Hi, I live in England and am coming round to the idea of a DD instead of a Nordhavn, so would just like to say thank you to everyone who contributes to this forum. It is fascinating, and I am learning a lot. I had hoped to visit the yard in August, but my trip had to be cancelled. I hope to try again when I visit HKG in November.

I came to the world of Voyaging Under Power by way of Passagemaker Magazine, then Beebe's book then George's Troller Yacht Book. A familiar path, I am sure. I have five years left until I retire from driving jumbo jets around the world, and am leaning more to DD rather than the exhorbitantly priced Nordys. As Nordhavn say, they walk the walk as well as talk the talk, so I am particularly interested in real world reports about DDs at sea. Really out there! It is obvious to me that DD represent exceptional value for money, but I have to convince the Admiral that she doesn't need megayacht standards of finish inside!

Any advice much appreciated as my experience is confined to coastal cruising in a Tarquin Trader 41 with twin 120HP Lehmans.

Many thanks to you all, Colin

Colin, By all means get yourself over to China and See the Kimley's product and their boatbuilding operation. In November you can see Randal's 462-05 in the water now being commissioned and a goodly number under the shed in various stages of production. In addition two completed 462s will be lying in Hong Kong preparing to head south early in the new year.

Five years before retirement is not too soon to get the project started, whatever it may be.

Dave
Kwakatu
462-04

Thanks Dave, I'm really looking forward to visiting the yard. The two 462s in HKG waiting to head south, where are they headed? Would dearly love info on the ride with stabilisers. The Admiral disliked three things on our last boat (we are boatless at the moment); the noise, the motion and the smell of exhaust. Towed vanes will hopefully help the motion, I presume noise levels are low but the wet exhaust is unattractive. Most original duck drawings in the book are dry exhaust, but I see the 462 is wet. Apart from cost advantages, anyone got any thoughts on why the exhaust is built this way, and any input from owners about my three areas of concern?

Where is Kwakatu lying Dave?

Regards, Colin

When I was living on a Tug, I hated the Wet Exhaust. Even though I slept up high in the Wheelhouse, the exhaust from the genny always entered the cabin areas. The Wet Exhaust came out the Port Bow near the forward bit. About 1/3 of the way back from the bow. Exhaust was above the waterline below the rub rail. The problem with this location is that the fumes get trapped between the concrete wall and the boat when docked Port-side to. Even underway, with way-on, the fumes would sometime get into the wheelhouse if the wind shifted just right, even at a 7 Kn. Cruise.
I plan to go with a Dry Stack. I think you need to get the exhaust as high as possible. They had a dry stack on the 280Ft Cruise Ship I served on. I would think the Dry-Stack would need a flapper at the top or a rain cap to put on it for when engine is shut-down.

Thanks for that Mark. We feel the same, it somehow always seems to permeate the boat! I presume Seahorse will do a dry stack if asked?

Regards, Colin

Colin, Please get in touch with Bill Kimley, I have asked him to give you my e-mail address so I can answer your questions regarding the location of Kwakatu. She is presently lying at the commissioning dock at Seahorse Marine and will be moving on in a week or so.

Dave

Thanks Dave. Will do.

Regards, Colin

Colin you can happily tell your wife that the standard of finish in the 462 is as good as you would get on a Nordhavn...I have followed our boat from rusty steel visiting the yard every 8-10 weeks....they are solid and well finished and a fraction of the price.....personally I do not prefer the standard layout with two free floating chairs...but that is fine Bill modified the layout to the way I wanted it.....the 462 is a first rate sea boat with a beautiful finnish straight out of the box...! you don't need to visit...during construction as you can use Ray Wolf as your surveyor to keep an eye on it.

Well, we finally visited the yard in January, and we were both hugely impressed with everything we saw.

Carole was unimpressed with the layout of the 462 before we visited, thinking that walking down from the pilothouse would be like entering a cave-like sailing boat but we were both bowled over by the amout of natural light from the portholes and the overhead hatches. It was extremely light and spacious and coupled with the aft cabin and the flying bridge, we were hooked!

The only reason we were able to come to the conclusion that a 462 was for us instead of the sedan is because we could crawl all over Ruth and Randall's absolutely stunning Dora Mac which was very close to completion. I would like to publicly thank Randall for sharing his time, his ideas and his boat with complete strangers. Very kind, and it would have been impossible to make any decisions without being on a completed boat. So, thank you Ruth and Randall!

As Don says earlier, the fit and finish is superb and met with the Admiral's approval.

Another public thank you to Bill and Stella for their hospitality and their patience with lots of stupid questions. I get the impression that Bill has fielded most of them before, but his enthusiam for the project is obvious and we were made most welcome. There is no sales pressure, probably because Bill realises the boat sels itself. The only problem on a visit is you would have to view what is there. There is no company demonstrater or salesmen, which obviously keeps the costs down!

That brings me full circle to once again say thanks to Ruth and Randall.

Best wishes to all from a hugely impressed couple of Brits.

Colin