About The Hull

Most powered boats have what are called semi-displacement hulls.  This means they are designed to lift out of the water as the hull moves forward.  The more speed, the more the boat lifts until a planing speed is achieved.  It results in a hull that can go fast, but requires a lot of power to achieve the lift.  Furthermore, its the designer’s goal to keep the boat as light as possible, sacrificing hull integrity for serious offshore operation, fuel capacity, living space and provisioning necessary for a long trip.  

Eliana is designed with a full displacement hull.  She is designed to move through the water rather than over it.  While its much slower than a planing hull, it is extremely efficient requiring only a small fraction of the power and fuel.  There is no concern about weight so she can be built with incredible strength and seaworthiness as well as capacity for long range provisioning.  Not to mention the ability to produce a more comfortable living space.

So the tradeoff between semi displacement and full displacement is compelling to us.  We’re sacrificing speed in exchange for range, seaworthiness (safety), efficiency and comfort.  

Our concept is to build a boat that serves truly as a second home.  And one that isn’t limited by the protected waters of a single coastline, that we could move between ports of call when needed.  And though we wouldn’t seek bad weather, it does happen and we don’t want to feel unsafe in any weather.

We could have chosen a sail boat.  Sail is efficient on fuel (although not as efficient as one would think).  But they are generally small, uncomfortable and a lot slower yet.  Furthermore, the sailor seeks to follow trade winds which nearly always guarantee an uncomfortable ride.  Even seasoned sailors are looking more and more at full displacement powered yachts as an alternative.  It gives the captain a lot more flexibility on route and schedule staying out of weather rather than looking for it.

There aren’t many boats like Eliana around.  Nordhavn is one of only a handful that build them like this.  We believe the concept is in the early stages of adoption with the appeal being more to the long range sail crowd than to the coastal power market.  We don’t think the idea is going to go out of style any time soon!

Rick and Debbie