Dirona recently was featured in the Three Sheets Northwest My Boat series. When we answered their questions, it had been about a year since we’d taken delivery of 5263, so it was a good chance for us to reflect back on the purchase and decision process.

One of their interview questions we had the hardest time answering was “What do you know now about your boat that you wish you’d known when you bought it?” We’ve not really had any unpleasant surprises. We did have some concerns about how some of our customizations would turn out, such as the day head, and the galley and guest stateroom redesigns. But these have worked out well and we wouldn’t make any changes there. After a year with the boat we’re even more convinced the main engine upgrade was the right decision. The hydraulics are an expensive option that introduce more complexity, but we love the system. It’s great having thrusters that can run all day, even though we don’t use them that way, and we really like the higher HP thrusters that a hydraulic system makes possible. And with a hydraulic windlass, we easily can anchor in very deep water and not have to worry about overheating the windlass. For example, we anchored in 145′ in front of Reid Glacier, with a 154 lb anchor on 450’ of chain at 2 lbs per foot.

Were we to go through the process again, the list of changes we’d consider is pretty short. Mechanically, we’d like more horsepower on the wing. The wing can drive the boat at adequate speed, but doing that requires higher load than we’re comfortable with. It would be slightly better to have higher horsepower for emergency use, and definitely better for hydraulic use.

Since our boat was built, Nordhavn has come out with several alternate interior layouts for the 47/52 that avoid having to go up the stairs to the pilot house and back down to reach the staterooms from the salon. The pilot houses also are larger, with room for two helm chairs, which we would like. The new designs do appear to have less storage space, though, and there’s no clear place for a day head. Since the stairs aren’t a huge issue, avoiding them would have to be weighed off against the losing storage space and the day head. Storage actually isn’t a big issue for us though–we still have several empty lockers and drawers after living aboard for a year and buying almost every spare parts we could think of. 

A slightly larger salon also would be nice, but that would reduce the cockpit size, and we do like the large outdoor area. The rest of the changes we’d make are pretty minor, including better lighting in the galley, no fiddle on the flybridge table, and larger doors into the storage area in the flybridge brow.

The full interview is at My Boat: MV Dirona. We’ve also posted details on several of the topics touched on in the interview, including our purchase and customization experience, visiting the yard in China, and watching the offloading in Tacoma.