Completion
Loading, Transportation and Launching
The new yacht is lifted with the expert assistance of two work colleagues who were kind enough to also bring the lifting gear.
A trailer is wheeled underneath.
The boat leaves the yard with its new antifouling. Yes, the unusual staying arrangement was extremely effective and stable: supported by physics, not physically supported.
A tow over a few hundred metres closes the distance to the water.
The spring tide is one of the largest of the year: ready to head down the ramp, with a sling tied to the tow bar and a 10-tonne truck to control the descent.
The light hull floats high as expected. No rig or ground tackle or much else on board. The boat was designed in loaded condition for ocean cruising.
A local fisherman kindly arranged a small boat for a tow to a berth nearby and members of the local yacht club came to stand by. The engine was started a couple of weeks later, once the electrical hook-up was complete.
Rigging
Back in the shed, the rig was assembled and halyards run.
The standing rigging was built and attached to the mast. Swageless fittings were used throughout.
No such thing available as a trailer long enough for a 20-metre rig, but what about two trailers then? Corners were just taken slightly wider than usual.
Low tide, a high dock and a hydraulic truck crane provided acceptable clearance to swing the rig above the deck…
… with the mast attached just above the balancing point.
Two days’ work were enough to set the rake, camber and terminate all the shrouds on deck. In the meanwhile, the Spectra halyards and deck collar easily held the spar in place. A good weather window is recommended.
And finally… the new mainsail goes up for the first time at the dock.
Hi Eric
Love your site it is the most informative ( and enjoyable ) I have found, I know this sounds silly but I get just as much enjoyment reading it as when I used to read the old Uffa Fox books? Love your concept of a tough fast cruiser.
I look at the current crop of so called cruising yachts and despair – soulless floating caravans full of crap but that’s where the market is.
On reflection would you make any changes to Nordkyn or do anything differently. Am looking forward to seeing details of bigger version.
My only sailing these days is mostly in an armchair with the occasional excursion in an Etchell, just getting too old.
Hello Nikki,
This is a huge compliment that I certainly wouldn’t expect, thank you.
When it comes to Nordkyn, no, I wouldn’t change anything to the boat itself. It is amazing to sail. I would make very minor improvements inside. The main ones are a longer step immediately inside of the lower companionway washboard (I often step in and out with the board in place) and I would extend the little bench between the companionway and the galley further forward, so it overlaps more with the galley stove for improved bracing. This I could easily do now, but the thought of grinding fiberglass, sanding fillers and spray painting inside has been too unappealing so far.
The idea of a bigger one seems simple, and it is technically trivial, but when you assess how much you also lose in terms of increased construction cost, gear size, weight of the equipment to be handled, effort and maintenance, the answer is not so obvious any more. The interested person has now been wrestling with all this for nearly 2 years and the size keeps converging towards what I have, without ever quite getting there.
Nordkyn largely is an uncompromised boat made for sailing and it can carry a fair payload, but trying to add “features” and generally “wanting more” upsets the equation, because of the added weight. This then calls for a longer hull to carry it and the rig size – which is already considerable – steps up with it. It usually ends up along the lines of “sure, if we make it the size of a small superyacht, you can probably have everything you want. As long as you are happy to own that and you can afford it”. The market definition of value is packing as much as possible in a given length at the best price, here it is getting as much performance as possible while still carrying everything that is really necessary and the budget goes towards this goal, not “features”.
These days, people essentially buy boats from the inside out and actual sailing performance at sea is the last thing to be considered. Everybody in the industry knows that, so yacht design has largely become a form of glorified exercise of interior design and maximisation of the “features”. It is not interesting and I can think of a lot of much better things to do!
Kind regards,
Eric
Eric,
Do you have any writing speaking to the cost of construction of such a boat if in Poland or Thailand or other budget location? I think somewhere you mentioned 300K but I was unclear what that number referred to. (just hull?)
Allen,
I think this sort of thing might have been discussed about the launch Wild South, not Nordkyn. Nordkyn had about US$200K in materials in it. A yard in these countries would be best placed to give you an estimate of labour, given the length and displacement.
I discussed costs in some more details here: https://nordkyndesign.com/the-cost-of-yacht-building/
Kind regards,
Eric