Earlier this week, Nordhavn 5267 arrive into Brisbane from Xiamen, China on board the freighter AAL Hong Kong. Owners Natalie and Oz Bestel watched from the chase boat and shared these pictures of the delivery.
The offloading reminded us of Dirona‘s delivery back in 2009, except of course the temperature was in the 70s in Brisbane, instead of 28F in Seattle, and Don Kolhman didn’t need to dive into 45F water in his skivvies to free a snagged sling.
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Below, 5267 is underway for the first time in Australian waters. The 52 model is selling well right now, and after having put over 4,400 ours on ours, we think it should. Dirona is the perfect size for travelling the world, and matches our goal well of being the smallest boat we could comfortably do that in.
Docking at Rivergate Marina, where we recently cleared customs. The boat sure looks beautiful, and appears remarkably clean after that long ocean voyage.
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Here’s a short video of the unloading. Another Nordhavn 52 is born!
Hi James, how are you? I hope you’re well. It’s always an honor to send you a message.
We spoke a while back about an analog converter for measuring fuel consumption on mechanical engines, and I used to go to the website to grab the reference, but it disappeared. I think the database may have been cleared somehow. Could you send it to me again, please?
Your voyage inspired me. Although we talked about 5 years ago, it was only last year, in February 2025, that I decided to take the first step: I bought a used trawler for a refit. I want to sail around the world with it, and I’m right in the middle of a full refit now. The engine is a 1995 Scania DC11, and I’m also installing a Nissan Leaf electric motor with a separate controller alongside it. I’ll have 400kWh of batteries, and the diesel engine will charge the battery in regenerative mode; on top of that, I’ll have 16 solar panels of 560W on the hardtop. Fuel consumption without the electric motor, at 6 knots, is around 16L/h (4.22 gal/h). With the electric motor and a good sunny day, I’m hoping for a hybrid-mode range of 1 gal/h. We’ll see if I can pull it off. It has capacity for 1,600L (about 423 gallons) of diesel.
The boat is a wooden trawler, built in 1998, 78 feet long, and has already made some long crossings. The previous owner left it abandoned for 14 years, so a full refit is needed.
I want to reach Miami in 2027 or 2028, and I hope I can meet you there so you can sign my logbook. I only took on this crazy project thanks to your crossing videos and your way of life. I know you’ve stepped back from long crossings a bit lately — maybe it was just a phase.
Back then, we talked about Inmarsat internet options. Today internet is so simple, isn’t it? The way technology has evolved, how they managed to launch thousands of satellites in such a short time. I believe that by the time I set sail, I’ll have both a Starlink antenna on board and, for sure, an Amazon Leo one too.
Sorry for the boldness of asking for a logbook signature and messaging you about a boat so many years later — for me, this is truly a project that’s taking a few years to come together.
By the way, I’m a systems developer working in multiple languages. I used to run a colocation provider in Miami and here in Brazil — I really regret selling it. I’ve designed PCBs and firmware. I’ll admit that these days I’m taking it a bit easy, letting Claude do most of the work. I started programming at 14; I’m 43 now.
I’m going to launch a website with information about my trawler, the refit, and everything that’s being done and prepared. When it launches, I’ll send you the link, okay?
Big hug!
Renato.
Congratulations on getting started on your long distance sailing. In your note you asked about a “analog converter for measuring fuel consumption on mechanical engines.” As you know electronically controlled engines produce fairly accurate estimates of fuel consumption rates. Getting that data from mechanical engines is more difficult. The only accurate approach I know of measures the fuel flow to the engine. Unfortunately, diesel engines don’t burn all the fuel sent to the engine and they usually return more than they burn back to the fuel tank. As a consequence to get an accurate fuel burn rate, you need to the flow to the engine and subtract off the return to the fuel tank flow to get the actual real time burn rate. The Maretron FFM100 (https://www.maretron.com/products/ffm100-fuel-flow-monitor-2/) is a good candidate. Remember when choosing a solution is you need one able to handle the full flow of the engine and this flow rate can be 5x more than the actual engine burn rate. You need to carefully match up the specs on your engine when choosing a flow meter. Too large a capacity meter will be inaccurate and lower burn rates and too small a meter will limit your engine output.
Hi James,
Thank you so much for the quick and detailed reply — it really helps a lot.
I had already figured the meter would need to measure both flows — supply to the engine and return to the tank — but I honestly had no idea the return volume could be that high, up to 5x the actual burn rate. I’ll take a look at the Maretron FFM100 and cross-reference it with my 1995 Scania DC11’s specs to make sure I choose the right meter capacity, following your advice not to go too big or too small.
Once I have it installed and tested on the boat, I’ll be sure to let you know the real-world fuel consumption results — including how it compares to what I’m projecting for the hybrid mode with the electric motor.
Thanks again for your attention and patience with my questions after all these years. It really means a lot to me on this journey.
Best,
Renato
Admittedly, the 5x number is a high number. I think it was from Cummins. Your engine is probably less. For example, this Scania engine fuel consumption spec is from a different Scania engine and it’s around 2.4:1 (https://www.scania.com/content/dam/scanianoe/market/au/products-and-services/engines/marine/september-2018/Marine-Fuel-system-issue-7.pdf). Much higher than engine burn rate.
It’s not hard to get the exact right manual for your engine and it’s worth doing to ensure you get the accuracy and reliability you want.
Hi James,
Thank you so much for your time, especially at this hour — almost 8:22 PM there. I know how valuable your time is, and the care you took to correct the information with a real technical source meant a lot to me.
I’ll track down the correct manual for my engine, as you suggested.
If you don’t mind, I’ll send you an update soon on how the refit is coming along.
A big, warm hug.
Renato
walkabout? Seattle?
We plan to enjoy Brisbane for multiple weeks, we’ll be doing some non-boat travelling, but we absolutely will be heading north to enjoy the Whitsundays and the Great Barrier Reef area. This has been a dream of ours for longer than we have been boating so we absolutey will do it while here and, more than likely, spend 2 or 3 months at it.
Hi, hopefully that will me one day unloading my Nordhavn in Brisbane. We went for a walk yesterday along the Kangaroo Pt boardwalk yesterday and saw Dirona tied up along side Gray Matter and my wife thought both boats looked good! Hope you enjoy beautiful Brissy whilst you are here. How long are you planning stay to say in Brisbane? Are you planning to up north this winter to take advantage of the good weather?