For many years, we’ve been planning to buy a world-capable trawler as our next boat. Dirona is ideal for extended cruising in the Pacific Northwest while we are working, and we expected to purchase the next boat when we retired and had time for longer-range cruising, perhaps in a decade or so. The plan was that this next boat would be our final boat, built solidly enough that it would outlive us.

We’ve been interested in a Nordhavn as that boat since way back in 2001, when we first requested in information packet from PAE. We eventually realized that if this boat were going to outlive us, it made more sense to get it sooner and enjoy it for an extra ten years, rather than wait until we retired. So last year we purchased Nordhavn 5263.

The Nordhavn 52 is an enhanced 47. Standard upgrades include a 5-foot cockpit extension, a 2-foot boat deck extension, a restyled flybridge and 200 gallons additional fuel capacity. The boat molded a few weeks ago, and we expect to take delivery this winter. We’ll post more details as the project progresses.