When a fishing enthusiast asked Nordhavn to extend the cockpit on the N96 to make that boat a 100-footer, the team said sure, but figured it would be a one-off build. “We weren’t really thinking that model would take off because there’s not a lot of people who want a 100-foot yachtfish,” says project manager Trever Smith.
But then, another customer came along and wanted a 96 with more space in the lazarette, salon and cockpit. “We’d already done that yachtfish,” Smith says, “but we could make this a true motoryacht version.”
The result is the Nordhavn 100, which has all those things along with reconfigured crew quarters. “The 96 had a bench with a little table,” Smith says. “This is a proper settee with a big table. You can have four crew there with iPads and laptops out working.”
And, Smith says, the Nordhavn 100’s displacement of 400,000 pounds means owners can tow sizable tenders. “That’s what most of these owners are doing,” he says. “The mothership pulls into anchor, and then the owner, if he’s an experienced guy, he can operate that 35-foot tender with its own cabin and take his guests around. They love it. They have the freedom in the anchorages to go anywhere they want and then come back and shower and have dinner aboard.”
As of this writing, the owners of Hull No. 1 were exploring the Philippines, where motoryachts of this size and caliber are few and far between. “It’s mostly sailboat people and smaller yachts,” Smith says. “Anywhere you go with something like this where you’re self-contained, it’s amazing. It’s like Jurassic Park. It’s insane.”
Hull 100 #20
Design evolution over the years accounts for the way hulls are numbered in the Nordhavn fleet. There have been Nordhavn 96 models built with a cockpit extension and designated Hull 100#15 to account for the length overall. The new Nordhavn 100 is assigned Hull 100#20 for this reason. It also has the larger cockpit, and adds volume in the salon with extended upper aft and flybridge decks.
