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| Motor Boat & Yachting Online | Return to www.nordhavn.com |
| Nordhavn 57 | Report date: December 2004 |
| In this speed-obsessed modern age, can
a tortoise really whip a hare? We go on test with the Nordhavn 57, a slow boat with a hard shell but a wonderfully comfortable and practical interior. |
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Contents |
| Introduction | |
| Lateral thinking | |
| On deck | |
| Driving the Nordhavn 57 | |
| Accomodation | |
| Engineering and construction | |
| Verdict | |
| Specifications | |
| Engines | |
| Contact | |
| This report was published in the December
2004 edition of Motor Boat & Yachting. Text David Marsh Photos Lester
McCarthy It is independently hosted by ybw.com, the home of www.mby.com and offered exclusively to view in this full version by www.nordhavn.com |
| Introduction |
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| Top |
| Lateral thinking |
 There’s
no doubt that the 57 will mainly attract the intrepid cruising folk it is
so obviously aimed at, but it’s worth a moments’ lateral thinking
before you dismiss this ten-knot boat as unsuitable for anything other than
crossing oceans. During the two days we spent on board, a couple of things
struck me quite forcibly. Firstly, because the interior layout majors on
sociable living areas rather than guest cabin space, the 57 works brilliantly
as a weekend cottage and party-animal boat, which is how so many of the
more glitzy flybridge boats are exclusively used nowadays. And given the
number of boats that hardly ever venture beyond the marina, going nowhere
at ten knots is no different to going nowhere at 30. A second point is the price: the 57 represents outstanding value for money. That you can buy such a monumental, highly specified, semi-custom boat of such elevated quality for the same sort of money as a similarly sized mainstream production boat is almost beyond belief. There’s a final point too. The feisty conditions on the day of our test served to remind me of how temperamental the world’s weather is becoming: the Solent was so rough that the Nordhavn 57 was making better headway than MBY’s 37-knot Sunseeker 37 Sportsfisher. So although the Nordhavn 57 is limited to around ten knots (13 knots with twin engines) there is the guarantee that you’ll be able to go boating whatever the weather, and that you’ll always reach your destination on time because you’ll never need to slow down. I pondered my cruising habits past and present. How often have I postponed a cruise due to the threat of bad weather? How frequently have I had to wallow at something below planing speeds because of rough conditions? And if my trips are relatively short, does the increased passage time really add that much to the overall time involved in driving down from the city, victualling the boat, and heading slowly downriver into open water? If you are used to whizzing along at 30 knots, slowing to a cruising speed of ten requires a major mental adjustment. But with the weather as it is nowadays, the Nordhavn 57 puts another spin on the tale of the tortoise and the hare. |
| Top |
| On deck |
 Walkaround
decks add to the safety levels on any boat, but they do gobble up space
in the saloon. Nordhavn’s designer Jeff Leishman has a novel solution
– design the boat as a one-sided walkaround. It sounds bizarre, but
it works well. The saloon benefits considerably from the extra room, and
it doesn’t detract from the boat’s rugged, business-like looks.
