Kevin Sanders of Whittier, AL, asks:

What is the roughest sea state, in terms of wave height, duration, and quarter that you have been in ? Even though it was probably quite hard on the crew, how did the N40 perform ? Did you ever fear for your safety, or the survivability of the boat?

Jim Leishman responds:

In May of this year we took the NORDHAVN 40 up the coast from Dana Point to Seattle to shake the boat down in Alaska for the summer. We encountered winds gusting above 40 knots and had seas of about 15 feet. This is relatively common for the trip up the coast and the boat handled it just fine. We were going into the seas so the boat had to be slowed down to reduce the pitching and make the ride more comfortable.

Crossing over to Hawaii we had winds of only about 30 knots and it never got real rough - maybe 12 foot seas.

The most recent passage into Kosrae and dealing with tropical storm "Faxie" is probably the roughest to date with 15 foot seas and winds in excess of 40 knots. The crew had difficulty getting in to the harbor due to poor visibility and fading light. They were considering standing off the island until morning but fortunately the squall broke and they were able to enter the harbor at dusk.

While crossing the Atlantic aboard "Salvation ll", we encountered a strong storm southwest of Bermuda. The conditions were very rough but the boat handled it well. We were never scared based upon the conditions we had. We only worried about the conditions getting worse, which they never did. I'm sure Dave and the crew aboard "Nordhavn" were not afraid of the conditions they had and could have stood off the island until morning - running maybe 1000 rpm and just keeping the bow of the boat into the wind. It would have been reasonably comfortable and safe. I think their true concern (and mine) was whether the wind would build to the 80 knots forecasted.

In speaking with Walt Hack (weather forecaster) he's stated that this storm is very odd and in his 35 years as a professional forecaster, he's not seen too many like it. Hopefully it will go away and conditions will improve.

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