Aage Nielsen 51 ft Double ended Ketch 1971 - Sold

K Aage Nielsen’s manic attention to detail extended to his demanding the best from his builders. He possessed that rare combination of talents claimed by only a few designers – that he himself could build anything he designed. With exquisite hull shapes and interior arrangements his Double Enders were in a sense his trademark and NORMA OF MINOT’S LIGHT typifies this. It was for these reasons Olin Stephens considered that if he were to have anyone design him a yacht; Aage Nielsen would be his first choice. NORMA is an incredibly well proven sea boat and a natural choice for the design enthusiast.

The design for MINOTS LIGHT III - as originally named, was already conceived before her first owner and commissioner Clarence Warden Jr approached Nielsen about designing a double ended motor sailer. Fact is that Nielsen was already working on such a design for Bradley Noyes, who having already owned 4 Nielsen yachts had decided to take this particular project elsewhere. Warden on the other hand was already the owner of the Luke Built 42 ft MINOTS LIGHT II and this new Nielsen boat was to fulfil his desire for larger and more comfort. Walsted proved the natural choice for the build and on her completion she was shipped to Boston for rigging Hoods in Marblehead. After commissioning she was mainly sailed for cruising – and usually south of her home port of Oxford Maryland during the winters. In the late 1970s MINOTS LIGHT III crossed the Atlantic to Denmark for coastal cruising there. Since then she has been back to the States and back to Denmark again in 1980. Now as NORMA OF MINOTS LIGHT she is lying in Ireland

- Double planked mahogany through copper riveted on laminated oak frames
- Inner 3/8th inch planking bronze screwed from the inside to 7/8th inch outer
- Single thickness 1¼ inch bottom planking
- Bronze chain plates
- Iroko stem, stern and keelson
- Lifting centreplate
- Oak floors bronze bolted
- Stainless steel hog under main and mizzen masts
- Timber rudder on bronze stock
- Wheel helm to cables and quadrant steering
- Oregon pine beam shelf and deck beams
- Fibreglassed ¾ inch mahogany ply sub deck with teak deck over
- Teak trim
- Cedar and French walnut interior joinery
- Teak and holly sole board and panels

Sleeps up to 7 in comfort 8 maximum in 2 double staterooms fore and aft and saloon, the interior is beautifully finished in matte laquered French walnut. There is good head room and windows each side and white painted deck head give good light
- Descending companionway steps to main saloon
- Galley in U shaped space to port
- Gimballed cooker with 3 burner gas hob, grill and oven
- Stainless steel double sink and fresh water mixer tap
- Large top loading freezer and fridge
- Worktops with generous stowage below outboard and above
- Single settee berth to port, drawers under
- Single pilot berth above and outboard, drawers under
- Drop leaf table with drawer and stowage under on centre line
- L shaped settee berth to stbd, drawers under, lockers and bookshelf above and outboard
- Chest of drawers fwd to port
- Steps down and corridor fwd to hanging locker port
- Head compartment opposite to starboard, shower, basin and Orvea WC
- Fore cabin
- 2 x Single vee berths to apex drawers under
- Additional locker stowage forward above
- Skylight hatchway over

Coming aft through saloon past the settee berth to stbd is the Chart table
- Instruments, displays and communications outboard and aft
- Drawers for navigation aids and charts below
- Step down to stateroom double cabin with en suite aft
- 2 x Large single berths with stowage under or outboard and aft
- Head compartment with shower, basin and WC fwd to port
- Upholstery inside and cockpit cushions
- Removable sole board panel access to engine room and bilges

- Hood Aluminium keel stepped main and mizzen Mast and booms
- Reckman rolling reefer forestay
- Removable inner jib forestay
- Sailtainer in boom main sail furling system
- Main halyards and sheets from main and mizzen lead via rope clutches to cockpit
- Barient hydraulics for furler and main winches
Beilken Sails
- Storm jib
- Furling genoa
- Main sail
- Furling mizzen sail
- Star cut cruising chute

With wide side decks there is a forward main trunk cabin with a fixed varnished teak windshield at the after end of the coach roof and the entire cockpit can be enclosed with canvas with a further trunk cabin aft. At main deck level in the cockpit, a port hatch and ladder lead to the engine room, where there is full headroom by the workbench.
- Bow roller
- Bruce anchor with c 50 fathoms / 90 m galvanised chain to locker below in forepeak
- Electric bronze windlass with remote deck foot switch and up/down control at helm
- 2 x Fisherman’s anchors stowed in compartments fore and aft
- Bronze fairleads and deck cleats both sides fore and aft
- Stainless steel pulpit and pushpit
- Stainless steel stanchions in bronze mounts with double guard wires
- 4 x Dorade and 1 x Mushroom vent
- 2 x Teak framed Perspex deck hatches
- 3 x Alumnium framed Perspex hatches
- 2 x Teak companionway hatches

- MTU Diesel 6R 099 Te 91
- Hundested VP 3 bladed propeller unit
- Twin disc marine transmission
- Centre board lifting mechanism in cockpit
- Onan MDJE 6 Kw diesel generator complete overhaul 1992
- 12 V / 220 V electrical system
- Electric driven pump for hydraulic winches
- Webasto air heating system
- 4 x 110 Ah domestic batteries
- 2 x 135 Ah starter batteries
- 1 starter battery for generator
- Victron Pallas 12 / 50 battery charger
- Calorifier and immersion heater
- 4 x 100 Gallon stainless steel water tanks
- 2 x 400 Gallon stainless steel fuel tanks
- Black water holding tank and pump
- Gas bottles in stbd deck locker

- Danforth Constellation steering compass
- Raytheon 41 xx radar
- Raynav 300 GPS plotter
- Yeoman chart plotter
- Raytheon ST 80 wind, trim, echo sounder, autopilot MOB system
- B&G Homer
- Locata Navtec 2 receiver
- Navigation lights

- Givens Buoy 4 – 6 person life raft
- Electric bilge pump manually switched
- Whale pump at cockpit
- Gloria fixed fire extinguisher system in engine room and Onan generator compartment
- Jon Buoy
- EPIRB
- Radar transponder
- Stainless steel emergency tiller

Restoration in 1989 at the Walsted boatyard including
- Teak decks, stainless steel plumbing, tanks
- Hydraulic system
- Electric installations
- Electronics
- Main engine, gearbox and prop shaft
- In boom furling, rig and sails