Photos by Rick Lew
It’s not every day that you hear about a 100-foot yacht being owner-operated, but then again, it’s not every kind of owner who actually casts off lines and does the kind of long-distance cruising that Nordhavn owners tend to do.
“It can be an owner-operated boat depending on the owner,” says Trever Smith, project manager for the Nordhavn 100 model. “I’m actually pricing one out right now for a customer in Canada. He’s planning on operating it himself and turning the crew area into a big, open space for toys like paddleboards and kayaks.”
That yacht, potentially, would be Hull No. 2. This past November, Hull No. 1 left the shipyard in Hong Kong. As of this writing, its owners were cruising in the Philippines with five crew. The difference in that usage and the Canadian customer’s ideas shows just how much leeway owners can have in spec’ing out the model, Smith says.
The Nordhavn 100, he adds, is technically an evolution of the N96, but that model was an evolution of Hull No. 1 of the N86, Cary Ali. “I was involved in that project from the get-go too. We delivered that first boat in 2008,” Smith says. “It’s been a while, but we built 10 of those, and now we’ve built 10 96s and one 100, and hopefully another one going to order here.”
With the N100, he says, Nordhavn expanded not only the cockpit beyond the N96’s length, but also the volume in the salon and lazarette. The crew quarters are reconfigured to be more comfortable with a proper settee and table, and the 400,000-pound displacement means owners are able to tow tenders as large as 35 feet for exploring anchorages around the world. And with all the decks extended, there’s more space on board for setting up foldaway seating, carrying bicycles and more.
Plus, he says, the Nordhavn 100 is truly a pretty boat that Jeff Leishman designed. “Any angle you look at that boat from, it’s not too boxy. It’s one of those timeless designs,” Smith says. “If you put this alongside an 86, you start comparing them, the length is a perfect recipe.”
For many years now, Nordhavns have been known as serious cruising boats for people who want to take on challenging long-distance passagemaking. That characterization also describes the N100, Smith says, but with the added bonus of more space for indoor and outdoor comfort. Not only can this model get wherever owners wish to go with its 600-hp Caterpillar C18 engines, but it can also exist in those destinations in a largely self-contained way that doesn’t require a lot of shore services—making true exploration of remote locales a real, achievable option.
“This is a full world-cruising expedition yacht,” he says. “There’s nowhere in the world it can’t go. It could have six crew if the owners wanted it. It all depends on your configurations. It all depends on the buyer and his goals for where and how he wants to cruise.”
Nordhavn 100 Specifications:
LOA: 100ft. 11in.
Beam: 24ft.
Draft: 8ft. 2in.
Displacement: 400,000 lbs.
Fuel: 7,000 gal.
Water: 900 gal.
Power: 2x 600-hp Caterpillar C18
Info: nordhavn.com
This article originally appeared in the September 2026 issue of Passagemaker magazine.
