Silver Spray

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One of the most useful features of the N63’s “freighter” design is a foredeck that can handle a 17-foot RIB. A full-displacement vessel is a slow boat, and anyone who has ever cruised in one appreciates a fast tender, especially one big enough to carry the entire crew. To lift that tender over the side, the N63 comes equipped with a $40,000 Steelhead ES telescoping davit with a lifting capacity of 1,500 pounds.

The beating heart of the N63 is a 330-horsepower John Deere engine, which, in the best Nordhavn tradition, is keel-cooled to enable a dry-stack exhaust. With capacity for nearly 2,500 gallons of diesel distributed among four tanks, she will have a range of at least 3,000 miles at approximately 7 knots. Though a “get home” second engine is optional on the N63, a prudent mariner will think long and hard before going to sea without one. Silver Spray’s wing engine is a 65-horsepower Lugger diesel with a folding prop, capable of driving the vessel at 4 knots.

When I took the helm, Nordhavn’s John Hoffman suggested I take my hands off the wheel to see what would happen: nothing — Silver Spray tracked straight, as if on autopilot. Hoffman, who has delivered more than 50 Nordhavns, says the N63 is unique. “I don’t know why it is, but she steers on a line,” he says.
Of course, the Leishmans knew the N63 would be a better sea boat than the old 62. Like all recent Nordhavn designs, the 63 carries her beam aft with an underwater shape that flattens near the stern. Compare that with the sailboat-type lines of the N62 hull. “With fuller stern sections, you get a bigger lazarette and bigger load-carrying capacity. You get a better pitch motion,” Jim Leishman says.

I couldn’t help but wonder if the aft superstructure on top of those wide haunches had anything to do with the boat’s fine tracking. For certain, motoryachts with their “sail area” aft swing less at anchor than boats with equivalent windage forward, but Leishman doubts windage is much of a factor under way.

At the risk of perpetuating the cultural stereotype that Scots are a frugal lot, the N63 had another factor in its favor. It cost less than a $2.2 million Nordhavn 62. Built at Nordhavn’s South Coast factory in Xiamen, China, the price tag for Hull No. 1 of the N63 was well under $2 million. And despite the worldwide economic downturn, four more are being built as you read this — all because one adventurous, discriminating buyer needed to squeeze through a lock.

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Test Conditions: Speeds were measured by GPS in the Straits of Florida off Juno Beach, Florida, with one-foot seas and 5- to 7-knot winds, with a 2/3 load of fuel, a full load of water and two people on board. Fuel consumption was measured by the electronic engine-monitoring system. Test conditions and performance numbers are provided by Nordhavn.

RPM     Knots   GPH
1216     7.55     5.30
1314     8.10    6.70
1597    9.30    12.70
1706    9.50    14.85
1803    9.80    17.05

LOA: 62’6”
LWL: 57’3”
BEAM: 18’0”
DRAFT: 6’8”
DISPL.: 130,000 lb.
FUEL: 2,500 gal.
WATER: 600 gal.
HOLDING: 120 gal.
GRAY WATER: 110 gal.
CONSTRUCTION: Fiberglass
DESIGN: PAE/Jeff Leishman
GENERATOR: 1x Northern Lights 20 kW 240V
BOW THRUSTER: Side-Power
ENGINES: 1 x 330 hp John Deere 6081AFM diesel
CRUISING SPEED: 8 to 9 knots
RANGE: 3,000 miles
BASE PRICE: $1,850,000

Nordhavn, 949-496-4848; www.nordhavn.com