The highly anticipated Nordhavn 41 is scheduled to be completed shortly after the New Year and shipped to Florida in time for a debut at the 2020 Palm Beach Boat Show. Nordhavn’s brand new entry-level passagemaker was initially set to “splash” at the Dusseldorf Show in January, but instead will now come straight to the U.S. The first seven hulls have been reserved for purchase, with construction of hulls 1 through 5 slated to finish by June. The second five hulls will complete by the end of 2020.

“We are dedicated to producing an exceptionally great boat,” said Nordhavn Vice President Jim Leishman of the N41. In a press conference held earlier this month at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show, Leishman explained how the N41 will be even more efficient and advanced than the brand’s record-setting Nordhavn 40. Like the 40, the N41 will carry a CE rating of Category A, the highest level of safety that a yacht can be designated. Very few boats in the 40-foot range achieve this level, which requires elements such as exceptional stability and commercial-rated windows and doors, Jim Leishman said.

In order to outdo the Nordhavn 40, Jim and his brother, Jeff Leishman who is Nordhavn’s Chief of Design, partnered with Dutch yacht design firm Vripack to create a superior hull form. Through Vripack’s sophisticated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) program, the original hull lines drawn by Jeff Leishman were fine tuned to create a hull that is approximately 30 percent more efficient.

Quite simply, to achieve efficiency, the goal is to reduce pressure against a hull in order to reduce resistance. Since wave resistance typically is 40 percent of a boat’s total resistance, efficiency is improved dramatically with a reduction in wave resistance. According to Bart Bouwhuis, co-Director of Vripack, the CFD allows a sort of 3-D view of a boat moving through ‘digital’ water. “In traditional tank testing, you can see the [action of] the wave and the result of the pressure,” he said. “Digital [tank] testing shows the cause of the pressure.”

Once Vripack ran the N41’s lines through its CFD program, it was able to reduce wave friction by 20 percent, “which is significant,” said Bouwhuis.

They assessed a further reduction of resistance – by another 10 to 12 percent – with the addition of a trim wedge.

Despite the modifications, the hull form stayed very close to Jeff Leishman’s original design, and importantly, maintained the interior volume, a hallmark of all Nordhavns.

As a result of the highly advanced and analyzed design process, performance predictions of the Nordhavn 41 are better than anticipated. “[Considering] the combination of all the technology applied to the design of this boat and the experience we have from cruising and evaluating our N40, I think we have a very special boat on our hands,” Jim Leishman said.

What’s more is the exceptional value and opportunity the Nordhavn 41 provides its buyers. Included in the base price of $752,000 is a fully-loaded boat. Buyers might choose to take delivery of in Ayvalik, Turkey, just around the corner from the factory. They can then explore the Med at their own pace, and re-deliver the boat back to Ayvalik or Palma de Mallorca where it can be shipped to Fort Lauderdale so owners can continue their cruising, perhaps to the Bahamas or beyond.