 and the last press release is August 2008. On their page of previous builds, their last launch is 2008. They also tell you nothing about their history or ownership that I can see on the site. While a web site isn't a boat, I wish companies would realize it does reflect on them and can be a positive or negative marketing too. Still I like their boats but looking at their web site, I'd think they were out of business. I do hope they find a way to re-energize their business and move forward and am glad to see YF work with them. YF has some excellent information on Northern. Now if they'd just put it on their own site. Their jump from 86' to 161' could also use some filling in between I think. Definitely a builder I'm hoping for success for.
I ran the 76' Northern Marine that is on the banner at the top of the page here. It was a very solid boat. I ran it into a 8-10' head sea on the way to the Palm Beach boat show many years ago and it just ate up everything you threw at it, and you hardly felt it. Northern Marine sold it new, took it back on trade and ran it from Fort Lauderdale to Seattle, and the current owner bought it in Seattle, cruised it through the Panama Canal, down to Brazil, up to Ft. Laud, up to NY and over to the Med. on it's own bottom where it is now. It's long range cruise was 10 knots with a range of 4,000 NM, and at 12 knots it's range was 2,500 miles. They built a 130' called Magic and several others between 80' and 161'. I think I'd take a Northern Marine over a Nordhaven.....the deck on the 76'/80' is ideal for as many toys as you want. You could have a 21' RIB a 21' Center Console, some vespa's and possibly a jet ski..... They've built boats between 80' and 161' ft.