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Seller's Description

This vessel is by far one of the most expensive factory built Nor’sea 27’s ever made. The vessel features unusual hand crafted features (in-lay wood marquetry table in the salon and cockpit as well as in-lay bow seat and screen doors in companionway and presents high quality craftsmanship throughout. Includes heavy duty trailer custom made for the Norsea 27. Includes Achilles 9’ dinghy with Mercury 2.5hp 4 stroke outboard. If interested, a 7 page list of complete specifications and features is available via email. Reasonable offers considered.

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Specs

Designer
Lyle C. Hess
Builder
Nor'Sea Marine
Associations
?
# Built
450
Hull
Monohull
Keel
Long
Rudder
Transom hung
Construction
FG
Also Known As
Norsea 27

Dimensions

Length Overall
27 8 / 8.5 m
Length On Deck
27 0 / 8.2 m
Waterline Length
88 6 / 27 m
Beam
26 2 / 8 m
Draft
36 1 / 11 m
Displacement
8,100 lb / 3,674 kg
Ballast
3,100 lb / 1,406 kg (Lead)

Rig and Sails

Type
Sloop
Reported Sail Area
366′² / 34 m²
Total Sail Area
366′² / 34 m²
Mainsail
Sail Area
182′² / 16.9 m²
P
30 9 / 9.4 m
E
11 9 / 3.6 m
Air Draft
34 6 / 10.5 m
Foresail
Sail Area
184′² / 17.1 m²
I
29 5 / 9 m
J
12 6 / 3.8 m
Forestay Length
32 0 / 9.8 m

Auxilary Power

Make
Faryman
Model
?
HP
9
Fuel Type
Diesel
Fuel Capacity
27 gal / 102 l
Engine Hours
?

Accomodations

Water Capacity
50 gal / 189 l
Holding Tank Capacity
?
Headroom
6 0 / 1.8 m
Cabins
?

Calculations

Hull Speed
7.6 kn
Classic: 6.7 kn

Hull Speed

The theoretical maximum speed that a displacement hull can move efficiently through the water is determined by it's waterline length and displacement. It may be unable to reach this speed if the boat is underpowered or heavily loaded, though it may exceed this speed given enough power. Read more.

Formula

Classic hull speed formula:

Hull Speed = 1.34 x √LWL

A more accurate formula devised by Dave Gerr in The Propeller Handbook replaces the Speed/Length ratio constant of 1.34 with a calculation based on the Displacement/Length ratio.

Max Speed/Length ratio = 8.26 ÷ Displacement/Length ratio.311
Hull Speed = Max Speed/Length ratio x √LWL

7.6 knots
Classic formula: 6.7 knots
Sail Area/Displacement
14.5
<16: under powered

Sail Area / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the power of the sails relative to the weight of the boat. The higher the number, the higher the performance, but the harder the boat will be to handle. This ratio is a "non-dimensional" value that facilitates comparisons between boats of different types and sizes. Read more.

Formula

SA/D = SA ÷ (D ÷ 64)2/3

  • SA: Sail area in square feet, derived by adding the mainsail area to 100% of the foretriangle area (the lateral area above the deck between the mast and the forestay).
  • D: Displacement in pounds.
14.52
<16: under powered
16-20: good performance
>20: high performance
Ballast/Displacement
38.3
<40: less stiff, less powerful

Ballast / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the stability of a boat's hull that suggests how well a monohull will stand up to its sails. The ballast displacement ratio indicates how much of the weight of a boat is placed for maximum stability against capsizing and is an indicator of stiffness and resistance to capsize.

Formula

Ballast / Displacement * 100

38.27
<40: less stiff, less powerful
>40: stiffer, more powerful
Displacement/Length
231.4
200-275: moderate

Displacement / Length Ratio

A measure of the weight of the boat relative to it's length at the waterline. The higher a boat’s D/L ratio, the more easily it will carry a load and the more comfortable its motion will be. The lower a boat's ratio is, the less power it takes to drive the boat to its nominal hull speed or beyond. Read more.

