N41

A model that went out on top, then went extinct

PAE president Dan Streech announced the end of the N41 and N51 on 28 July 2026, calling it frustrating that boats he described as still improving would end their run this way, and adding there was realistically no other answer. The two models were built at the Telgeren & Partners factory in Ayvalik, Turkey, a partnership PAE says produced work reflecting the highest standards. What ended it was not the boats but the economics around them: a high and unpredictable Turkish inflation rate, combined with a government-managed lira, made it impossible to price new contracts in a currency that would still make sense by the time a hull was finished.

Fifty-four hulls were built in total, 44 of them N41s, over six years. Around ten boats were still mid-build with fixed retail prices already agreed when the decision was made, and PAE says it provided the capital to finish them and honored every one of those contracts as written rather than repricing them, which the trade press treated as a genuinely unusual thing for a builder to do in a currency crisis. The molds for both models will be destroyed, Nordhavn's normal practice for a retired design, and no replacement entry-level model has been announced. For now, buying a used N41 is the only way to own one.

Two different boats under one name: Kubota power, then Nanni

The N41 was designed by Jeff Leishman, brother of PAE co-founder Jim Leishman, with Vripack Yacht Design handling hull optimization, and it carries Nordhavn's standard CE Category A certification, meaning it is designed to handle winds over Beaufort Force 8 and waves above 13 feet. What changed during the model's six-year run is the engine room. Early hulls, including the boat PassageMaker sea-trialed, shipped with twin Kubota four-cylinder diesels making 74 to 75 hp each: simple, mechanically injected, low-pressure turbocharged engines with no electronic controls, chosen because the same block routinely runs past 20,000 hours in generator duty and can be repaired at sea with basic tools. The N41 was designed as the direct successor to the original Nordhavn 40, a boat that splashed in 1998 and went on to complete the fastest circumnavigation ever logged by a production yacht, so the N41 carried a specific reputation to live up to before its own keel was even laid, not just a size class to fill.

Nordhavn's own current specification page for the N41 instead lists twin Nanni diesels rated at 115 hp each, a swap made for supply-chain reasons rather than a performance upgrade. A buyer comparing two used N41s should check which engines are actually fitted rather than assuming: PassageMaker's tested, Kubota-powered boat reached 9.1 knots flat out and returned a 6,500-nautical-mile range at a 5-knot cruise, or 3,000 nm at 6.5 knots, and no independently tested range figure for a Nanni-engined hull has been published anywhere this profile could find. The two engines are not interchangeable in what they tell you about a specific boat's real-world range.

Fifty-four hulls, then the molds were destroyed: on 28 July 2026 Nordhavn ended the N41 and N51 for good, because Turkish inflation made the fixed-price contracts they were sold on impossible to sustain.

What the sea trial and real owners found

PassageMaker's reviewer found the N41 handled like a ski boat, with sharp, responsive steering, and described it in open water as solid, dry and predictable. The boat's ABT-Trac 220 stabilizers, with 6-square-foot fins, were rated effective enough that the reviewer did not immediately notice when the crew switched them off, a meaningful data point on a 41-footer meant to cross oceans rather than potter around a bay. Standard equipment includes a 7/9 kW Onan genset, a 3,000-watt Victron Multiplus inverter, six 255 amp-hour Lifeline batteries, 400 watts of roof-mounted solar, a Side Power bow thruster with joystick control, and a four-person Revere liferaft, a genuinely complete offshore package for the size.

Owner sentiment on forums including YBW and the informal Nordhavn Dreamers community is consistently positive on build quality, with two recurring caveats: the N41 is not pitched as a true ocean crosser in the way the larger Nordhavns are, and the galley can be awkward to use underway in a seaway. The two-cabin layout's second stateroom, with its crossed berths, is also described as tight. The first European-delivered N41, hull number 3, went to South African owners Charles and Wendy Meyer in Ayvalik in 2019; they named her Escape, ran sea trials immediately on delivery, and set off to cruise the Mediterranean before planning a wider circuit, a fairly typical use case for the model: coastal and Mediterranean cruising rather than the deliberate ocean passages the bigger Nordhavn range is built around.

Price, delivery and what Nordhavn has not said

Historical new pricing put the N41 at around 700,000 US dollars: PAE quoted roughly 710,000 dollars for a buyer taking delivery at the Turkish factory, 740,000 dollars delivered to the US East Coast, and 785,000 dollars to the West Coast, as of 2021. No current, official base price for the final production hulls has been published, and with the model now discontinued there is no new-boat price to quote at all, only whatever a broker asks for a used one.

What Nordhavn has not addressed publicly is what discontinuation means for existing owners' long-term parts and warranty support, now that the Telgeren partnership itself has ended by mutual agreement alongside the model. Trade coverage has speculated that a closed, 54-hull production run with the molds destroyed may make existing N41s more sought after rather than less, on the logic that no more supply is coming, but that is analysis rather than a confirmed resale trend, and this profile found no verified used-N41 asking prices from 2026 to test it against.

Pour qui: A couple who wants a genuinely offshore-capable, full-displacement passagemaker at the smallest size and lowest price Nordhavn ever sold one at, and who is buying used, since the model is now out of production for good.