Nordic Quality?
 

I have been in the marine design business for the past 23 years, and worked as a marine surveyor for the past 15. I have been a boater all of my life. I see more and more of them on Havasu. The Nordic is an awesome looking boat and I have surveyed a few of them in the past but not in a couple of years. I was not really impressed with the last one I surveyed. The seats, gunnels and floor was made out of painted plywood and the engine compartment didn't have a floor and the stringers were exposed. The gel coat was about the same thickness as paint. Do they still build them that way or have they improved their quality? I love to race them when they will.

I don't know what boat you were looking at :confused:
1) Yes there is a floor on either side of the engine in the single engine boats. The stringers are GlueTech Lams, four full length stringers. Gunnels made of plywood?? Never seen plywood gunnels. I don't even think Bayliner has plywood gunnels.
2) The floor in the cockpit is made of the same thing some of the east coast builders that build high quality offshore boats, XL marine grade plywood, life time warrantee. The 35 has a fiberglass liner, the 25, 28 have 3/4" XL.
3) The gel-coat is plenty thick, are you looking for a measurement :confused: I can tell from the chip in the gel I made this year :mad:
If you go to the factory, you can see the quality for yourself.

Re-post when you get accurate information.

Go to the factory....if you only knew
 

If you are happy with your boat, I won't ask you what is under that thin gray paint that your back seat is constructed of. I won't ask you how your seats are fastened to the floor. I won't ask you what is behind that plush upholstery on the sides of your cockpit. By the way, those of us in the business refer to those as gunnels. I won't ask you to explain how you gain access to repair that leaky faucet. I won't ask you about that fiberglass liner you referred to. I won't ask what east coast boats you are referring to. I will ask what business you are in.

Not sure what point you are trying to make. If it is Nordic uses plywood in its construction. Then yes, you are right. All of the areas you mentioned is plywood. I believe Indy indicated they do use plywood - XL marine plywood.

Dragon Slayer,

What do you want to say? Just say it! Did you feel compelled to come on here and bash Nordic? If so get it over with and leave. Any constructive comments that may enlighten us would be welcomed otherwise .....Bye.

DallasHeat

RV, his point is that he has a thing with Nordics...first time poster, the name, and comments.

I wasn't aware that side panels constitute "gunnels". Those in the "industry" usually refer to the top of the hull sides as gunnels. Side panels are just that...side panels, XL is fine for that application, as are the seats.

But now that I'm enlightened from your comments, I'd better hurry up and sell my boat. I guess a couple of years of hard running in the Sound (not very lake like conditions) and no problems or issues, it'll probably fall apart next year :mad:

As far as racing Nordics goes...buy a Pantera, Powerplay, Activator, Cig, et al., I would if I were going to race. There's alot of rich racing history there.

And by the way...it shouldn't matter what industry I'm in, those in the "business" don't have a corner on marine knowledge as evidenced by the number of idiots running around out there.

Oh...and you might as well get your name right...the Nordic logo is a sea serpent, not a dragon.

Hey All You Other Nordic Fans,

Never argue with someone stupider than you.

Pesky Varmint

Pesky,
Long time since we last talked. How are you doing. We sure had a great summer on Lake Michigan with our new boat. I saw a couple pictures of yours at the Fall Heat Wave run. Looks like it is still running pretty good. Have you heard from Dan and Deb lately, do they have their engines together yet.

