“What the heck is that?” says Udo Willersinn, who looks bemused. He’s at the helm of the Fjord 39 XP as we slowly
approach another turn on the New River. Standing with shoulders squared, he tactically monitors the heavy traffic on this artery that cuts across the city of Fort Lauderdale. A low, black vessel glides by, like a shadow passing over the water.
“It looks like something trying to be a submarine,” says Wendy Meade, who is sitting beside Udo in one of three bolster seats. She’s working the VHF so he can stay focused on navigation and keep both hands on the wheel. The couple—co-founders of Yacht Sales International, U.S. distributor for the Fjord brand—operate as a good team.
I tuck my cell phone into my pocket with the intention to keep it there. I’ve realized there’s a lot more to see on this stretch of water than on most rivers in the U.S. It’s not the place to bury your head in a screen.
Talk about showstoppers. So many of the boats plying the New River are simply arresting. Just a few miles back, there was a restored Trumpy Flush Deck Cruiser, a reminder of what a luxury yacht looked like in the 1960s. Then, a custom Rybovich, looking every inch the epitome of a purpose-built sportfisherman that can outgun the tournament competition. Now, a jet boat painted like a shark prowls closer to shore and, to port, a bullet-gray Pershing 80 swooshes by heading in the opposite direction. Its hullside is so close to ours that it looks higher than a house.
Any person with a penchant for boat-watching will be on cloud nine here. Heads swivel to take in what is pure spectacle—vessels of every shape, size, age and nationality, sharing a relatively thin slice of water in the city that’s often called the yachting capital of the world.
Our boat adds even more zest to the scene. The 39 XP is the newest model from Fjord to arrive in the U.S., a great-looking day yacht with a hefty dash of salt, thanks to the offshore-ready running bottom with a powerful plumb stem, vertical hullsides, massive freeboard and straight sheer. And on deck, there are signs of robust engineering and clean design that’s intelligent for its simplicity. This European build has been available in the U.S. for a number of years, but not in high volume, which makes the brand kind of exotic, too.
Fjord was founded in the late 1950s in Norway, where the builder produced motorboats for family cruising; it attracted a loyal following with reliable, seaworthy builds. In 2005, Hanse Yachts of Germany acquired the company and made a significant course change in design, culminating in the debut of the 40 Open in 2008. Its lines were really unusual at the time and so imaginative that the 40 was named European Powerboat of the Year. “If you owned a Fjord, you had arrived,” Udo recalls.
Since then, the builder has expanded its line of boldly styled boats, which now ranges from 38 to 53 feet. The 39 XP is an outboard version of the 39 XL that’s powered by a diesel sterndrive. That boat has been embraced by megayacht crews in need of a premium “tender” that doesn’t run
on gasoline. By comparison, this 39 XP is best as a primary boat for owners with an itch for a day ride that’s unlike many others.
“The Fjord represents the best of two worlds—Nordic heritage and German engineering,” says Udo, who’s still at the wheel, looking comfortable under the shade of a huge hardtop—“the largest in its class,” he says—and behind a curved one-piece windshield that offers good visibility.
Udo could be biased. He was born and raised in Germany, where he helped his family grow its import business for recreational powerboats. Years later, he moved to the U.S., continuing to work in marine.
He met Wendy in Florida, on a blind date. He impressed her with rides on three different boats in a single day. They shared a passion for the water, as well as entrepreneurship, having run companies of their own. (Wendy started a modeling business when she was a teenager, and after earning a degree in engineering focused on IT.) The couple then got serious—about each other and work. They co-founded Yacht Sales International and became distributors for a few European brands, including Fjord. They now have five offices around the country, with headquarters here on the New River in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
Wendy is on the radio with my colleague Pim Van Hemmen, deputy editor at Soundings. He is photographing the Fjord from a RIB just a couple hundred yards ahead.
“He’d like to start heading east, maybe do a run offshore to get some shots of the boat at speed,” she says.
Despite its name, the New River isn’t a true natural river, but rather a tidal estuary that’s less than 4 miles long and connected to the ICW and Atlantic Ocean at Port Everglades at its east end. This waterway is composed of countless tributary canals. Half the fun of boating here is slowly poking around in those offshoots, in large part to get a good look at some primo real estate.
“There’s the Huizenga house,” says Wendy, pointing to a Med-style mansion. Wayne Huizenga—the billionaire philanthropist who founded Waste Management, Blockbuster Video and Auto Nation and owned three of Florida’s biggest sports teams—bought the 18,000-square-foot house in 2005 from Alamo car rental founder Michael Egan and lived there until he died in 2018. It’s one of the most famous landmarks on the river, so I break my vow to leave the phone in my pocket and walk forward to snap a pic.
In the process I realize how easy it is to get around on this boat. The walkaround is wide and so deep the edge of the gunwale hits me at the top of the hip. And the deck is single level, with no steps to slow you down when you need to get to the bow quickly to catch a line. The sole is covered in a high-performance synthetic teak decking (Flexiteak 2G) that’s kind to feet and easy on the eyes.
