The "RED WITCH" as purchased on 10/4/2013

Comment

Comment by bob mitchell on October 13, 2013 at 7:18pm

Tell me about it - I started in 2009, and MIGHT get to my masts this winter! But the good news is that I will document the hell out of it.

Comment by Greg & Angie Wheeler on October 13, 2013 at 1:59pm

Hey Bob, 

Thanks for the advice, in all honesty it will me many months before I tackle to mast, at this point I am working on down below on the wreck of what is left of the salon, and then I want to concentrate on the decks, and cockpit, they are really ugly and not at all a place you would want to spend any time. But I will keep an eye on Sitka spruce and collect that when I can find it, but I am also toying with the idea of just changing it out to aluminum. We'll see.

Comment by bob mitchell on October 13, 2013 at 9:03am

          Hi Greg , I am sure you know this, but just in a long shot case you don't - the mast is made of Sitka Spruce, NOT the standard lumber yard spruce. A few years ago when I was up on the Olympic Pennensula, looking for mast material, old growth Sitka was going for $13 a board foot.  Sitka spruce is used in wooden airplane construction as well.  Its main attribute is the high strength to weight ratio. At any rate, if you do decide to build new, be sure to save the good staves of Sitka spruce - they are worth a fortune!!!!!!   Really, if you think about it - your mast is just a bunch of splices anyway. Clyde and I had long discussions about rebuilding masts - and you will probably end up taking it apart (very carefully) and regluing it. So it is kind of a "yes I made a new mast by rebuilding my old one.  The owner of Serenuse, a few years back, took his apart and reglued it. Basically you make a guide for your skill saw, and run it down then seams, replace any bad wood, and then reglue.  Douglas fir, readily available, I assume, out your way, is the best wood to use if you don't want pay for Sitka. It is stronger than Sitka, but weighs a little more. So when you rebuild your mast, try to put the Sitka higher up, where weight might matter. My whole lower mast, especially the solid first 10 feet, will be solid doug fir, and stronger for it! Weight at that location won't make a flip. I featured a few pictures for you for a couple of days.

Comment by Greg & Angie Wheeler on October 12, 2013 at 10:50pm

Britton, Thanks for commenting on my derelict old girl, we do feel we were able to get her for a steal of a deal, although sometimes buying a fixer vs one ready to go can cost more $$ I'm hoping that's not the case. The Main mast is going to be our largest trial, still haven't decided on whether to repair or replace, in all honesty I'm hoping I can just scarf in some sound spruce in the areas of rot but that maybe easier said than done. I had the boat surveyed and they were shown to be sound, but I'm hesitant to dig into the coamings and caprails just yet not wanting to add another project maybe after I get the other 20 projects completed I'll get brave and start digging into the deeper recesses. 

Comment by Britton Moses on October 7, 2013 at 2:59pm

Wow! $2500???? Having just purchased our Newporter for $14k a couple months ago, I'm feeling like we overpaid!!!  Don't get me wrong, I love the boat and know that she'll be a true beauty when we finish, but I guess this is weekend 7 of sanding, grinding, and filling that is wearing on me a little... We've replaced a lot of rot, most of which has come in from the cracks along the top of the bulwark and from stanchion attachment areas. Looks like you have a nice caprail on Red Witch :-) I'm envious! Welcome aboard!

 

Comment by Greg & Angie Wheeler on October 5, 2013 at 8:57pm

Thanks for the encouragement, I just bought the boat yesterday and this website has given me lots of ideas on how to bring her back. The greatest worry is that the main mast on her is so full of rot mostly around 3-4 feet up from the deck that my first chore is to run up  2 x 8's on both sides of the mast to sister it with  thrubolts to help stabilize it until I sort out what to do about a replacement. Newporter blogspot shows in detail how to build a new spruce mast, or if I can find an aluminum one with the correct measurements I might prefer to go that route. At any rate I have always dreamed of owning a Newporter I used to walk past one at the Seal beach marina back 30 years ago and ooh and aah over it, which I think might have been Owlheart back when I owned an Islander 24 in that same marina. I almost didn't purchase this one due to the huge amount of work that she needs but when a boat like this come along and it can be purchased for $2,500 and is right in your own backyard it was too much to resist. We'll see how I feel about that a year from now, I may have wished I had bought one in better condition.

Comment by bob mitchell on October 5, 2013 at 7:13pm

FANTASTIC!!!!!! Bo Roberts, who used to own Red Witch, was the very first person to join N40T (this website) more years ago than I care to remember. Oh how little I knew, but what an enlightening journey it has been. If "we", the fellow newporter owners, can help in any way just let us know. It is a friendly site, and there are a few owners near you. I call them the California Fleet!!!!