Keep in touch,
Rick

I have to agree with him
 

As bad as I hate to admit it, I have to agree with the Slayer. I have owned two Nordics, a 25' and a 35'. Maybe it was just my bad luck but I had more problems than I care to remember. I liked the way the 25 looked and I thought that maybe it was just a lemon so I upgraded to a 35. OMG, it got worse. He is right about the wood in the seats. If they are marine grade, they sure rot like interior grade. The cover that came with mine was not what I would call the most superior on the market. I usually stored it in a storage building but I left it out for about a week and when I returned, I was disheartened to find that it had ripped under the weight of the water that had collected on it. Ok, I can handle that but later when I flipped up the seat, the wood was totally rotten and so bad that it tore loose from the henges. I contacted my dealer and he contacted Nordic and that was the last I heard from it so I replaced it with real marine grade complete with drain holes and that ended that problem. The dack hatches leaked from the git go and so did those pop up cleats. Then that neat little electric door stopped working and that little motor is a ***** to get to and change. It might have helped the pain a little if Nordic had of helped me but all of my calls to the factory went unanswered. If you baby them to death, they might be a good boat. My gelcoat was evidently pretty thin as compared to other boats because it did blister and never spent the first night in the water. I did give Nordic every chance. I have since traded and have been more than happy with my current boat which is NOT a Nordic.

Don't care what they are made of
 

They sure do look good and I hear we now have a new dealership here for them. Hopefully, I can sell this ole Baja and get one of 'em.

Now this Indy fellow is an expert
 

A snake with a dragon head. You are good. It sounds like you know more about Nordic than anyone in the plant. You need to go to work for Lonnie.
I didn't come here to bash Nordic. All boats have their faults. Even the company I work for has its faults but we listen to our customers and try to correct them. I was just wondering if Nordic had started listening to their customers. It is pretty obvious after reading the Hustled post that they haven't.
Dragon Slayer is a name I have had for many years and has nothing to do with Nordic so I think I will keep it.

Dragon Slayer,

Not sure what your objective is, however, if you have a marine industry backround it should not surprize you that making comments such as yours would not be met well on a Nordic forum. Most people that post on the these forums are happy owners. In addition, I see that you also post on the Elimintor forum, I find your comments regarding to the gel quailty and wooden seats interesting. Have you ever turned your Elimintor seats over? guess what same wood! Further, one of my best friends owns a 28 Eagle he would very much disagree with you on the gel quailty of a Nordic compared to his Eagle.

And last but not least, Hustled - if you actually owned a 28 and a 35 Nordic you would know that Nordic does not use pop-up cleats. I've owned three Nordic's no pop-up cleats or problems you suggest. :)

Touchy bunch aren't you
 

Well excuse my terminology Mr Nordic. I meant those funnels Nordic calls recessed cleats. I guess they would have worked pretty good if Nordic had of tightened them up before sending the boat out. BUT THEY DIDN'T! Since we are being so scrutinizing, I said a 25 and a 35. By the way, the next time I pass you down on Cumberland....catch me if you can.:D

Boys, Boys, BE NICE!
 

I don't have a team in this game and I am glad of it. You sound like a bunch of kids. You open up a ballfield and invite everybody to come play then if somebody don't play by your rules, you shove the bat in his butt.
With that said, Now I am going to challenge Nordic Gary to pull up the back seat of BB's Eliminator and take another look....Guess what???? NO WOOD:cool:

Get to work Halfast

Thanks for the info Hustled and Dragon, I have not experienced any of the problems you speak about. I'm a very, very happy Nordic owner. If I was lucky enough to have a Slingshot or Daytona I would also be VERY happy..

DallasHeat

I want to see a big fight on the Nordic forum. Bring it on!! It's nice to see somebody else be bashed for awhile. Nordic Gary - eventually you will get thick skin - hell, mine is like 3 inches thick - eventually you realize the only people who bash are two types - those who really got screwed or those who can't have what they are bashing.

LP - Your comments are well put. There is something to be said for flying low and off the radar screen.

Gary
 

Are you affiliated with Unlimited Marine?. I've e-mailed them twice with no response. I would like to stop in next Saturday and take a look at their Nordics. Do they have any to look at?

