{"id":59165,"date":"2022-10-21T15:36:23","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T19:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/?p=59165"},"modified":"2023-10-20T13:29:06","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T17:29:06","slug":"nordhavn-96-adventure-passport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/yachts\/nordhavn-96-adventure-passport\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nordhavn 96 is a Passport to Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Nordhavn <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n The Nordhavn VivieRae<\/i> is named for Bob Giles\u2019 granddaughter, Vivian Rae. <\/span>\n Nordhavn<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n\n

Bob Giles had a goal. Whereas most yachtsmen who head to French Polynesia aim for Tahiti or Bora Bora in the Society Islands, he was instead anchored in a less-traveled archipelago called the Tuamotus\u2014trying to find one particular dolphin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere we are here, there was a dolphin that swam up to me, in this pass, and let me pet her like a puppy dog,\u201d Giles said in mid-May. \u201cCame right up to me, and I really didn\u2019t know what to do. I started petting her back, and she rolled over for me to rub her belly. After six, seven, eight minutes, she swam up to the surface to get some air. So, I\u2019m hoping she\u2019s still there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such are the goals a yacht owner can set when he owns a boat built by Nordhavn<\/a>. The brand has been synonymous with go-anywhere, ocean-crossing powerboats since 1989, when it completed Hull No. 1 of the N46. Today, the company makes some of the best trawlers<\/a> and offers models from 41 to 148 feet length overall and routinely sees owners cruising them everywhere from the Panama Canal to Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giles became part of the Nordhavn family about a decade ago, when he bought a Nordhavn 86 on the brokerage market. He liked the boat well enough but never got any farther than the Caribbean. He\u2019s not sure exactly where, but it was somewhere in those islands\u2014maybe the Grenadines, maybe St. Maarten\u2014where, he says, \u201cI just decided that I wanted to go around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the chairman of Giles Automotive, he had the ability to do it. He ordered a Nordhavn 96 and took delivery five years ago at the factory in China. That\u2019s the moment his circumnavigation began aboard the N96 VivieRae<\/em>. It\u2019s been continuing ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Nordhavn <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Bob Giles chose the Nordhavn 96 to explore and dive remote destinations with comfort on board.<\/span>\n Nordhavn<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

\u201cI want to take my time,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I picked up the boat, the trip was 270 days from China to San Diego, and I was on the boat 210 of those 270 days. That, and I am just kind of bored of the Caribbean. I wanted to go somewhere different. Where I am right now, in Apataki, that\u2019s an atoll just north of Fakarava, and it\u2019s very remote. Those are the places where I love to be\u2014the places where most people don\u2019t go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building a boat from scratch was a process he found intriguing. He hired interior designer Destry Darr, lengthened the sky-lounge deck and sun deck so the overhangs would provide more shade to the decks below, and built the sky lounge to convert into a fifth stateroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I want to bring four couples in addition to my wife and myself, I have room for it,\u201d he says. \u201cI also charter some, so the boat can accommodate 10 people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also built a scuba center off the stern to support his passion for diving every day, two to three times a day. There\u2019s space to carry 10 scuba tanks, as well as a station to refill them. There\u2019s also a hyperbaric chamber on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Tuamotus <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n \u201cWhere we are here, there was a dolphin that swam up to me, in this pass, and let me pet her like a puppy dog\u201d<\/span>\n Safwana Basheer\/Unsplash<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

\u201cI bought it when I bought the boat,\u201d he says. \u201cJust because of how much we dive and how remote we are, if somebody gets the bends, there would be no time or no way to get them to treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those kinds of locations also tend to lack trash facilities, which mattered to Giles because he used to end up with stinky bags of garbage in the bow, attracting flies. Aboard VivieRae<\/em>, Giles asked the yard to build the swim platform, which is usually hollow, with watertight hatches and a freezer plate on one side, so he has a place to store trash when the boat is away from shore for weeks at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has worked phenomenally well,\u201d he says. \u201cIt almost freezes the trash, and it\u2019s watertight. It\u2019s about 6 feet by the width of the boat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside VivieRae<\/em>, Giles had the yard set up an office so he can continue running his automotive company from anywhere in the world. He owns five dealerships and is in the works to buy a sixth, and he owns a tunnel car wash with a second one about to come online. Global Data Systems in Louisiana set him up with the bandwidth he needs, and the yard installed satellite-communications equipment, including a 3-meter Intellian dish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Nordhavn <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n There is guest seating in the pilothouse, out of the way of the crew space at the helm.<\/span>\n Nordhavn<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

