“We were at the Ft. Lauderdale show with him,” said Trever Smith, the 120’s project manager, “and trying to it work out.” Conconi had expressed some interest in eventually moving up to a 120, and Nordhavn knew he was a creative guy who was always open to a good deal, so they were trying to talk him into hull number one. “But we were afraid to let him out of our sight [at the show], every other big builder was working hard to sign him, too.”
However, after considering plenty of other yachts, Conconi went with Nordhavn. Again.
“If they say they’ll do something, they do it,” Conconi said.
“They take the time to find out what you’re talking about — they don’t try to find loopholes.”
That had to be a big factor in why Conconi doesn’t have the all-too-common phobia of hull number one. He’s worked his way up through ever larger and more complex models with Nordhavn, learning as he went.
“Often things work perfectly,” Conconi admitted, “it’s just not well documented, but they walk you through it. They’ll send someone or explain the process and everything’s fine.”
Trever Smith commissioned Conconi’s first Nordhavn and has been the project manager on every one of his builds.
“I’d say we have a lot of confidence in each other,” Smith says of his — and Nordhavn’s — relationship with Conconi. “It’s not like a lot of other big companies and their clients.” Smith points out, though, that serial boat monogamy is a common trait amongst Nordhavn owners. Right now, there are more than 20 owners who have had at least one previous Nordhavn, and most of them have had several.
I met Don Kohlmann, Nordhavn’s Northwest sales manager, and Bob Conconi just outside of Vancouver on a crisp early spring day. As my eyes adjusted to the dim light of the boathouse, I was struck by how massive the 86 looked in comparison to other Nordhavns. A long foredeck, 24-foot beam and a displacement of 325,000 pounds make the 86 positively shippy.