Formula

D/L = (D ÷ 2240) ÷ (0.01 x LWL)³

  • D: Displacement of the boat in pounds.
  • LWL: Waterline length in feet
231.42
<100: ultralight
100-200: light
200-300: moderate
300-400: heavy
>400: very heavy
Comfort Ratio
30.2
30-40: moderate bluewater cruising boat

Comfort Ratio

This ratio assess how quickly and abruptly a boat’s hull reacts to waves in a significant seaway, these being the elements of a boat’s motion most likely to cause seasickness. Read more.

Formula

Comfort ratio = D ÷ (.65 x (.7 LWL + .3 LOA) x Beam1.33)

  • D: Displacement of the boat in pounds
  • LWL: Waterline length in feet
  • LOA: Length overall in feet
  • Beam: Width of boat at the widest point in feet
30.16
<20: lightweight racing boat
20-30: coastal cruiser
30-40: moderate bluewater cruising boat
40-50: heavy bluewater boat
>50: extremely heavy bluewater boat
Capsize Screening
1.6
<2.0: better suited for ocean passages

Capsize Screening Formula

This formula attempts to indicate whether a given boat might be too wide and light to readily right itself after being overturned in extreme conditions. Read more.

Formula

CSV = Beam ÷ ³√(D / 64)

  • Beam: Width of boat at the widest point in feet
  • D: Displacement of the boat in pounds
1.59
<2: better suited for ocean passages
>2: better suited for coastal cruising

Notes

From BlueWaterBoats.org:

The Nor’Sea 27 is a small but rugged pocket-cruiser with live-aboard comfort and seaworthiness at the heart of her design. Designer Lyle Hess best known for designing Lynn and Larry Pardey’s bluewater cruising yachts Seraffyn and Taleisin was approached with the challenging brief to design a heavy weather, long distance cruiser which could be legally trailerable. Unfazed, Hess came up with this tough and traditionally styled 27-foot double-ender which is transportable between oceans if not strictly trailerable.

According to Lyle Hess “any boat that points her bow out to sea should be designed so that the crew need not worry about a safe return–no matter what tricks the weather may play”. And with four circumnavigations and more than 160 Pacific and Atlantic crossings under her hull, the Nor’Sea 27 is testament to this philosophy.

Since its introduction in 1977, the little cruiser has gained a cult following. In total around 450 have been built and production continues to the present day.

History

One day in the 1960’s a young man named Larry Pardey bought a set of yacht plans from designer Lyle Hess. The boat design was a Renegade of Newport. Using the plans he built his own boat Seraffyn and set off cruising with his new wife Lin. Lin and Larry went on to become well known amongst the cruising fraternity through the books they wrote and in doing so introduced the wider world to Hess and of course the Renegade design.

Through the popularity of the Renegade, Hess was approached by Dean Wixom, president of Heritage Marine. At the time Wixom was making the rounds between designers looking for a cruiser that could withstand the heaviest of offshore weather while still be legally trailerable. The idea being that big-boat seaworthiness combined with ease of overland transport would open up some pretty interesting cruising grounds to sailors who had limited time on their hands. Hess was the only designer game enough to take up the challenge and the Nor’Sea 27 was the outcome.

The Nor’Sea 27 was introduced in 1977 by Heritage Marine in a makeshift plant in Southern California. It was a design Wixom loved and three years later built his own boat Chinook (hull #77) on which he lived aboard for 10 years while logging more than 30,000 miles. His company, Heritage Marine, was sold to Bob Eeg who renamed the company Nor’Sea Yachts and has continued production to this day. Over 450 boats have been built so far.

Configuration and Layout

The Nor’Sea 27 is a heavily-rigged sloop with moderate displacement, a shoal draft of 3” 10’ and the 8ft beam which allows trailering without a permit. On the early boats ballast packages of standard (2500 lbs) and heavy (3000 lbs) were offered but since 1980 all boats have 3100 lbs of encapsulated lead ballast.

Hess drew inspiration from the Norwegian Spitzgatter for the traditional double-ended profile that Dean Wixom was seeking, with a wide curvy canoe stern accentuated by the upward sweep of the lapstrakes and a sweet, springy sheerline.  Below the waterline any resemblance to the Spitzgatter ends with a full keel with forefoot cutaway that is fast and modern. Her lines are clean and pleasing, Wixom goes as far as claiming the hull is the most beautiful he has seen on a small cruiser.

