PMY TESTED: OBOI:IA\l~:i COASTAL P- LOI

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This gold-plater makes midrange coastal cruising more fun than ever.

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BY CAP~ BILL PIKE PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID J. SHULER

Over the past year or so, I've spent a fair amount of

time aboard Pacific Asian Enterprises' (P AE) Nord­

havn 35 Coastal Pilot, first skippering the stout, little

semidisplacement beauty through the Berry Islands

in the Bahamas (see "Don't Worry, Be Happy," July

2001), then giving her a more scientific wring-out on

Lake Worth, south of Palm Beach. Each experience was as educational as it was fun. The ten-day cruise

through the Berrys, which featured sea conditions

from mellifluous to mangy, spotlighted the boat's

comfort quotient and seaworthiness. Indeed, for a

cruising couple, there's no finer vessel on the market

today in my opinion . Testing on Lake Worth show­

cased the 35's operating efficiency and versatility: a

top speed of 17.9 mph that offers genuine get-home

potential in an emergency and slower displacement speeds that conjure range figures in the thousands of

miles, portending virtual epochs between fuel stops.

Let's check out the cruise first. Last February, with

the 35 's fuel and water tanks topped off and enough

stores stowed to sustain a pack of ravenous gour­

mands for a month, a couple of friends and I left

Miami Beach Marina en route to Great Harbor Cay, a distance of approximately 120 NM. The deep­

water portion of the all-night passage across the Gulf

Stream went smoother than a hound dog's nose,

with nary a hint of a roll, and a glorious sunset for entertainment. Not long after we sniffed the shal­

lows of the Great Bahamas Bank, however, a storm

sprang up and began slamming us with six- to

eight-foot head seas. In response, I pulled the Morse

Single-lever control back from 1500 to 1000 rpm, as

much to ensure a daylight ani val in Great Harbor as

to smooth the ride, and we slogged on valiantly,

taking big slugs of water over the bow and up the

foredeck every now and again and pounding

mightily each time we plunged into a deep trough.

I loved every minute ofit. Keeping tabs on other

vessels from the teaky helm station was a snap,

thanks to the large, commerCial-grade Diamond Sea

Glaze windows that circumscribe the saloon/helm area. More- The dinette and L-shape lounge convert to a big. comfy berth.

over, the convenient layout of instruments, gauges, and related equipage on or above the steering station was a testament to the sea-savviness of the folks at PAE, a company that's been

designing and building highly efficient, displacement-type ocean-crossers for years. Without stirring appreciably from the helm seat, I could see and/or adjust everything I needed to: the Furuno CRT-type radar, the Ritchie compass, the gauges for our single 370-hp Yanmar diesel, the Icom VHF, the beelining Robertson autopilot, and the Compaq Presario laptop, with Nobeltec electronic cartography.

And I was totally comfortable. Fresh, fragrant air wafted past, entering via the slightly opened Lewmar hatch in the overhead

and departing through the Dutch-type door at the rear of the saloon, the top half of which we'd latched open for ventilation. The hooded Furuno swept a reassuringly sharp picture at the 6-, 12-, and even 24-mile range. (Nordhavn maximizes radar

performance by mounting the scanner high on a standard, Awlgrip-painted aluminum mast.) The sound of the Yanmar

62 POWER & MOTORY ACHT December 2002

beneath my feet was smooth, confidence-inspiling, and muted, thanks in part to a three-inch-thick noise-nixing fiberglass

engine-room door with commercial-type dogs and an equally thick jacket of sound-stopping insulation within the engine room itself, every bit of it nicely paneled wi th a nodized sheets of white perforated aluminum.

Around midnight on our crossing I decided to grab a nap, while the rest of the crew stood wheel watches. Thanks to unobtrusive but effective cOUltesy lighting, going below was no sweat, despite the motion of the boat. Working from one

solid handhold to the next, I descended the stairway to the lower deck, then continued forward, proceeding between the U-shape galley to port and the shower-stall-equipped head to starboard. I then entered the only stateroom, an ample master

that was especially inviting at the time. The decor is straight­up nautical : off-white Formica-covered bulkheads accented with varnished teak trim a nd cabinetry. There's a bureau to

starboard, with teak fiddles on top, a couple of nightstands on either side of the queen-size berth, and a raft of hanging lockers lined with fragrant camphor wood. Extracting a Louis I' Amour western from my sea bag, I hit the rack, flicked on the reading light, flicked off the main and courtesy lights, and quickly read myself into a snooze.

We enjoyed fine weather and uneventful bliss for the rest of the cruise, all the way to Nassau, although there's one aspect of the trip that underscores the virtues of the 35's galley. Be­cause we made a host of friends during our two-day stay at Great Harbor Cay Marina, we threw a party on the eve of our departure, inviting a dozen people. The focus of festivities was a feed of deep-fried snapper, black beans, and yellow rice, with dinner rolls and attendant salads and sides, all whipped up in our U-shape galley. The success of the party was in large part due to a step-saving layout, a raft of Corian countertops, a big double sink, and a standard oven-equipped, three-burner Seaward propane stove installed in a restaurant-style, stainless steel-lined alcove, sliding Diamond Sea Glaze window (with screen), 6.8-cubic foot Nova Kool reefer (with freezer on the bottom), and range hood dam near powerful enough to suck pots off the stove.

Lake Worth may not be as exotic as the Bahamas, but it is protected, generally calm, and marina-fringed, a great venue for gauging both the maneuverability and the performance of any boat. On the fi rst score, I was much impressed with the 35.