RICK252
 

I HAVEN'T RECEIVED ANY OF YOUR E-MAILS HERE AT UNLIMITED MARINE SORRY FOR ANY TROUBLES HERE IS OUR E-MAIL ADDRESS JUST IN CASE [email protected]

RIGHT NOW WE ARE WAITING ON 2 NEW 28's (1 OPEN BOW & 1 CLOSED BOW). WE CURRENTLY HAVE 1 NEW 35 IN STOCK (DEMO WITH LESS THAN 50 HRS) WE ALSO HAVE A USED 2000 35 & A USED 2002 25 BOTH ARE AWSOME BOATS

THESE BOATS ARE IN STORAGE RIGHT NOW BUT WE CAN GET PEOPLE TO SEE THEM IN AN INSTANCE.

WE WILL BE WORKING ON OUR SHOW ROOM THIS WINTER. WE ARE ALSO HANDLING ANOTHER SMALLER LINE OF BOATS AS WELL.
WHICH WILL NOT ARRIVE UNTIL DECEMBER SOMETIME

THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST
JOHN

Thanks John. Will see you Saturday..

I just like all the Nordic avatars you guys have. I wonder who made them??

I love my Nordic, sure it may have a few minor things that could be better, but it is far better than alot of the competitors.

I'd buy another one...in fact I want RVW's when he's done with it!

Oh, and all you Nordic guys are welcome over at my site!

RRX

http://www.riverracerx.com

Riverracer, great site!!!! I lived in Orange County and boated on Havasu until 1993 when I was tansfered to Cincinnati Ohio. I remember the good old days on Havasu. On my third Nordic.

Chris,
We are pretty happy with our's, you may have to wait awhile!

How is your engine doing? Any progress there.

Rick

see the site for details, but it was the seawater pump...impeller was destryed and jammed the pump causing the pulley to freeze and mess up the belt (1 pulley not turning) fixed for under $100. Took the boat out Sunday morning to 93 degree weather. I am back in business.

Gary, come check out my message board. Alot of great Nordic talk there!

Chris

ROCK-IT MAN,here. I have only had one Nordic{RAGE} picked it up at the factory and being 900 miles away there is no warenty work avaible up here ,I have had no problems at all I ran the stock motor for about 20 hrs while my new 572 was being built and now I run 104.6 mph verified by radar and gps,there will be mention of my boat in hot boat soon Eric tells me as It ran 98.6 mph at the 2002 Sacramento Shoot out and was picked best of show,I have had 9 boats over the last 20 yaers and the Nordic is by far the best handling and best looking boat ever, I have a new Nordic Cat on order and I have to get to at leats 144.1mph to beat elim.

Nordic fans-I love my 35 flame and feel it compares in quality to other production boats in its size for the money and performance. If you own a boat, you better like to tinker and improve things. However, my Nordic blistered the first season. I kept it in the fresh water of Lake Tahoe for ten weeks. Boat lifts are not an option as there are no slips, all bouys. Hundreds of boats of all makes are moored in this lake every year. When I called nordic on the issue, they said you cant keep a Nordic in the water. That came as a shock! I then called Formula, Hustler, DCB, Baja, Ultra, Sunsation, and Conquest and was told that for my boating season of 4 to 5 months, it would be fine to keep the boat in the water. While I am now aware of the possibility of osmosis in gel coat in any boat, most builders use vinylester resins and/or barrier coats in their construction and advertise as so. Read powerboat mag tests under workmanship. Nordic doesnt seem to supply lamination schedules in any of the tests. In defense of Nordic, after I told them of the cost for me to properly redo locally, they agreed to fix the bottom. To make it easier for them, I pulled motors, drives, drained fluids, and prepped interior for boat to be turned over. I also delivered and picked up, 1200 miles. I re installed all of the above. I give the repair a B grade, missed some blisters, didnt repair an air pocket hole 3 inches long, left portions of repairs unbuffed. I put out a ton of effort and expense to correct the problem on a boat I had owned for 6 months. I wish Nordic would take some or all of the measures available today to prevent this problem, and if they are, make them known. If I had more knowledge of osmosis, blistering, vinylester resins, and barrier coating, I would have made construction materials a bigger priority than just looks and speed. In my case, mooring my boat is a must, as launches at Tahoe are way behind times, and a 2000 foot grade stands between me and the lake. Eventually, I will have to strip the bottom of the boat and add a barrier coating to it. The price to do it? $14,500+/- with a graphite running surface and any bluprinting that can be done. Ive also had my share of the small stuff to deal with- leaky exhaust at clamp to tailpipe, both bilge blowers replaced, restaple bolster seats, nylock nuts on bolster seats, two stereo speakers, leaking rear drain plug, re glue rubber trim on interior bulkheads, align drop down bolster seat latches, and misc rattles. The blisters were the big deal though. I have owned other boats and they needed similar attention as well, short of blisters. Thanks everyone for listening to me go on and by the way, I still love the damn thing!

