Saginaw Bay – Northern Marine 75 Expedition Yacht (2000)

Full Description

Saginaw Bay is a 2000 Northern Marine 75, yard number 75-04, one of only four hulls built to this specification, with an 18.5ft beam and lower freeboard than the larger 75s that followed. Northern Marine was founded in Anacortes, Washington, in 1995 by Bud LeMieux after two decades building commercial fishing boats, and that workboat thinking runs right through her. She was built for a Seattle family who kept her for 22 years, with the same hands-on captain and manager throughout, and who repowered her early on with a commercial-duty 700hp Lugger L6140AL2 simply because they wanted more performance. Her second owner bought her privately in 2022 and modernised her for world cruising before a change in circumstances brought her to market. Her moulded GRP hull is built to ABS rules in a full displacement form with a bulbous bow, a full-length steel keel shoe and twin rudders, and she cruises at 10 knots at 1,600rpm. The single main engine is backed by an ABT hydraulic get-home drive that runs from either of her two 20kW Northern Lights generators, so a main engine failure slows her down rather than stopping her. With 4,396 US gallons of fuel, 1,436 gallons of fresh water and a 70 gallon per hour watermaker she has genuine ocean-crossing independence, while Naiad stabilisers, ABT proportional bow and stern thrusters, two wing stations and a Dockmate remote make her manageable for a couple. Inside, a portside flush-deck layout gives a spacious, home-like saloon with U-shaped seating, an eight-person dining table and a granite galley with a carved Chinook salmon backsplash. There are four staterooms in bookmatched cherry and four full bathrooms, including a full-beam owner's suite on its own level below the pilothouse and a three-berth crew or guest cabin forward, plus a fifth bathroom off the cockpit. The 2024-25 refit was thorough rather than cosmetic: Garmin 9000 series 4K electronics, ship-wide Maretron monitoring, Starlink, new fuel lines, a new dripless shaft seal, serviced stabilisers, new bottom paint and Propspeed. Her big aft boat deck, rare on a 75ft yacht, has a 3,000lb crane that launches to port, starboard or the stern, with room for two tenders or a deck full of toys. A November 2025 survey records her in excellent condition. She lies in Seattle, Washington.