We are in the final stages of specing out and going to contract on a Nordhavn 43 for which we placed the order last February. Construction on N43-21 starts in October 2005 and North Star should be fully commissioned by late July of 2006. Our homeport is, and will be, Norwalk CT and we boat year round in New England. I would describe us as serious coastal cruisers who will make coastal offshore passages. At some point we may get to Bermuda. We will bring the boat up from Florida in a 1,000 nm offshore passage which at times will be more than 100 nm offshore. We will also get to Nova Scotia early on which is more than a day and a half of running and which will also get us more than 100 nm offshore. Realistically, for a bunch of years, we will range from Virginia to Nova Scotia. While I have extensive boating experience in all sorts of conditions, I do not have passagemaking experience and have lots to learn but an excellent base upon which to build. My heavy boating experience goes to 65 feet and 100 tons. We have a good number of friends with Nordhavns and have followed the boats for years. We looked at N40-02 in 1999 and had some issues with it. We bought the Nordic Tug with the intention of ultimately getting a Nordhavn larger than the 40. For us a 43 is an ideally sized boat and in our view, the N43 resolved all of the issues that we saw in the N40. We have been extremely impressed with the quality of the boats, the philosophy of the company, the people of PAE, and the fact that unlike many brands, the company team has extensive experience aboard their boats while underway. We think that this contributes to a well thought out and excellently designed boat which is extremely well built. These are all important factors as we will have this boat for a very long time. I look forward to learning from all of you and to contributing when I can. Jim (Jim & Mim McCrea, mcc272@aol.com Nordic Tug 32-154 "North Star" Home Port Norwalk, CT)