As we approach the ICW where it meets the Stranahan River, we pass the place where the “White House” once stood. La Maison Blanche, a neoclassical estate built in the 1930s, was another iconic waterfront estate. It drew the gaze of countless boaters over the years, but as time and tides have marched on, the waterfront continues to change. A wrecking ball recently flattened the building and its ties to Old Florida glamour. It will be replaced by a 20,000-square-foot contemporary home with minimalist lines and sustainable technology.
Pim has been photographing the Fjord for two hours straight from the deck of the RIB on this warm, sticky day. He’s ready for a swim, so we take a detour over to Whiskey Creek. Udo noses the bow into the tranquil anchorage, cozies up to a strip of sand and kills the power to the twin Mercury 400-hp V-10 outboards.
We hear only birds and the surf on the ocean beach a couple hundred yards away, just over a plump fence of green mangroves. Ours is the only boat here on this Wednesday, a treat as the location is typically busy on weekends, with boats stacked like cordwood. Today, Whiskey Creek is part of a family-friendly state park, but during Prohibition, it was the scene of smuggling activity—boats from the Bahamas snuck in here at night, filled with spirits that had been distilled in England.
Wendy showcases a cool feature on the 39. She presses a button in the cockpit and a passerelle emerges from inside the swim platform. It offers an easy way to gently step into the water, but Pim wants to go kamikaze, so he bombs down the deck, past the swim pad on the stern and hurls himself off the back.
Meanwhile, I get a good look at the cockpit layout. Two long bench seats face an equally long wood table that’s hinged so you can fold sections and create two separate tables. Cushions are thick for comfort and upholstery looks great as it fits like a glove. The backrest for the forward seat is adjustable so passengers can turn to face the bow when the boat is on plane and underway.
Forward of this dining and social space is a console that can be configured in a variety of ways. You can order a propane grill, or an induction stove powered by solar panels and inverter so you don’t have to run a generator. You can also add a refrigerator, or a sink or just more drawer stowage. “Make it however you like it,” says Udo.
Fjord takes pride in its ability to customize layouts. “A megayacht owner may want the interior spare because the boat will function as a tender. Another person will want the boat to do a lot more than just run people from point A to B,” he says.
The benefit of working with a distributor like Yacht Sales International is the fact that Wendy and Udo—both experienced boaters—think carefully about outfitting each model. On this 39, for instance, they installed a bowthruster, to complement the Mercury Joystick Piloting system.
“On the New River there can be extreme current, and winds can be strong when they blow between the high-rise buildings downtown,” says Udo. “The thruster provides a little more control.”
The 39 XP is dubbed a day yacht by Fjord, but it can sleep two people if the weather turns or the skipper is too tuckered out to make a night run home. There’s a cabin with a queen-size berth, a large head with shower, and comfortable headroom.
As we leave Port Everglades inlet, there’s a good chop in the Atlantic, which is welcome because the hull was made for this. The vertical prow with almost no flare just cuts through the waves, shouldering gallons over to the sides with ease. There’s no pitching and the deep forefoot barely seems to rise.
“In a head sea, I can keep it on plane at just 15 or 16 mph and pass a lot of other boats,” says Udo. “Some of those boats are barely on plane at 25 mph and get beat to hell. I think this 39 offers one of the driest rides in its size range.”
We can’t run speed tests today, but the builder reports that the 39 will top out near 42 knots with the twin 400-hp Mercurys and cruise near 30 knots.
“I’m hungry,” Udo says to Wendy. She nods and calls Pim on the VHF to let him know it’s time to eat. The RIB follows the Fjord back through the inlet and then we all head north up the ICW.
With a population that hovers around 184,000 people, Fort Lauderdale is a city, and as such it has a lot of places for grub. Fortunately, many are on the water and accessible by boat. There’s a dock and dine for most budgets and atmosphere preferences. Some are delightfully down-and-dirty—with strong drinks, loud music, deep baskets of fried fish and diners donning flip flops. Other locations have tarpon swimming near the docks for the kids to feed while waiting on mac-and-cheese bites. A few places have wine cellars and white-glove service. What they all have in common are views—of water, sky and boats.
We tie up side-to for lunch at Shooters on the ICW, long a popular dining destination for local and transient boaters, and a place where vessels of all stripes are admired. The Fjord draws stares from the diners who reserved tables here to satisfy their appetites for both good food and fiberglass eye candy.
Back onboard we head down the ICW, passing under the 17th Street bascule drawbridge near the Port Everglades cut. The winner of a 2004 engineering excellence award, this 170-foot-long, precast concrete structure is the right structure to mark the entrance to Fort Lauderdale. It’s an icon that welcomes everyone to one of the most visually stimulating cities you can ever experience by boat.
Specifications
LOA: 39’2”
Beam: 12’8”
Draft: 2’9”
Water: 52 gals.
Fuel: 301 gals.
Power: (2) 400-hp Mercury Verados
This article was originally published in the August 2024 issue.
