Valkyrie is not your typical boat. She turns heads everywhere she goes and has a very distinctive look that I believe contributes to her “head turning” abilities.
Starting with the basics – she is a Nordhavn 46 trawler. But what does this mean exactly?
A trawler being a more generic term, it essentially means she goes rather slow relative to other boats that can go fast enough to plane above the water. To get a boat on top of the water, it requires a fair amount of power relative to the weight of the boat. Valkyrie, at over 50,000 lbs, is powered by a single 130 hp tractor engine. At first, this seems like an odd power combination considering there are pontoon boats with 250+ hp engines spread across numerous lakes all over America, but for her intended purpose, its a perfect match.
When it comes to motor boats – regardless of manufacturer, generally speaking the faster you want to go, the more fuel you will burn, resulting in a lower mpg. However if you are in no hurry, the same boat going slower instead of faster will usually be more fuel efficient. This can be experienced by most people who may have helped someone at the dock with their boat, in that with a little bit of force either pulling a line or pushing the boat itself while its at rest, you can easily move the boat around at a very slow speed, but if you want to go faster it requires more power than what a human can provide, you will need an engine.
So how efficient are we talking? between 2-3 mpg (miles per gallon) is what you can expect. Although in boating terms we typically measure gph (gallons per hour) because we also need to deal with things like tides, winds, and waves, which, regardless how how hard your engine is running, will either fight you or work with you to improve your journeys efficiency. The end result is that this efficiency gives her between a 2-3000 mile range.
The next part is the “Nordhavn 46” referring to her manufacturer and model number, which also happens to be her length in feet. Nordhavn has been building trawlers like her for over 35 years now, and Valkyrie is one of the earlier boats built. Only 81 were ever built over about a 10 year span, and the model has since been “retired” from new production.
Some say this is the model that put Nordhavn “on the map” of great boat builders. I like to think of it as a “quality over quantity” argument. For instance the fiberglass making up her hull and superstructure is thicker than anything else in a similar size. The design was built “rugged” with the intent that this boat can (and has) crossed oceans by itself. When you only move between 6 and 8 miles an hour on average, it also means you may get caught up in some bad weather, and the design ensured that when things get rough, the boat can take it and some say will break well after you do.
Valkyrie has 8 distinct areas where you can typically hang out. This goes to 9 if you count the engine room, but thats usually not as fun to be in.
– Galley
– Salon
– Master Stateroom & Head
– Guest Stateroom & Head
– Pilot Hose
– Aft Deck
– Upper Deck
– Forward Deck
The Galley
The galley