The roots of PAE trace back to cruising sailing yachts built on the success of Jeff Leishman’s redesigns of the Mason series of sailboats. Mason was a celebrated brand thanks to build quality and offshore performance. With over 300 Masons sold, the brand firmly established Pacific Asian Enterprises in the boating world. But in the mid-1980s, the company’s founders Jim Leishman and Dan Streech sensed a downward shift in sailboat interests. Buyers had dreams of sailing into the sunset but amateur cruising sailboaters were very often falling short of their cruising plans. The physical effort required, challenges like constant sail trimming, steering from exposed cockpits in bad weather and disproportionately running under power with limited speed and fuel reserve worries were the bitter realities of sailing that many could not get past. It got PAE’s owners thinking about a sailboat exit strategy. 

At the time, the company had a stock Mason 63 motorsailer that needed to be sold and they decided to promote it by exhibiting at the fall boat shows. They logged thousands of miles cruising the M63 bringing it from show to show, Annapolis to Fort Lauderdale to Texas, and then all the way back up to New York where the eventual buyer lived. Much of the time the boat ran under power and Jim took note of how capable the boat was with large fuel tanks, an all-weather enclosed cockpit, and powerful Detroit diesel. “I thought it was the perfect boat,” he said.

Meanwhile, Jim’s younger brother Jeff was studying naval architecture at the Yacht Design School in Maine. The two had often talked about a long range motoryacht and when Jeff’s final project called for him to design a full displacement boat, he drew the lines that would wind up inspiring the Nordhavn 46. “We never had any intention of ever building it,” Jeff said. “I turned in my project and that was that.” 

As Jim more seriously began thinking about the company’s transition from sail to power, he recalled Jeff’s project. Boat builders across the country were also reacting to sailing’s downturn and introducing their own powerboat designs. “Everyone was building powerboats but we didn’t want to build the typical powerboat,” said Jeff. Jim believed in the fundamental concept of Jeff’s full-displacement design. It reminded him of a boat they had just listed docked outside their office door – a William Garden-designed 40-footer named Porpoise, a wood boat built the early 1960s. It had four-cylinder Detroit Diesels, a dry exhaust, was keel cooled and featured an asymmetric aft cabin . It triggered an aha moment for Jim who realized the benefits – and the potential – of designing a yacht with an asymmetrical layout. By eliminating the port side walkway, it provided space to push a stateroom to the side and opened up room for the saloon and galley. The nuancing of Jeff’s original school project, injected with the asymmetrical thinking inspired by Bill Garden’s design, became the foundation for the Nordhavn 46, a brand new boat that was about to turn the powerboat market on its ear.

“We wanted to do a powerboat alternative to a sailboat with the same capabilities,” said Jim, keeping in mind the disillusioned Mason clients who abandoned their dreams of far-off journeys. “But this boat focused on comfort, stability, and allowed you to maintain a schedule.”

It was 1987, before social media, the internet, or even e-mail. But there were magazines and PAE leaked details of their new project to the marine press who published news of the radical-looking passagemaking powerboat. “The idea of a full-displacement motorboat with extended range was not really new,” Jim said. “But promoting the concept of people going anywhere in the world they wanted to in a stabilized and seaworthy pilothouse motoryacht? That was different.” Handwritten letters from people all over the globe curious about this new 46-foot bluewater cruiser began pouring in. The interest far exceeded anything PAE had seen with the Masons. It was time to find a builder.

The factory producing the Mason sailboats questioned the appeal of the design and passed on it. But Jim showed the plans for the Nordhavn 46 to South Coast Marine. His confidence in the project convinced South Coast’s president, Tsai Wan Sheu to take a chance on it. They struck a deal, the first hull was built and delivered. But it wasn’t sold.

Interest in the N46 remained strong, but getting people to commit to an unproven design was difficult. Having banked their careers on the success of the boat, it took Jim, Dan, and their partners, two or three years of uphill effort to get the model going. “It wasn’t until we sold hull number ten did we feel we had something,” Jim said.

Hull number 10 was purchased by Jim Sink and his wife Susy. Sink was retired from the Navy and an experienced captain who appreciated the capabilities and opportunities afforded by the Nordhavn 46. Jim Leishman joined the Sinks on their maiden voyage to southeast Alaska. It was on that trip that the couple revealed their ambitious plans to go around the world in their boat. After cruising the Pacific Northwest, the Sinks brought the boat down the coast, through the Panama Canal and entered the Great Loop through New York. They ended in Florida and began prepping for their circumnavigation. Jim Leishman flew out to Fort Lauderdale and accompanied them on their Atlantic crossing.

At the same time, a new magazine was taking shape: Passagemaker magazine tapped into the growing trend of long range cruising. The timing was perfect. Passagemaker chronicled much of the Sinks’ trip including their exploration around Europe, the North Sea and through Germany. Their Nordhavn, called Salvation II, was the first American yacht to transit the Kiel Canal, which connects the Rhyne River with the Danube. Jim Leishman later caught back up with the boat and rejoined the Sinks on the final leg of the trip across the Pacific to Dana Point, CA, celebrating with them as they closed the circle of their circumnavigation.

While the Sinks were making history on their boat, work on promoting the N46’s competency was in full force in Dana Point. Jim felt it was important for everyone at PAE to experience the boat’s capabilities firsthand and confirm it was performing as intended, so the entire team took turns going on deliveries and sea trials. Jim filmed the trips by way of early generation video recorders  to demonstrate the Nordhavn 46 in action. “The first few years were spent on those deliveries proving the boat,” Jim said. “People didn’t believe it. It just took some time to show our concept was a good one.”

Now, decades later, and the brand at the top of its game, PAE’s owners credit their success to equal parts luck, timing, hard work, and having a clear, focused design. Jim asserts the downfall of many companies is overpromising a boat that’s trying to be all things to all people. “You can’t have a boat that’s fast, slow, has range and steers properly,” he said. The foundation of the Nordhavn 46 – and every Nordhavn since – was based on the premise of a boat providing security, safety and comfort so people could fulfill their cruising dreams. “A Nordhavn,” he says, “is the most honest boat there is.”

It’s been 40 years since Jeff Leishman submitted the project for that full displacement concept boat. Who could have imagined that it would lead to one of the greatest and most impactful boat companies ever. As we approach the latter half of the 2020s Jim Leishman is more confident than ever at the position Nordhavn finds itself, and it’s based on a few key criteria: 

• The boats align with modern priorities around fuel efficiency and environmental impact.
• There is a steady, motivated market of buyers who are looking for safe and practical ways to add high-level adventure to their lives.
• Nordhavn is powered by a unique culture, which is an unmatched combination of company values, history and devoted owner community.

The Nordhavn 46 went on to inspire 27 sister models, including the all-new re-imagined Nordhavn 46 MK II. There are many differences between the original 46 and her successor, but perhaps one of the greatest differences is that Jim, Dan and Jeff don’t have to fight to prove what the boat can do. The original N46 and its nearly 700 sister hulls have already done that for them.