Did Nordic ever tell you during/after the repair what type of resin they used on the hull? Also, when they repaired it did they use a different material so you can keep it in the water?

Hey Dragon Slayer......
 

Whats with the flimsy cardboard honeycomb crap that they core the engine hatch on the 26 Daytona with? The same engine hatch that started to delaminate when the boat was only a couple of months old. And by the way, did I say cardboard?
Talk about cheap.

Oh yea, what about the rub rail retaining lag bolts that protrude
into the cabin at just the right place to stab someone in the head.
And they're hidden behind the carpet so you can't see them. Didn't hit my head but they drew blood from my hand when I bumped them.

If you work for Eliminator like you say, you better get a clue
because Eliminators s**t stinks too.

RV- thanks for your response. I tried to talk to Orval about the repair and what we would do. He became very mad and said he wasnt dealing with this anymore and transferred me to Lonnie. After speaking with him, I faxed him a vinylester barrier coat repair sheet that I had, but never heard anything on it. I pretty much gave up and let them do whatever they would do, knowing eventually I will pull the motors again and have my local guy permanently repair it. I dont like the the expense of it, but its my only option. The repair they did do consisted of grinding off the blisters and re gelcoating the areas, period. The blisters were small and caught in time to prevent glass damage. I dont think Im any better off underneath, just bought myself some time before a full on repair. I hope Nordic considers barrier coating and vinylester resin for the new 42 footer and future 35 footers. If were not going to do that, have dealers inform buyers not to keep their new boat in the water, except on a lift. There are no absolutes in preventing blistering, but from what Ive learned vinylester is far superior to polyester resin.

Thanks for the update. Fortunately we don't keep ours in the water. I am surprised to here this about the resin. I thought this was a problem 10yrs ago and all the manufactures switched over to the new resins. Bad assumption.

Rick

When I was out at the factory, I saw containers of vinylester resin in the building where they perform the glass lay-up. :confused: Something is wrong here :eek:

If Nordic is using and has been using vinylester resins in lay up, I wish they would crow about it like most other builders do. Some builders like Formula use AME 4000 and AME 5000 resin. When other boats are tested by Powerboat mag, the type of resin used is mentioned most of the time. Im no expert, but it seems to me if you can apply gelcoat to the mold, then apply a barrier coat to a recommended thickness over the gelcoat, then start the resin and glass work, the barrier coat would minimize the chances of water getting to the resin. When it does get to the resin, it forms a gas and bingo, blisters. Am I right here? Could it be that easy? Maybe Im making it sound easier then it would be to do. Any info would be great. God bless America!

When you mention barrier coat, what specific product are you referring to? I do know that Nordic sprays a black coating of some sort to the mold after the gelcoat has been applied, prior to the lay-up procedure. This is visible from the hull/deck joint in my 28 (I've had my boat's interior completely apart when making some modifications). They join the hull/deck when they are in their specific molds and this joint and coating is visible if you pull off your side panels. My boat was built in '01 and I'm not sure if anything has changed since then. This is the first I've heard of blistering on a Nordic. I'm not defending Nordic or they way they've handled your situation, I've just been out to the factory several times and have a pretty good knowledge of how the boats are built. I'd sure be upset also if this was on my boat. Oh...Nordic is not going to blow their own horn, Orval could care less about promoting his product.