Instead of the usual pair of side-doors, the 57 has two pairs: one in the pilothouse and another adjacent to the galley. Thanks to these and the Portuguese bridge running around the front of the pilothouse, moving quickly and safely around the 57 is very easy, and the missing port-side walkaround is something we never noticed in practice. If I were the owner, most of the few things I’d want to change concerned the flybridge. Safe as the 57 is, the steep steps from the cockpit up to the flybridge would be safer if their treads were fashioned from grippy teak, not fibreglass. And although the diamond-pattern non-slip works fine and its muted grey is easier on the eyes in bright conditions, it does not run over the edges of the two shallow steps from the flybridge floor to the raised helm. During our wet-weather testing, I skidded off these slippery edges several times. A thick teak nosing recessed into the edges of these steps would make them a safer bet. Nordhavn also said they would be happy to add more handrails where I suggested – around the companionway hatch and down the inside faces of the big mast. Otherwise, there are few places on deck more than an arm-stretch away from a sturdy 35mm-diameter stainless handrail. With nothing to hold them up, I found the fiddly perspex covers protecting the flybridge instruments a real nuisance, particularly when operating the VHF. Given that these instruments are waterproof, I’d get rid of the perspex, and fit a single canvas cover that protected the whole lot and would only be used in harbour. Finally, I’d add deep teak fiddles around the two huge near-horizontal dash panels so they could be used to corral odds and ends. Of course, this is nit-picking stuff that is all easily modified, but it illustrates how well sorted the 57 is everywhere else. |
| Top |
| Driving the Nordhavn 57 |
 The
reality of long-distance cruising is such that few owners will ever drive
their 57 for more than a few moments – they’ll leave it to their
autopilot and chart plotter. So it’s not much use commenting on the
helm ergonomics because 99.9% of the time owners will be relaxing in their
wonderfully comfortable and fully adjustable Stidd seats, and when they
park they will be standing up. Either way, the visibility from both helm
positions is excellent, and when you are mooring, the numerous side-doors
allow you to quickly scoot out to check on clearances and so on.If you plan to handle the boat short-handed, the 57’s hydraulic thrusters (unlike electric thrusters) can be left running, pinning you down to the dock against an unco-operative wind and tide while you step ashore with the lines for a standing ovation. Nordhavn president Dan Streech estimates that their 25hp apiece could counterbalance a 20-knot (Force 5) broadside, but any stronger than that and you would need to be more inventive in prising yourself off the pontoon. There is no doubt that even with powerful bow and stern thrusters, a single-engine boat is ultimately not as manoeuvrable around the marina as a boat with twins. But with so little time spent manoeuvring, is that really important? There is a twin-engine option for nervous parkers, but the extra speed and manoeuvrability that can provide has to be weighed against the losses in efficiency, cruising range and engineroom space. Nordhavn’s approach to long-distance cruising works so perfectly with a big, efficient slow-revving single engine that it would be a shame to forsake their fundamental design ethos. We had perfect Nordhavn 57 weather for testing, a stiff Force 6, gusting 7 and 8, with a confused swell that kept all but the bravest ashore. The unassisted hydraulic steering is relatively heavy, but when you do drag the big wheel round its four turns lock-to-lock, the 57 turns surprisingly quickly and precisely. To best keep an eye out for the Solent traffic, I drove from the flybridge, but it was easy to nip down the shallow steps to the pilothouse, the navigational heart of the 57. Ocean crossing is bound to involve much bigger waves than the lumps we encountered, but big ocean swells are invariably much more widely spaced, and it’s likely that the Solent swell provided the 57 with as unsettling conditions as the 54-tonne boat would ordinarily have to deal with. With its TRAC active fin stabilisers engaged, it bobbed up and down a bit – however heavy, no vessel can escape the buoyancy in its bow and stern – but even subject to our manic twisting and turning as we circled round our photo boat, the 57 always remained composed and largely upright. The overriding impression the boat leaves is that however rough the conditions you encounter, the ride will remain gentle. Our speed trials took us along Southampton Water. Flat out we achieved 10.2 knots, at which speed we could have circumnavigated the 1,461 miles round Britain with full tanks. At a leisurely six knots, we could have added another 2,000 miles to our journey. In these calmer waters, opening the flybridge companionway and pilothouse side-doors to peer aft and check for traffic was easy, but in more ferocious door-shut conditions you would find that the view aft is very restricted. Nordhavn are happy to add aft-facing cameras, and this is something I’d recommend, along with removing the dark tint from the companionway door. As expected, the 54-tonne full-displacement form obeyed the law of rapidly increasing returns: drop just 2.2 knots off the top speed to eight knots and the fuel consumption drops to half its 12.4gph level at 10.2 knots. |
| Top |
| Accommodation |
 Inside
the 57, perhaps the thing you will notice most is the deafening silence.
