Five years ago I wrote a resume of our experiences after 5 years and 10.000Nm with a Diesel Duck 462.

Since then we have spent 2 years in arctic Norway, sailed around Europe and again through the whole Mediterranean followed by an Atlantic crossing and through the Caribbean.

That means we have been in all climate zones from arctis to tropical weather.

Our major positive impressions of this boat remains. She´s a comfortable liveaboard in any climatzone and we still very much value George Buehlers conservative design with sails and paravanes.

Moreover being based on Alaska trollers with a heavy led keel and an economic hull through water her fuel economy is second to none of her competitors. With all 6 fueltanks in the bottom (giving stability and security) she carries 7.600ltr of fuel giving her a superior range of around 6.000Nm (10% reserve) and sails help both with stability and fuel economy.

I also personally prefer that she´s not a sedan which would be a disadvantage in heavy weather offshore.

The build is basically of good quality with beautiful interior wood work in teak and all systems of well known quality brands. She does call the attention from a positive perspective and lot´s of people stop , admire, and ask questions. As mentioned before-  "The Landrover of the Seas" .

Spending 6-9 months/year onboard she´s a very comfortable liveaboard in any climate zone with a very good isolation and comfort systems for both tropical and freezing weather (eg. 2 separate heating systems+Sigmar diesel heater and 2 A.C units) .

We can now also add the experience of crossing the Atlantic Ocean which was more comfortable than expected. and except for colliding with something that hit the propeller (nothing to do with the boat) the boat came up with very little problems during the crossing.

Any mariner reading this knows every boat is a compromise and has drawbacks and of course that goes for Dora Mac as well.

The piping material has been a problem with regular leaks due to cracking in bends and replacement has sometimes been awkward. Most piping material is now replaced and on the newer boats another kind of piping material is used. Nevertheless we miss the ability to switch sections of the domestic watersystem off. If you have a leak in the piping of the aft cabin you should be able to switch this section off to be able to use the rest of water supplies in the boat. I personally don´t like electric toilets that use freshwater and would prefer good quality manual toilets using seawater.

The electrical system is complicated with 220v/110v/24v/12v with 220v/110v/12v receptacles spread in the boat, but that´s a necessary compromise if you want to be available on both the American and European market. Inline fuses continue to be a problem but that´s also something that´s part of marine electronics and a nuisance sometimes.

A 51ft oceangoing motortrawler is a complicated boat. No matter if it´s a Kadey Krogen, Nordhavn or Diesel Duck. These boats have lot´s of electronics,comfort systems,navigational equipment,pumps,filters,safety equipment etc that constantly needs to be serviced and sometimes repaired. That means lot´s of work and often more work than new owners anticipate.

Sailboats same size are less work.

Finally we have never been in real serious weather with Dora Mac far offshore. I know of one DD-462 encountering several days of heavy weather (40-45kts)  200Nm west of California running downwind and one DD encountering 45-50kts of headwinds heading up the Red Sea, both bragging about their performance.

We would prefer being on a sailbaot in heavy weather but if on a motortrawler we would prefer a Diesel Duck.

Would I recommend anyone to buy a Diesel Duck 462 for serious world cruising ? Without hesitation-yes.