Clyde A. Phillips's Blog (24)

In response to Bob’s blog on the masts:

Now we are looking into an interesting bit of history in Newporter construction.  The ones we built, and Bob’s present boat is one of them, and those after a few of the first boats were built, were all built to patterns and on jigs and in accord with measurements in a book or two.  Each area in our shops had their own areas of the total construction as their “area” of work to put the boats together.  This resulted in some overlaps, or…

After a few years of (hopefully) helping Newporter owners make changes to their boat I have had to scrap my thinking that the Newporter was a well built vessel.  Let me make that more clear.  When I was helping to build these boats the building technique used by Ack in the design and building of these vessels was considered high tech.  We had a naval architect come to our yard (in Leesburg, NJ) to look over our operation and interview the men on the job in his hunt for a boatbuilder to build…

I will get to work on the drawing of the fiddlehead.  This will be a redeveloped drawing in that I have no blueprints that give it.  We had patterns of many parts and I'm sure a fiddle head pattern was used to mark the wood for sawing to shape.  Now that you are going to do some work on the other bulwark you should first mark and measure, and record, the position of the gammon.  Then do the repairs and then make the new gammon iron.  I'll speak to that process later.

I wrote…

Britton, 

Given my age and the fact that it’s been a l o n g time since I’ve worked on Newporters (and a lot of new technology has been preferred since then) I am unable to speak knowledgeably to your forward bulwark rot problem.  But I do have some things to say (always, but take it with a critical eye) from what I think I understand. 

First, about the repair you have done.  That may well take care of it, but for how long I can’t guess.  Is it strong enough?  I think it…

My first twenty-five years of boating was on workboats or “yachts” that were workboat built and workboat painted.  When I started working at Stowman’s shipyard I was on the “commercial gang” that worked on workboats.  Then I was transferred to the “Newporter gang” and stayed there, eventually becoming the rigger and demonstration/delivery captain.  We wore non-marking shoes and some of us wore Topsiders.  Those shoes had wavy slits across the soles and heels to give a good grip on…

Well, Greg started me thinking.  Do you know why a head is called a head?

It started innocently enough back in the old days.  Not the old days when I was a boy, but back in the beginnings of sailing off shore on long voyages where you could not wait until you got home.  Something was needed.  Now, for stand up jobs it was easy; just walk to a convenient spot at the rail and pump out your personal bilge.  But a real need for a place to sit didn’t take long to make itself felt.  The…

Paul, I think we all would like to see those pictures on repair work.  That's what this site is for.  So, here is how I do it.  On the opening page, where you view the "Latest Activities," there is a small white place asking "What are you up to?"  Just above this is the word Share:  Click on the next words "Blog Post."  That brings up a small window.  In the first white line type in your title.  In the white area below that you can write what you want to…

Paul,

I just want to let you know that your keeping us up to date on your whereabouts and your progress on your boat has really caught my attention.  You know by now that I am a fan especially of the "original" Newporter.  It has been my first reaction to dislike anything that was not a "standard" Newporter.  I have found that "standard" seems to mean the Newporter as it was built to Ack's standards in regard to his design.  Therefore if I bought a Newporter built before "my time" as…

This is for all you owners of Newporter schooners, but especially for Paul and his neat Pink Cloud.  Let me start by saying that this is based on Paul's pictures, none of which give me what I need to know.  It is based also on my experience as a rigger which was self taught and I'm not an educated teacher.  All I have are my instincts which have never let me…

The drawing should give you an idea of how (and why) the apron and deadwood must be faired to be able to plank the boat properly.  The fair line needed is the plane between the lower frame members and the plank with that extending to between the apron and the plank.  The garboard, usually an adjective as in garboard strake (the first plank at the keel above…

Bob has a way of getting me to do things.  So here’s my input to the Cutless bearing.  I have helped put in a few new stern bearings while in the “commercial gang” before I was transferred to the “Newporter gang" at Dorchester.  So I can’t say I’m an expert but I have the audacity to put forth the wisdom of a half wit.

So Eddie is thinking of a new Cutless and has suggested he needs to know how to do it.  Let’s look at where the bearing is.  It is located at the after end of the stern…

This has been drawn for Eddie, but the rest of you are most welcomed to study it and practice it a few times.  I noticed on some pictures of Eddie's Newporter that the life lines were run differently than the way I used to do it.  His are not wrong; I'm lazy and his boat required twice the work than my…

Well, gents, here it is.  The long promised drawings of the shaft driven alternator setup well illustrated with Ack's own drawings that he sent to the shop for construction, and then some.  It is hoped that this will help those of you looking for free(?) electricity when away from land based power plants.

Click here to get the picture.  When the article appears and all you want to do is look at the…

There’s no law saying “stow the stays’l to use the genoa,” but the larger genoas will give more trouble if used with the stays’l, therefore I recommend moving the stays’l to the side deck.  Seems to me that the genny has sufficient area to make the stays’l useless if not totally in the way.  An old saying (at least among the two of us at the yard that sailed the Newporters) that may have been brought to our area by Ack is that you can cover a blanket with a handkerchief.  Put the wind over…

Just a note about sliding the genoa side to side between the head stay and the forestay.  Click here to go to a new (temporary) page on my site about how it was handled on the boats we built.  Enjoy.

My original "Newporter Shipyard" website is readable but has been replaced.  It is still available, but Verizon, who hosts it, no longer supports web sites so I have eradicated all links to it (I think).  I can't even get to the old site to shut it down.  The Newporter Shipyard (addressed http://newporter.ning.com/ ) is still editable and will remain active.

A new website, "Newporter Shipyard (why can't I think of a…

• Build settee berths with a slight hollow, and 1in fall outboards. This will do wonders to keep the tired mariner off the cabin sole. William Garden
• For cabin ventilation, the total intake area in square inches = beam x waterline length (in feet). Rod Stephens
• The cramping of hatches, skylights and companionways only tend to emphasize the smallness of one's craft, whereas if these openings are held to comfortable proportions or even…

This was mentioned somewhere in one of my posts about SPREADERS, and was illustrated for Bob (via email) with a cropped picture of the spreaders and spreader lifts which he recently posted.  To illustrate the need for high resolution for pictures being posted, compare these two pictures of the Sultana:…

Adjusting and Repacking the Shaft’s Packing Box

There are (were, when I last had anything to do with them) several types of packing boxes (glands, or some other name) but they usually had much in common. Their purpose is to prevent water from entering the boat through the shaft tube. Repacking is best done with the boat out of the water because in repacking you need to take all of the old packing out before you put the new in. Adding a ring or two of packing can be…