Nor'Sea, the California Builder of Ocean Boats on Trailers

Wixom's challenge to Lyle Hess

The company's roots lie with Dean Wixom, who ran Heritage Marine in California in the mid-1970s. He wanted a cruising sailboat narrow enough to tow legally on American roads but tough enough to cross oceans, and he took the problem to Lyle Hess. Hess already had a reputation for small, seaworthy cutters, having drawn Renegade and Seraffyn, the boat Lin and Larry Pardey made famous, and his designs later grew into the Bristol Channel Cutter. His answer for Wixom borrowed from the Norwegian spitzgatter, a canoe-sterned workboat type, squeezed to an 8-foot beam. Heritage launched the first boats in 1976.

Wixom ran a meticulous shop, later joking that he had produced the priciest 27-footer on earth because he refused to economize. After roughly 150 hulls in Long Beach, he sold the business in 1980.

The Dana Point era

The buyer was Nor'Sea Marine, set up in Dana Point, and most of Heritage's craftsmen moved there with the work, giving the boat continuity across the change of ownership. The new company kept the 27 in production for decades and broadened its work by building Montgomery sailboats as well. Good Old Boat visited Nor'Sea Yacht Corporation, as it was then called, in 2002 and found both lines still being built, and sailboatdata dates the builder's activity from 1975 to 2019.

Wixom never lost faith in the concept. He took his own boat, Chinook, cruising and gave up keeping track of the miles somewhere around 40,000.

The boat that defined the company

Our Nor'Sea 27 review covers the double-ender in detail, including its two cockpit layouts, rig options, ballast history, engines and tankage. In company terms, it is the reason Nor'Sea is remembered. Around 450 were completed, either at the factory or by owners working from kits, and books such as Wayne Carpenter's The Voyage of Kristina spread its reputation as a little ship that could be towed home after an ocean crossing. Buyers usually compare it with the Bristol Channel Cutter, the Pacific Seacraft Dana 24 and Flicka 20, and the Contessa 26.

Buying with no factory behind you

Production has ended, so the market is entirely secondhand, and resale is supported by an active, knowledgeable owner community that trades advice and parts sources. Because so many hulls were kit-completed, the most important question about any Nor'Sea is who finished it and how well. A properly rated trailer adds meaningfully to a boat's value.

Key inspection points:

• Factory or kit completion, and the quality of the builder's joinery, wiring and plumbing
• Soft or wet plywood deck core around hardware
• Chainplates, bowsprit and bobstay hardware
• Which diesel is fitted and its hours and condition
• Pintles, gudgeons and fastenings on the outboard rudder
• The trailer's capacity, brakes, tires and axles