a beautiful boat should sail forever.
My motivation for this site.
As you can see, I have hull 113 with no masts. I got "Wilson" about a year ago, and have made contact with several newporter owners, in an effort to get mast specifications. What has become obvious is there is no central location for Newporter owners to get together and discuss in detail their on going restorations, history and adventures. There are quite a few Newporters that are changing hands, so we need to create a site of common wisdom and information that will serve the Newporter community. I have made contact with many people, one who has kept up with the Newporter owner roster, and a couple of others who have done extensive rennovations (one has an excellent site with informative photos). I would like to give credit to these people, but not before I ask permission. They have all been helpful. I have also made contact with some owners that face a lack of critical information (including myself). Hopefully we can remedy that situation.
Ning provides a free social network that seems to fit our needs. Hopefully anyone who joins will set up their MY PAGE with photos, history, and discussions of their boat. In the DISCUSSION area or the FORUM area we can discuss specific projects, with photos, and relevant technical data. To start the process I am sending out invitations to an existing roster of Newporter owner emails, as well as the people that I have been in contact with.
As our first FORUM I am providing photos and reporting on the postmortum analysis of the few pieces of my masts that I salvaged from the previous owner. I am sure that some of it will be of interest. If there is interest I will follow up with the construction of my new masts.And of course I am looking for advice and information from others - its a forum!!
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Justine on
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She is a beautiful boat. I like the name Wilson :) Keep the news on the mast reconstruction coming. coming.
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Looks like you have the orginal windows. That is a plus as they are an odd size. Our's are plexiglass that you can't see thru and they are all nonopening and are always leaking.
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Permalink Reply by bob mitchell on
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take a look at the MAST POST MORTUM forum. There are some shots that make it very clear.
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Permalink Reply by Hans Petrie on
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Great site - I look forward to contributing to it soon. I need to find all my old restoration pics from the Ventura boatyard. Unfortunately when I did the major restoration in Ilwaco, WA I didn't take any pictures. Newporters are fairly easy to restore with labor alone. There are no really expensive techniques or material needed - except possibly masts if you are using sitka spruce. The biggest problem, is of course, rot. The only solution to rot that I have found is to completely remove the offending material and splice in new material. The other problem I seem to have is paint sticking to the boat. I get the best yacht enamel I can and it just seems to peel off over time. I'm thinking I need to go with 2 part epoxy paint next time.
I have had a lot better luck using epoxy than caulk. Caulk always seem to look crappy and leak over time.
When I repaired my mizzen mast I used clear verticle grain fir which is heavier than spruce but was obtainable in WA. I only had a 2 foot rotten section in the upper part where the stays connect but the mast was noticibly "cocked" and rotted. I cut out a four foot section and since the mast was hollow just put in an 8 foot section "inside" the mast (so it extends 2 feet above and 2 feet below - inside the mast). I then spliced in 4 foot pieces on the sides to enclose the box. An old wooden boat salt told me that while heavier than the original it will never come apart. I'm relatively satisified with the repair and it has withstood rough seas and heavy wind for years now.
As far as the hull - I have had to cut out some fairly serious sections (especially around the chainplates) and splice in new 3/4" plywood. The worst problems always seem to be around the toerail. I took off all the half round trim boards on the hull and house because they were wicking water and rotting out. I took a 2" hole saw and drilled out each rotten screw hole and then used the same saw to create plugs and epoxied them in.
It seems like every screw or bolt hole in the boat is a chance for rot to occur - so I have tried to minimize them.
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Good stuff - we should probably have a forum specifically for chainplate area repairs. Would love some photos about that. I know others that will contribute to that area as well. I am going with clear vertical grain douglas fir as well. And a forum on the damn gunwale area as well. If we actually create forums for specific areas the information will be easier to get hold of. And I sense there is going to be a lot of information!!!!!
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Permalink Reply by Dennis Gaffney on
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Bob,
Thanks for starting this site. My wife Kathi and I own Le Bateau Sans Souci, hull number 71. She has been on the hard for two years. I haven't done any work on her over the winter. It's finally warming up here in the Washington DC area so I may go visit her tomorrow. Kathi told me that she would divorce me if I put one more dime into our Newporter, but since she is the one who showed me this site I am assuming that she changed her mind.
I put up a website a couple of years ago about our adventures on the Sans Souci but I haven't updated it in quite a while. And there is o so much to tell. The site is http://landseaair.tv Perhaps your site will inspire me to write some more, not to mention getting back to work on the boat. I look forward to swapping tales and ideas with fellow Newporter fans.
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bob mitchell said:Good stuff - we should probably have a forum specifically for chainplate area repairs. Would love some photos about that. I know others that will contribute to that area as well. I am going with clear vertical grain douglas fir as well. And a forum on the damn gunwale area as well. If we actually create forums for specific areas the information will be easier to get hold of. And I sense there is going to be a lot of information!!!!!
We need a forum for boats for sale too.
We have gotten our hands on some thin stainless steel plates that we are going to put by the chainplates and winches.
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Justine said:Yes Dennis I been waiting for more of your stories :)
About
LINKS ===============
THE ROSTER
Muf, our Keeper of the Roster, has updated it. But he still needs information on boats out there that he doesn't have, like new owners, old owners, where any of the boats are. We don't post the roster on the web site, it is only sent to owners. Please send him anything you might have, or call him at:
909 561 4245
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Captain Clyde's Newporter sites:
and
The Ning site has been given a reprieve. I have transferred my Ning site to the blogspot site and will leave it there. I am keeping my Ning site open as a home for my photos and drawings.
Many of my photos there do not relate to Newporters, but a search through my collection may prove useful for your studies.
My drawings are not accurate in many respects as a result of the PAINT program used to draw them, There is no accurate scale and at best they are only useful to indicate some specific detail. Some are inaccurate because of my poor memory. Use them to help you think, not as a detailed presentation of the subject matter.
If any of you want to start a web site I suggest you remember what has happened to both my Ning site and this site (which is a Ning site) and remember that my Blogspot site is free and Blogspot's owner (Google) has promised to keep it that way.
Clyde's email:
Put 'Newporter' on Subject Line. Email is the best way to contact me. I do not regularly look at this site or its messaging system. Email will get to me post-haste.
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