Crisply fit teak joinery and lots of stowage highlight the master.

Thanks to a la rge rudder, gutsy Sidepower electriC bow thruster, and the propulsion oomph inherent in a large, diesel-powered, four-bladed prop, I quickly confirmed an earlier impression:

PMY TESTED: NORDHAVN 3S COASTAL PILOT

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Base price: $369,000 with 1/370·hp Yanmm 6LYA·STP diesel inbamd Optional power: 1/440·hp Yanmm 6LY2A· STP diesel inbamd Standard equipment: Muir Windlass; 3/Lew· mOl hatches; Forespm hinged mast and baam; 2/ darade vents; 2,500·watt Heart Interface Freedom 25 bottery chmger/inverter; II-gal. Seaword water heater; ITT Jabsca Por Max 3 water pump; Whale freshwater system w/quick· connects; welded-aluminum fuel tanks w/Wema dash gauges and sight gauges; day tank w/sight gauge; Trident fuel lines w/brass flore fittings; bonding system w/#l 0 wire. shaft brush, and Newmor galvanic isolator SPECIFICATIONS LOA: 35'4¥." Beam: 13'2" Dralt: 3'8" Weight: 24,000 Ibs. Fuel capacity: 590 gal. Water copacity: 165 gal. Test engine: 1/ 370·hp Yanmor 6LYA·STP Transmission/ratio: IF Hurth HSW 800/ 2.85 1 Prop: 28x24 bronze 4-blade Steering: Hynautic hydraulic Control: Morse Optional equipment on test boat: crow's nest; inflatable w/autbaord; 8·kW Fisher Panda genset; 26,000'Btu Cruisair A/C; Lewmor hatch above wheelhause; PYI PSS dripless shaft seal Price as tested: $403,220

ACCELERATION CURVE

--10 20 30 40 50

Time (seconds) Acceleration based on overage of 4 reciprocal runs using Sta lker AlS radar gun and Ocean PC laptop.

RPM MPH GPH MPG SM NM DECIBELS TRtM (KtIDTS) (NMPGI RANGE RANGE (DEGREES

700 5.4 (4.7) 0.4 13.50 (11.74) 7,169 6,233 58 0.00 1000 7.3(6.3) 0.8 9.13 (7.93) 4,845 4,213 63 0.00 1500 9.1 (7 .9) 1.5 6.03 (5.25) 3,204 2,786 64 0,00 2000 10.2 (8 ,9 ) 3.2 3.19 (2.77) 1,693 1,472 71 0.50 2500 112 (9.7) 7.9 1.42 (123) 753 655 73 3.00 3000 12.7 (11.0) 15.1 0.84 (0.73) 445 387 76 7.00 3300 17.9 (15.6) 19.2 0.93 (0.81) 495 430 80 4.50

Conditions: temperature: 89'; humidity: 82%; wind: 10·15 mph; seas: l ' to 2'; load: 200 gal. fuel, 165 ga l. water, 2 persons, 600 Ibs. gear. Speeds are two-way overages measured w/ Stalker radar gun. GPH measured with Caterpillar fuel ·monitoring system. Range: 90% of advertised fuel capacity, Decibels measu red on A scole. 65 d8 is the level of normal con versation. All measurements token with trim tobs fully retracted,

laying alongside a dock with the 35, pivoting in a fairway, taining sternway and steering with the thruster.

backing into a slip, or accomplishing virtually any other The 35's engine room, a well-lit place with kneeling head­boathandling chore is pie-easy. I kid you not-at one pOint, I room, is loaded with commerCia l-grade features, two of which literally drove the 35 backwards into a marina by simply main- stand out. The first is a smart, user-friendly fuel system. It starts

December 2002 POWER & MOTORYACHT 63

The second feature is safety-related. In addition to a whopping, belt-driven, 8-gpm ITT jabsco 36600 bilge pump with high-end, magnetic Ultra Sr. float switch, there's a backup Edson manual pump with a 30-gpm capacity and an easy-to-get­at handle. Besides being 32 inches long for extra leverage, the handle winds up inside the boat, when installed through a small hatch in the sole of the dinette area. About the last thing you need in an emergency is exposure to wind and seas.

A compact helm station? Yes, but also co mprehensive and complete.

Of course, there's just one problem with build­ing and outfitting a boat the way the 35 is built and outfitted: moolah . With a base price of

with two heavy-duty, saddle-type, sight-gauge-equipped, welded-aluminum tanks (with baffles and large inspection plates) that gravity feed into a low, daytank-like, welded-alu­minum "fuel-supply reservoir" forward of the engine on cen­terline. It's workboat-like, but extra plumbing adds pizzazz. Supply and return lines for engines and the optional genset and attendant valves are plumbed into and out of this reser­

voir, so uneven fuel loading is precluded, and an easy-to-see sight gauge can be used to directly measure fuel burn.

$369,000, this salty little coastal cruiser is undeni­ably expensive. Indeed, according to the folks at PAE,

keeping costs low was not a big priority in designing and building the 35 Coastal Pilot. The point was to simply create the best turnkey boat possible and make her a perfect cruiser for a couple. Fondness and familiarity tell me they've suc­ceeded, and then some. 0

Pacific Asian Enterprises ~ (949) 496-4848. Fax: (949)

240-2398. www.nordhavn.com. Enter code xapy, Reader Se/vice

No. 252, at www./eadnet.com.

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