The interesting thing about the Nor’Sea 27 and one that distinguishes her from other trailerable pocket cruisers is the standard center-cockpit layout which is generally exclusive to much larger sailboats. Although the traditional aft cockpit layout is offered, the center-cockpit has proven the more popular by a surprising 9 to 1. The small aft cabin offered in the center-cockpit layout effectively houses two quarter berths and is prized for the privacy which it offers. The cabin also offers extra protection to the cockpit which is sized modestly for bluewater but is big enough for two people to sit in comfortably. The helm consists of a long tiller that reaches over the top of the aft cabin to a large transom-hung rudder.

Construction

Nor’Sea Yachts maintain a “super heavy duty” philosophy in construction and the Nor’Sea 27 is a prime example.  The hull is of solid hand-laid one piece laminate with up to 22 layers of mat and woven roving, and molded in lapstrakes which although costly and time consuming to build provide extra stiffness and strength as well as traditional looks and a drier boat. The thickness of the laminate varies from 5/16″ at the sheer to 3/4″ at the keel. Interior plywood bulkheads and a partial molded fibreglass liner provide further structural reinforcement resulting in an extremely strong hull.

The plywood-cored deck is fixed to an inward flange with adhesive sealant and stainless steel bolts spaced at 6-inch intervals. Deck fittings and hardware are oversized and through-bolted to stainless steel backing plates. This build quality gives the Nor’Sea 27 the strength of a larger boat but doesn’t come cheap.

I am very proud of the quality we put into those boats. I did make a fatal mistake: I built a product that I had fallen in love with. We built the boats without enough regard to cost. We already had the world’s most expensive 27-footer, yet I could not bring myself to cut corners in areas seldom seen” – Dean Wixom.

The boats were sold as fully completed boats, nearly complete except for minor finishings,  or as hull and deck kits. The interior joinerwork on the factory finished boats are good, however boats built from hull and deck kits are much more variable in quality.

Under Sail

In terms of performance the Nor’Sea27 is stiff, sea kindly and surprisingly fast thanks to Hess’ innovative underwater profile. Nor’Sea owners have been heard to boast of overtaking longer, lighter boats while cruising. She tracks well to weather, is slippery in light airs and is a easy to single-hand. Her helm though relatively light is not particularly well balanced and cannot be left untended for long.

Buyer’s Notes

Although ‘trailerable’ the Nor’Sea 27 is more accurately ‘transportable’ as it requires a specialised trailer and a large size tow truck to transport it. Although the deck-stepped mast has a hinged tabernacle to allow raising and lowering, rigging the boat can take an experienced owner at least 3 hours.

The biggest problem has been corrosion in the aluminium fuel tank which is buried in the keel directly under the engine.  It needs to be fully glassed over to protect it, or excavated and replaced if already corroded. Similar corrosion problems have occurred with the sleeve cylinder in the early model 9hp Farymann diesel engines which also must be rebuilt or replaced but the engine is apparently easy to remove. The later Farymann model 32W has a cast iron cylinder and is not so susceptible. No other significant weakness have come to light.

The Nor’Sea 27 has held their values well and have remained highly sought after so tend not to linger long on the used boat market.  In 2007 the market value on used boats ranged from $28k – $62k USD depending on age and condition. New boats are available from Nor’Sea Yachts at three levels of kit set or as fully completed boats and prices range from $39,400 USD for the most basic kit to $151,612 USD for the completed boat.

Information and advice on buying a Nor’Sea 27 can be obtained from the Nor’Sea Yachts website or from the active owner’s association on Yahoo groups.

Similar Boats

Links, References and Further Reading

» Nor’Sea Yachts official website
» Nor’Sea 27 Yahoo Owners group
» Sailing Magazine, Nov 2008, review of the Nor’Sea 27, by John Kretschmer (Boats & Gear)
» Sailing Magazine,  Nor’Sea 27 review by Brian Fagan (Boat Test)
» Nor’Sea 27: A Trailerable Offshore Cruiser by Charles Doane, Apr 2010.
» Good Old Boat magazine The Salty Nor’Sea 27 by Karen Larson
» Old Boat magazine The Nor’Sea 27 by Ted Brewer

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