It's a fact that gelcoat absorbs water, that's why boats that sit for extended periods need bottom paint. Perform a search on this site about blistering, it's come up in the past and there is some good info here about the subject.

Indy, When I discovered the blisters on my boat, I set out to find out as much as possible on the subject. Web sites, local surveyor, highly recommended glass guy and so on. The product I referred to and faxed to Lonnie is Duratec vinylester primer. FYI the web site is duratec1.com. Also, you can go to a site called fiberglast.com. They discuss the problem, resins, and repairs in detail, especially vinylester resins. Im glad you mentioned that black coating. I discovered the same thing and even some green specs when I did a small exploratory on a blistered area. I have no clue what that is. My boat is an 01 also. I was also happy to see that band of fiberglass joining the deck and hull together. Thats the way to do it. I did have a fiberglass expert look my boat over before anything was done and he felt the gel coat is to thin. Maybe a friday afternoon shooting. Along the strakes, in some areas, you can see that black coating right through it. One of the things I learned was that gel coat applied to thin will invite the problem. This will make you feel good, I have a buddy at the lake who has a 99 28 heat and his has sat in the water for our 5 month season since he got it and no blistering. Guess I just got lucky. No whining here though. Ive managed to make friends with the local glass guy and as I said before, when it has to be done, we are going to check the hull for any blueprinting that can be done and re finish the bottom so it can stay in the water. We will also add graphite to the running surface. He has done some very expensive performance boats like this with good results. If I have to do it, might as well try to improve it. And yes I still love the damn thing! Trailer too! God bless our troops!

35flame
Have you looked into the newer self-contained lifts?
They are great even in mooring situations, as they are 12 volt with solar charger. They have two types a floating lift and a stationary lift with about 5' of travel.
If I can find the wbsite Ill post it.

Re: Nordic Quality?
 

After all the great reviews I've read I finally got rid of my Baja and I'm looking at picking up my first Nordic this weekend.
Being "Nordic Happy" I'm searching around the forums and keep reading about these quality issues and terrible customer service.....WHAT GIVES?!?

Re: Nordic Quality?
 

Three years later and I'm without my Nordic. I probably put my Nordic through more rough water time than they usually see. After 2.5 years of running in the tough stuff, only minor issues. I took more of a beating than I would have in an east coast boat, but it held up fine. It's not as solid as the east coast designs (rattles & stuff) and I can't tell you how long it would hold up in comparison to an east coast boat in these waters, but for the time I had it, it performed well. I had some issues with Nordic and their dealer, but in the end, it all worked out ok. Enjoy your boat, it's a good one.

Re: Nordic Quality?
 

Oh...BTW...I've been to the Nordic factory twice and I've seen boats in all stages of construction. Hand laminated, deck and hull laminated together, glue tech stringers, XL plywood in transom and floor (newer models I think have fiberglass floors). Built well. I'll be looking for other features that would be included in a rough water boat, but what is in the Nordic is good quality.

Re: Nordic Quality?
 

I just came from a 20' Baja Outlaw with a 454 and wasn't impressed with the quality of Baja. I've seen too many that after 10-12 years had cracks everywhere in the gel-coat.
Wanting a better, more solid quality boat I started looking at west coast customs, plus Baja's are EVERYWHERE you look around here!

I passed up a few Formula's due to "cookie cutter" look and focused on Nordic's and Howard's, Howard seems to really take care of there customers and builds an outstanding product but WOW do you pay for it. Plus looking for a used one is a rare find, especially in Wisconsin!!!
We'll it looks like I go to see the Nordic this weekend, I'll be looking a little closer at details now.......