May 2011 Blog Posts (4)

My last sailboat I not-so-jokingly have referred to as "The Best Equipped 20-foot Sailboat in All of Southern California" was an interesting learning experience, at least in part because she taught me to be really impressed with the Newporter's extreme sturdiness. That 20, a 1968 Newport, is solidly equipped for coastal cruising and near-coast excursions, with two good-size solar panels, a chartplotter, depth sounder, an autopilot, roller furler, and a good sail inventory with associated…

Bob Mitchell asked me in a PM (I'm greatly paraphrasing, there was more to it) if I knew where my particular Newporter was constructed.

I decided that the history was interesting enough, and something that I'd want to have convenient reference to apart from my logbook, that I'd place it in a blog entry.

I was curious about the origin and past of this boat - and fortunately, I have a LOT of documentation on her - previous owners have done a pretty good job of preserving…

I wrote this up originally (with a couple edits to make it appropriate for a blog post and to add a few more details) as an email to Bob here at N40T and thought it would make a good introductory post here.

I just bought a 1959 Ackerman Newporter.

Hoping to find some good footage of a Newporter in original condition, I got the movie "My Blood Runs Cold (1965)" which I'd read contained scenes shot on one.

Turns out, there's a little over 20 minutes worth of footage that takes place on one, and it provided some interesting insights: so I pulled the clips all together into one YouTube video featuring just the scenes of interest to Newporter owners and lovers. I didn't edit it very vigorously, so there are certainly camera…