Subdued conversation hovers around 65dB(A), and at a relaxed eight-knot
cruising speed all the areas on board are quieter than this. Herein lies
one of the 57’s great advantages over the conventional 30-knot planing
powerboat. It may take a long time to reach your destination, but thanks
to the 57’s gentle motion and whisper-quiet progress, the journey
can be so much more than just a means to an end. You can chat and fraternise,
cook and eat, or even sleep under way.Compared with the archetypal planing boat, the layout concentrates on the sociability of its saloon, the workings of its pilothouse and the space in the owners’ full-beam cabin, at the expense of room in the main guest cabin and particularly the tiny twin guest cabin. Boats like the Sealine T60 have far better guest quarters, but the 57’s enormous engineroom and lazarette play their parts, occupying around 50% of the 57’s length compared with about 30% on the T60. So the correspondingly reduced space in the forward cabins is no shortcoming: it is a deliberate trade-off that reflects the Nordhavn 57’s intended use. Interestingly, plans for Nordhavn’s new 72 show a palatial twin-cabin arrangement forward, and I suspect that some 57 owners will do likewise and absorb the small twin guest cabin space into the forward stateroom. In line with the 57’s intended use, there’s an abundance of stowage and much of it in the most practical sea-going form as deep drawers. There’s bags in the pilothouse and the forward cabin, and particularly around the owner’s stateroom with 20 drawers supplementing its other stowage.  Only
the galley qualifies as merely average. It’s okay but certainly no
better than a similar-sized European flybridge cruiser, and gastronomic
ocean voyagers may feel a shade squeezed. Our boat majored on fridge space
at the expense of freezer space, but photos of another 57 revealed Nordhavn’s
flexibility in this area, and it’s clear that they are happy to modify
details to suit their owners. On this score, I’d be asking for two changes. Firstly, that the microwave be moved to a far safer place than its dangerous overhead position. Secondly, that the open locker behind the owner’s bedhead be blanked off so that you no longer fall into the big hole when you sit up in bed to watch TV. My special request would be that all Nordhavn’s lovely dovetailed drawers run along the slick domestic runners that are a feature of even quite inexpensive boats nowadays. It’s a small detail I know, but the 57’s unrefined wooden drawer runners seem strangely at odds with the rest of the boat, which is almost universally superbly detailed, beautifully crafted and thoughtfully designed. |
| Top |
| Engineering and construction |
 Nordhavn
have built an engineroom to die for. The almost perfect accessibility of
all the machinery is a good starting point, to which they add exemplary
installation quality. And you can move around here safely under way, which
is essential for long-distance voyaging. Beyond these fundamentals, there is a tremendous attention to detail. The standard machinery specification is impressive and there are some great touches, such as the excellent lighting, the stainless steel workbench and toolbox, and the Walker Airsep filtration unit, which explains why the enamelled engineroom linings have remained pristine despite an Atlantic crossing. One tiny but telling example of the depth of detail is the small hull cavity just outside the engineroom door, home to a few wires and a motor. Nordhavn have fitted an auto-switching light in here, so you don’t have to reach for the torch if you need to inspect this relatively inconsequential space. There’s far too much detail like this to list, but if you extrapolate the approach throughout the 57, you will have some idea just how well engineered the boat is. Just like the tortoise, the 57 has a tough shell. Its full-displacement form make it less prone to the effects of excess weight than a planing boat, and Nordhavn have taken full advantage of this fact. Suffice to say that the hull and deck laminates are around three times thicker than those on a Fairline Squadron 58, and almost twice as thick as the tremendously sturdy Grand Banks Eastbay 58. And its highly curved panels and long, deep keel add yet more strength. I have not encountered a production boat, even a steel one, which is as remotely strong as the 57. |
