Nordic Tug 42 Review and Used Buying Guide

Where the 42 fits among Nordic tug boats for sale

Most people browsing Nordic tug boats for sale eventually compare the 32 or 34 with the 42, because the 42 is the first Nordic that comfortably sleeps a couple and two guests in separate cabins with separate heads. It arrived in the late 1990s, when Nordic added 37 and 42 footers to a range that had been the 26 and 32, and by 1999 the company's website was selling it at a $394,995 base price.

It is still a Lynn Senour design at heart. Nordic's marketing in 1999 summed up the formula: an 18 knot top end with the optional engine, 14 knots at cruise, or slow down to 9 knots and burn under 3 gallons an hour. That flexibility, plus a 13 ft 10 in beam and the tug profile, made the 42 a fixture in Northwest marinas for nearly two decades until the Nordic Tug 44 took over in 2016.

Full keel, stainless shoe and a single big Cummins

Like the smaller Nordics, the 42 uses a hard chine semi-displacement hull with a full keel that protects the propeller and rudder, plus a heavy stainless steel shoe under the running gear. A 2002 test described hand-laid fiberglass construction and glass-encapsulated foam stringers. Testers praised its quiet, stable ride, and hard chines help limit roll.

Power was always a single Cummins, but the size grew. The 2000 standard boat had a 330 hp Cummins 6BTA 5.9 Diamond series diesel on a ZF 2.5:1 gear and a 28 x 28 four blade prop, with a 450 hp option. By 2002 the 450 hp turbo Cummins was standard and 635 hp was the option. The 2011 spec sheet lists a 500 hp Cummins QSC, and Nordic's 2013 page quoted 16 knots on top and about 1,700 nautical miles of range at 8 knots.

Sea trial figures from San Francisco Bay

A 2002 test of a new 42 with the 450 hp Cummins, run from Ballena Bay in Alameda, recorded 17 knots at wide open throttle and 2,800 rpm, a comfortable 14 knot cruise and an easy 9.2 knots at 1,400 rpm. The tester reported about 3 nautical miles per gallon at a 9 knot cruise and a theoretical 1,269 mile range, and also noted 9.6 knots at 2,000 rpm burning about 4.5 gph. The figures are loose, but the pattern is clear: 9 knots is the economical sweet spot and anything above 12 knots costs a lot more fuel.

The boat in that test carried 500 gallons of fuel in two tanks, 200 gallons of water in two tanks and a 45 gallon waste tank in the keel. Later boats list 600 gallons, so check tank capacity on any listing, especially when planning long legs on the Inside Passage.

Owner's queen forward, guest midcabin and a pilothouse for a crowd

Entry is from the cockpit through a transom door, then into the saloon, or through sliding doors on either side of the pilothouse. The saloon has a long settee to starboard around a teak drop-leaf table that converts to a double berth, a smaller settee to port and storage on both sides. The galley is a step-down U-shape with a deep double sink, three burner electric stove with oven and a large refrigerator, with prewiring for a washer and dryer in the passage to the cabins.

Forward, the owner's cabin has a queen berth, two hanging lockers and its own head. The guest cabin is a midcabin; the 2000 standard list shows two berths, while the 2002 test boat had a double with a built-in desk. A second head with shower serves guests. The 2002 tester counted 16 windows around the pilothouse and saloon, nine of them in the pilothouse, and fit five adults and a dog in the wheelhouse with room to spare.

Engine room access is through a saloon hatch to a starboard catwalk, with a separate compartment for batteries and the generator. It works, but it is not as generous as on some trawlers this size.

The flybridge question

A flybridge version of the 42 was built, and it is the boat Power and Motoryacht's Capt. Bill Pike remembered from a November delivery from Fort Lauderdale to St. Thomas through the weather of Hurricane Lenny. He praised the construction and engineering, but noted the drawback: there was no interior stairway between the flybridge and the boat. On black, wet nights, moving from the upper helm along the boat deck, down a ladder into the cockpit and inside was, in his words, dicey.

Nordic fixed that on the 42's replacement, the Nordic Tug 44, with an interior stair to the bridge. For a 42 buyer, the flybridge adds a great fair weather helm and boat deck, but if you plan serious passages, think about how you will use it in bad weather.

Buying a 42 in 2026 and what it costs to keep

We estimate 2026 prices between about $230,000 for early, original boats and $650,000 for late QSC boats in excellent condition. Running costs are moderate for a 44 ft overall cruiser: roughly $20,000 to $42,000 a year for moorage, insurance, a haul, engine and generator service, canvas and varnish. Owners who cruise at 14 knots will spend far more on fuel than those who settle in at 9.

Because the 42 ran so long, compare hull numbers and engine generations carefully. A well-kept early boat with a mechanical Cummins can be a better buy than a later boat with deferred maintenance on electronic engines and systems.

Nordic Tug 42 or the 44 that replaced it

The 44, introduced in 2016 with a base price of $844,688 according to Power and Motoryacht, is a refined successor with better finish and that interior flybridge stair. For most buyers the 42 represents far better value, provided the boat has been maintained. If you never plan to run from the flybridge in bad weather, the 44's biggest advantage may not matter to you.