- Founded
- 1974
- Headquarters
- Dana Point, CA, United States
- Shipyard location
- Ta Shing (Taiwan) and South Coast Marine (Xiamen, China)
- Official website
- https://nordhavn.com/
Brand Overview
The full-displacement passagemaker brand of Pacific Asian Enterprises, Dana Point, California — nineteen models from the 12.6-metre Nordhavn 41 to the 36.8-metre Nordhavn 120, built in Taiwan and Xiamen since the first Nordhavn 46 of 1989, with more ocean crossings and circumnavigations than any other production motor yacht.
Overview written fromnordhavn.comread 9/18/2026
YachtCodex Analysis
AI-generatedAn independent reading of this builder written by AI. Unlike the specifications and descriptions elsewhere on this page, it is interpretation rather than a sourced fact — treat it as a starting point, not a citation.
What this builder is
Pacific Asian Enterprises grew out of a small Dana Point brokerage that Jim Leishman, Dan Streech and Joe Meglen formed in 1974; from 1978 PAE built 132 Mason sailboats with Ta Shing in Taiwan, and when Jeff Leishman's North Sea trawler-styled design was declined by Ta Shing, the newly formed South Coast Marine built hull number one of the Nordhavn 46 in early 1989 — Nordhavn being Norwegian for North Harbor. The Nordhavn 62 followed after tank testing in 1991, the 40 molds moved to South Coast Marine's Xiamen factory in 2004, and nearly 850 new Masons and Nordhavns have since been delivered to more than 500 owners, with PAE's headquarters in Dana Point opening in 2014. The current range runs from the Nordhavn 41 and 475 through the 51, 52, 60, 625, 63, 68, 71, 72, 76, 80, 86, 96, 100 and 120, plus the 56 Motorsailer, the semi-displacement 59 Coastal Pilot and the 75 Expedition Yachtfisher — full-displacement hulls with single or twin John Deere, Caterpillar, MAN or MTU diesels, keel cooling, dry exhausts, wing engines and thousands of gallons of fuel. Every model page prints LOA, LWL, beam, draft, displacement and fuel, water, holding and gray-water capacities in both units, and the Machinery specification names the main engine and its rating.
Who sails them
Nordhavn owners are the ocean-crossing couples and families of the trawler world — Americans bound for the Pacific, Australians and Europeans circumnavigating, retirees living aboard for years — who want a full-displacement yacht engineered for redundancy and self-sufficiency, and who value a builder whose owners have completed the Atlantic Rally, circumnavigations and the passage records the company keeps.
Signature models
The Nordhavn 46 of 1989 founded the brand and the 40 was the first production motor yacht to circumnavigate; today the 60 and 63 are the heart of the range, the 41 is the entry passagemaker, the 96, 100 and 120 are the flagships, and the 56 Motorsailer, 59 Coastal Pilot and 75 Expedition Yachtfisher are the line's three departures from the trawler form.
Strengths
Nordhavn is known for full-displacement hulls with ocean-crossing range, single main engines with wing engines and redundant systems, keel cooling and dry exhausts, heavy construction to ABS and CE standards, an owners' community that has logged more crossings than any other production brand, and a company that publishes its passage statistics.
Considerations
The pages print no speed, range, cabin count or CE category (tank-test and range data live in the downloadable PDFs); displacement bases vary between design waterline, full load and, for the 75 EYF, empty load in pounds; the 71 and 80 print LOA with and without the bow plank; the 51 has only a Quick Specs strip; the engine count is stated only where the text says twin, x 2 or single; the 56 Motorsailer's engine rating is not in the specification text; and the 96 and 100 share the 86's tankage and engines.
Analysis generated 9/18/2026
Part of
Where they build
The building sites this yard publishes, in its own order.
Ta Shing
Tainan, Taiwan
South Coast Marine
Xiamen, China
Fleet at a Glance
19 models in total
Calculated from the models in the YachtCodex catalog, not from the builder's claims.
Sailing range
- Models in catalog
- 1
- Length range
- 17.5 m
- Hull forms
- Sailing Monohull 1
- Cabins
- 2
Motor range
- Models in catalog
- 18
- Length range
- 12.6–36.75 m
- Hull forms
- Motor Monohull 18
- Cabins
- 1–5
Models by this brand
19 models
Nordhavn17
Nordhavn 41
LOA: 12.6 m
Nordhavn 475
LOA: 14.47 m
Nordhavn 51
LOA: 15.47 m
Nordhavn 52
LOA: 16.56 m
Nordhavn 56 Motorsailer
LOA: 17.5 m
Nordhavn 60
LOA: 19.05 m
Nordhavn 63
LOA: 19.05 m
Nordhavn 625
LOA: 19.7 m
Nordhavn 68
LOA: 20.73 m
Nordhavn 72
LOA: 22.02 m
Nordhavn 71
LOA: 22.56 m
Nordhavn 76
LOA: 23.24 m
Nordhavn 80
LOA: 25.1 m
Nordhavn 86
LOA: 26.39 m
Nordhavn 96
LOA: 29.44 m
Nordhavn 100
LOA: 30.76 m
Nordhavn 120
LOA: 36.75 m
Nordhavn Coastal Pilot1
Nordhavn Expedition Yachtfisher1
History
Jim Leishman and Dan Streech met in 1973 at a yacht dealership in Dana Point, California, and when it closed in 1974 they formed a small brokerage with Joe Meglen that grew into Pacific Asian Enterprises, importing CT boats and, from 1976, the Transpac 49 from Taiwan and working with the builders there to raise their quality. By 1977 PAE set out to own its own line: designer Al Mason drew the Mason sailboats that PAE developed and Taiwan yards built. When the cruising-sailboat market declined in the late 1980s, Jeff Leishman's design for a 46-foot passagemaking powerboat became the next project; named Nordhavn, Norwegian for 'north harbour', for its trawler-like look, hull number one of the N46 shipped in early 1989, at a time when it was still believed that only a sailboat could cross oceans. The last Mason was built in 1995, offices opened from Rhode Island to the UK and Australia between 2001 and 2007, the N55 and N64 arrived in 2004 with the Nordhavn Atlantic Rally, and in 2008 the 21-acre Xiamen factory, able to build Nordhavns of up to a thousand tons, was completed as work on the N120 began.
History written fromnordhavn.com/all-about-nordhavn-yachts/· All about Nordhavn yachtsread 9/22/2026