| Top |
| The Verdict |
 There
are two ways to judge the Nordhavn 57. Marked on its own terms, simply as
a low-speed long-distance cruiser with ocean-crossing potential, it scores
extremely highly. Driven slowly enough, its single Lugger engine is capable
of pushing you across the widest of oceans with no more than a whisper emanating
from its enormous and immaculately engineered machinery room. Its stabilised
ride and 54-tonne full-displacement hull will cosset you with the gentlest
of rides, and there is the promise of safety and security when wild conditions
strike. And woe betide anything you encounter along the way; in a collision
with a floating steel container, I’d put my money firmly on the 57’s
monumental but refined construction.It is not quite perfect: there are minor details that could be improved, particularly around the flybridge, though none of these would be difficult to deal with. Nordhavn exude a tremendous pride in their boats, and having chatted to their president and their UK agent, I have no doubt that they would jump at sensible suggestions if they thought that they could make their 57 even better. What amazed me as much as the 57’s monumental build quality and tremendous practical detailing was its remarkable price – no more than a similarly sized mainstream production powerboat. And this provides the chance for lateral thinkers to judge the 57 in another way. Strange as it may seem, as a radical and outwardly butch alternative to the archetypal weekend cottage and twice-a-year cruiser, the 57 fares very well indeed. It is spacious, comfortable, quiet, refined, bulletproof, economical, and safe as houses in any conditions. Its single drawback is that it plods along at ten knots. This may seem tedious to many modern boaters brought up on a diet of glitzy 30-knot speedsters, but I bet that lots of them drive their kids to school in a Toyota Landcruiser Amazon and feel no shame. MBY |
| Top |
| RPM | 1.000 | 1,100 | 1,200 | 1,300 | 1,400 | 1,500 | 1,600 | 1,700 | 1,865 |
| SPEED | 6.2 | 6.8 | 7.4 | 8.0 | 8.5 | 9.0 | 9.4 | 9.8 | 10.2 |
| GPH | 2.4 | 3.2 | 4.1 | 5.1 | 6.1 | 7.5 | 8.9 | 10.2 | 12.4 |
| MPG | 2.56 | 2.10 | 1.82 | 1.57 | 1.39 | 1.20 | 1.06 | 0.96 | 0.82 |
| RANGE | 4,553 | 3,724 | 3,231 | 2,792 | 2,470 | 2,129 | 1,875 | 1,703 | 1,461 |
| Speed in knots; GPH & MPG figures use imperial
gallons; range in nautical miles. NB: we ran in two directions to cancel the effect of wind and tide, but at these low speeds, wayward tidal eddies have a disproportionate effect, so please treat all our figures with caution. Trials conducted with stabilisers switched off. Calculated figures based on standard (idealised) engine propeller demand data. Your figures will vary (sometimes considerably) depending on: air, water, engineroom & fuel temperature; hull fouling; sea state; fuel, water, stores & crew load; build weight variations; boatbuilders’ changes & extras fitted; propeller and gearbox variations; pressure; humidity; sun intensity; rope cutters; exhaust back pressure; running trim; generator use; fuel quality; engine condition; and other factors. Range does not allow for any reserve; 100% fuel, 45% water, 5 crew, no stores; 18ęC air temp, 16ęC water temp, 1,011mb pressure; 1ft chop, Force 3 for speed trials Cruising any speed from 6.5 knots up Flat out 10.2 knots, 1,461 miles @ 1,865rpm |
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| Contact |
| Neil at Nordhavn. Tel: +44 (0)23 8045 6342. Fax: +44 (0)23 8045 7741. Email: europesales@nordhavn.com Website: www.nordhavn.com |
| Motor Boat & Yachting Online | Return to www.nordhavn.com |
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| This boat report is hosted by www.ybw.com,
home of www.mby.com. No unauthorised reproduction permitted, all rights reserved. |
It’s difficult not to be overawed by the monumental scale of everything
you encounter the first time you wander round the decks of the Nordhavn
57. Is it a 57 or a 97? If you’re used to life on board the archetypal
57ft European flybridge boat, you’ll soon figure that this Nordhavn
has inherited an utterly different boating DNA.