With the Nimbus 495 Fly, the Swedish shipyard enters the exploration boat market

June 23 2024

The market for exploration boats is booming, driven by brands such as Targa, joined in recent years by builders such as Pardo, Wellcraft, Quarken, and Saxdor (to a lesser extent... for the moment), who have sniffed out the potential of a fast-growing segment, for both inboard and outboard units. The arrival of Sweden's Nimbus is also highly significant....

With the Nimbus 495 Fly, the Swedish shipyard enters the exploration boat market

The Nimbus 495 Fly was announced for 2023, with a series of 3D images, and the first units have gone into production in Sweden over the past few months, demonstrating the shipyard's commitment to listening and adapting to market demand. Hull number 1 was launched last week in the Göteborg archipelago!

For a long time confined to the market for safe, closed express cruisers, the Nimbus shipyard turned to innovation a few years ago, following a change of shareholder, by launching a whole range of outboard units, clearly targeting shipyards like Axopar, with a modern, if not aggressive, style and a build quality worthy of the shipyard's best standards.

The result has not been noticeable, and the mothball flavour that used to envelop the company's products has disappeared, rejuvenating the customer base and significantly broadening it.

With the Nimbus 495 Fly, Nimbus is clearly moving upmarket, capitalising on its strong brand image to enter a market segment it has never before ventured into: ocean-going adventure boats, a market that has largely replaced the trawler market of yesteryear.

At 14.90m long (49ft) excluding VAT (13.70m hull length), with a beam of 4.60m, an inverted windscreen and a generous, straight bow, the Nimbus 495 Fly is a clever cross between a Pardo from the E family and a Navetta from Absolute.

But without the glitz and heaviness of Absolute's Swedish design.

The design of the Nimbus 495 Fly will be less sleek and sporty than that of a Pardo E60, but it will be extremely elegant, like the cleverly curved aft saloon windows, a stylistic detail we discovered in Taiwan on the Global Yachts OS63 a few years ago (one of the best-built boats we visited, in fact).

The layout of the Nimbus 495 Fly is perfectly in line with market trends.

Between the huge bathing platform, with a galley joining the cockpit and saloon, a side door ideal for manoeuvring in port, just like the well-positioned accommodation door, the presence of 3 double cabins (2 bathrooms) with a modern style that has the good taste to avoid plagiarising the Ikea style currently in vogue, and a twin IPS Volvo Penta engine, which we would have preferred to be powered by shaft lines, in Z-Drive, giving a top speed of 27 knots, for cruising speeds of between 20 and 24 knots.

The flybridge appears a little small on the first visuals, but sufficient, the raised foredeck probably not allowing a reassuring use in navigation.

The aft cockpit glazing, which replaces the canvas covers, is a special point, and we'll have to see how practical it is in practice, as the protection it provides is undeniable.