Hull 2 Progress

We are getting ready to deliver hull 2, a beautiful pale yellow color. This boat is headed for Annapolis, MD next month on Yacht Path. They will deliver it in Port Everglades, FL and Robert Noyce, our Mid-Atlantic representative will ferry it up the coast.
The radar arch is being installed prior to sea trial launch.
With the travel lift in place, she will make the short trip to the ramp and then into the water.
The sea trial went very smoothly with no issues. We still have a couple of weeks worth of work to finish her up but that will be completed with the boat in the water. Here she sits at the dock at the conclusion of the sea trial
A word about the bow thruster:
This is the ABT (American Bow Thruster) unit. It is the most powerful thruster I have used on a boat of this size. It is a 24 volt unit with its own dedicated battery bank of 2 8D batteries. The great thing about it is the fact that it won't overheat and shut down like most electric thrusters. ABT tells us that you can run it until the batteries go dead (about 4-5 minutes of continuous running) and it will keep on thrusting the entire time. I don't think you can ever say that your bow thruster is too powerful. In strong winds, it gives you a lot of confidence when docking.
The owner of this boat opted for the 5 blade prop, smooth as silk. The acceleration and top speed is higher than Nor'wester, but that is due primarily to the absence of stabilizers and a lighter boat (no hydraulics, watermaker, extra fuel, etc.).

Hull 3 is coming along nicely though I don't have any pictures to post yet. I will when I can.

Catching Up...........

I am sorry that I am so tardy in posting an update. Since we returned with the boat from Nanaimo, we have been busy getting ready for the Seattle Boats Afloat Show on Lake Union and working hard to finish hull 2.

Jan and I took Nor'wester down to Seattle a couple of weeks ago in preparation for the show. The weather was clear, cold and quite windy but the winds were from the North so the trip was smooth and uneventful. On the way down, while sitting in the sun filled, toasty warm pilothouse we chuckled as we remembered why we now love trawlers. We reminisced about the decision to move to trawlers that was made on our trip back from Princess Louisa back in 2001. I still remember how cold and miserable we were.

We had no sooner positioned Nor'wester for the show when both Jan and I started to come down with the flu. The Monday and Tuesday prior to the show's Thursday opening found me wishing someone would just shoot me. I don't think I have felt that bad in many years. We managed to survive but as I write this, I still have a lingering cough.

Our slot at the show could not have been better. We were on a corner where people could see the boat from all angles.
The weather this year at the show was horrid. The cold wind blew so hard that the docks started to come apart. The boat show crew was great but they had to constantly monitor the situation so that no boats got damaged or people injured. I think that some days the winds blew more than 30knots. We had rain wind and snow. Below is a picture taken shortly before the show opened one morning.
This was certainly a far cry from La Paz. (take me back.....please)

While attendance was off by over 20% compared to last year, we were very busy. At times we had more than a dozen people aboard to see Nor'wester. I spent most of the show on the boat and I don't think there was any time during the day that there wasn't someone aboard. We now have our fingers crossed that the enthusiasm showed by our visitors will turn into boat sales. The economy is not good right now, but our clients don't seem to be too affected. Ten days is a long boat show and while I do enjoy shows, it was great to get home and unwind.

Northwest 45

We are getting ready to announce a designation change for the NW42

Less than three years ago we kicked off the design program for the Northwest Trawler line. Throughout the process, we conducted ongoing discussions with our customers and continued to explore the latest innovations with our design and manufacturing team. During this time the boat we have always referred to as the NW42 underwent a remarkable metamorphosis. The result is a vessel with an overall tip to tip length closer to 46 feet (including bow roller and anchor) and a beam just shy of 16 feet.

As many of you know, we recently took Hull #1, “Nor’wester”, down the Pacific Coast from her home port in Anacortes, Washington to LaPaz, Mexico, participating in the FUBAR Odyssey that served as an extended sea trial. During that voyage it became obvious that our NW42 performed more like a much larger trawler. She has evolved into a very capable coastal cruiser handling beautifully even in very rough seas. We closely followed the CAD model as she grew up and went into production but now that she’s in the water we are experiencing first hand the full impact of countless incremental improvements. Given these facts and observations, plus the many comments we’ve had from guests on board, we now believe that the designation NW45 more accurately reflects her actual size and bearing.

2007 has been a great year of celebration for us. As it draws to a close we will be updating our website and printed material to reflect the change to NW45 and wanted to give you the inside scoop before this change goes public.

We are looking forward to sharing our adventures with you and hope that we will be a part of your adventures in the coming years.