\u201cCommunication hasn\u2019t been a problem,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s worldwide coverage. It allows me to get away and still allows me to stay connected with what\u2019s happening at home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And get away he has. So far, his itineraries have included the Panama Canal, Costa Rica, Cocos Island for some diving with hammerhead sharks, the Marquesas Islands and more. VivieRae<\/em> was expected to be in French Polynesia through July before heading to Fiji this month and then Vanuatu from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He remembers Vanuatu from a previous visit. It\u2019s a memory as vivid as the dolphin that acted like a puppy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe went to some amazing places there,\u201d he says. \u201cOne was a volcanic island where the caldera had collapsed, so we could sail up into the middle of the island. As we approached it, about 20 dugout canoes came out to greet us. Our mate was ahead of us in the tender, and I was flying my drone, and these looked like warriors coming out and surrounding him. I thought, Oh, my God. They\u2019re going to kidnap him or something, but they were so happy to see him. They hadn\u2019t seen anyone in three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"remote <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n The Nordhavn\u2019s go-anywhere construction brings onboard comforts to remote islands and atolls.<\/span>\n Ernests Vaga\/Unsplash<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll visit that place again and then go north to the Solomon Islands, and then around to West Papua and Raja Ampat and all through Indonesia, and then Malaysia, Thailand and the Maldives, and through the canal to the Med for maybe six months or longer and then back to the Caribbean.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day before he spoke with Yachting, Giles had dived at Manihi Atoll, just ahead of a naturally occurring grouper-spawning event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the entrance to the pass, there were thousands of 1-, 2-, 3-pound grouper that were all arriving to spawn,\u201d he says. \u201cAs we went through the pass, it was filling up with the sharks that also come to feed on the grouper when they start spawning. These were gray reef sharks and some small whitetip reef sharks, all common in the Pacific.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was hoping to see something similar at Fakarava.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where there\u2019s lots of sharks in the pass, going in and out,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople that don\u2019t understand think you\u2019re crazy, but I love diving with sharks. When we went out to Cocos, there [were] some tiger sharks out there that have killed a couple people in the last few years, so we were diving with the hammerheads and looking over our shoulders. There are a lot of sharks I wouldn\u2019t want to spend a lot of time with, but the reef sharks are really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also likes the comfort that he returns to after every dive. VivieRae<\/em> is the kind of boat he always told himself he\u2019d buy when he turned 60. Now that he\u2019s 68, he appreciates having not only go-anywhere capabilities, but also plenty of creature comforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"yacht <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n He hired interior designer Destry Darr, lengthened the sky-lounge deck and sun deck so the overhangs would provide more shade to the decks below, and built the sky lounge to convert into a fifth stateroom.<\/span>\n Nordhavn<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

\u201cHe uses that boat as his own personal cruise ship to take him anywhere he wants, and it has all of the amenities,\u201d says Jenny Stern, Nordhavn\u2019s director of marketing. \u201cIf you look at their Instagram, it\u2019s phenomenal\u2014the diving, the fishing, the local food, the locals themselves, getting into the cultures where they visit. He is the epitome of what we hope the average Nordhavn owner will strive to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giles definitely is still striving to explore, and he says he\u2019ll probably buy a 120- or 130-foot yacht next, to get even more interior volume for even more comfortable world exploration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut when I bring people on the boat and tell them that, they always ask, \u2018Why?\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t know why.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s just going.\u2009\u2009<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take the next step:<\/strong> nordhavn.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For automotive dealer Bob Giles, owning a Nordhavn 96 is a passport to adventures around the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":59170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Kim Kavin","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"163","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Aboard his Nordhavn 96 \"VivieRae,\" automotive dealer Bob Giles looks to cruise and explore around the world, and dive in remote destinations.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"","arc_website_url":"","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":true,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","sponsored_url":"","social_share":true,"ad_targeting":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true},"categories":[163],"tags":[2027,176,270,164],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59165"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}