We all know that Nordhavn owners like to go far. In fact, they’ve gone just about everywhere in the world, including going around it many times. But now we know exactly how far they’ve all gone – 7 million nautical miles, and that’s pretty far indeed.
To track its owners’ progress, and the miles they put under their hulls, Nordhavn started a Distance Pennant program 12 years ago. Owners post their mileage, and earn a different pennant, as they go along, starting with 2,500 nm and then jumping up in 5,000 nm increments. So far, 487 owners have joined; many have earned 100,000 nm pennants, some have circumnavigation pennants, and a few have Extreme Latitude pennants, for going above (or below) all others.
But the 7 million mark was a milestone, and it was passed at 4 p.m. (Pacific Time, since Nordhavn’s headquarters are in Dana Point, California) on Oct. 20. Appropriately enough, the vessel that registered the 7 millionth mile was hull number one of the Nordhavn 46 series – the very first Nordhavn ever built (pictured above).
It is now owned by George Barnard, who posted the 18,000 nm he had traveled since he bought the boat in 2014 – and cruised since then to the Bahamas, Nova Scotia, Alaska, and La Paz, Mexico.
The boat was built in 1989, at the then-new South Coast Marine yard in Taiwan. It was powered by a single 143-hp Lugger diesel, carried 1,000 gallons of fuel, and had a range of 3,000 nm at 8.3 knots. (Nordhavn, by the way, is Norwegian for North Harbor, since the first Nordhavns seemed to look like North Sea fishing trawlers.)
Nordhavns, of course, did not stop cruising after the 7 million mile mark. As of this week, they had registered 7,022,204 nm in the pennant program. Read more:
