The Real Cost of Owning a Nordhavn, From Owners With 33,000nm

Frank and Leslie Coles have cruised just over 33,000nm on two Nordhavn trawlers, a Nordhavn 62 and now a Nordhavn 64, since 2021. They first started living aboard full time on a sailing catamaran before making the move to passage-making trawlers and long-range cruising. They share what it costs to own and maintain a Nordhavn every year, what a pre-purchase survey found on a Nordhavn 64 that had sat on the market for two years, and why Frank would rather buy a two-year-old boat than build new. If you are weighing a trawler, a passage maker, or a move aboard, this is the ownership conversation you want to hear.

Maryline Bossar and Amanda Haley, co-founders of Current Yachts and host of Full Displacement, sat down with the couple behind the YouTube channel MV Kariwa. Frank spent 12 years in the merchant marine, rose to captain, practiced maritime law, and ran shipping fleets in Hong Kong. Leslie had barely been on a boat before moving aboard and now handles the engine room checks on passage.

Resources & Contact

🛥️ Follow MV Kariwa: https://www.youtube.com/@MVKariwaN64
⬇️ Download Frank & Leslie's Preventative Maintenance checklists:

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What we cover:

✔️ UPSIZING FROM A NORDHAVN 62 TO A 64. A back injury ended their first round-the-world attempt in Tahiti. What brought them back: the 64's stand-up engine room, two extra feet of beam, and a 2006 hull in place of a 1997 one.
✔️BUYING A PROJECT BOAT. The 64 had been listed for over two years, still had its original interior, and carried a long list of deferred maintenance. They bought it for roughly a million dollars below where the seller first priced it, then worked to a fixed repair budget with their broker, whose company also services Nordhavns.
✔️ TWO SURVEYORS, NOT ONE. A hull and systems surveyor, plus a Detroit Diesel specialist who pulled the cylinder head and found a broken injector spring. Their insurer limited them to 5 miles offshore until every red item on the survey was fixed.
✔️THE PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE ROUTINE. Daily, weekly and monthly lists: all 42 seacocks exercised every month, hydraulic hoses checked for chafe, electrical connections retightened every month or two, and engine room checks every four hours underway.
✔️ WHAT IT COSTS TO OWN. Frank's numbers from two 60-plus-foot Nordhavns: plan on 10% of hull value per year for maintenance as a baseline, closer to 15% in the first years after buying a used boat with deferred work. They have not run under six figures in a year.
✔️ WHY A LIVEABOARD BOAT CAN BE THE BETTER BUY. Systems that get used every day tend to keep working. A low-hour boat that sat for three years often does not.
✔️ NEW BUILD VS. A TWO-YEAR-OLD BOAT. Why Frank would rather let the first owner work out the kinks, add the lithium and solar, and put on the first few hundred hours.
✔️ THE NORDHAVN COMMUNITY. The Nordhavn Owners Group, rendezvous with more than 60 boats, and a transatlantic rally in the works.

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