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Woud YOU take a Newport 30 offshore?

84K views 46 replies 34 participants last post by  chuck53 
#1 ·
I have heard of people doing so... and wonder if anyone here has experience with this boat or similar hull designs... I am considering purchasing a 1984 Mark III, but it's offshore performance concerns me...

thanks for your feedback!
 
#30 ·
If it has been done before in a similar boat, and you think you have the guts/experience to do the same.. Go ahead...
Make sure the boat is in as good shape as it can get..
Rigging, sails and a sound hull etcetera...

Plan a little ahead..
Have spare parts for essential equipment...
And make sure you have the means to keep the water on the outside of the boat.....
I have read hundreds of posts here during the last few years..
And i must say.....
The majority seems to focus on Comfort.....
Full keel vs fin keel and so on...
Don't know if it is a age thing or what??
(I know i will get some pepper for that one...)
But I am one of those fortunate ones, who has never been seasick...
And i have spent considerable time on medium size boats in open seas...
(30-40 foot)

But you must keep in mind....
Most of these "statements" are in fact opinions.....
So is what I have written above....

I say SAFETY first.....
Liferaft, Ditchbag, Flares and Epirb...
Prepare for the worst..
And hope for the better....

Fair winds....
 
#31 ·
This doesn't exactly fit the main question from a few years ago, but it's a crazy anecdote so I'll tell it.

I have one of the little Newport 20s as my smaller boat (very few were made - you can sometimes see the same boat with minor accessory differences as a Neptune.) I have sailed the everloving hell out of that little thing - added solar panels, a raymarine ST1000 autotiller, a color chartplotter and sonar, harnesses, auto-inflating PFDs and assorted radios. She even has a dinghy that's nearly as big as she is that I tow behind. I joke that she's the best equipped 20 on the west coast but it's probably not really a joke.

While I wouldn't necessarily call this offshore, it's much farther than most casual sailors take much larger boats: I've taken that little boat from MDR to Santa Barbara Island three times - around 40 miles offshore - and close to San Nicolas once (about 66 miles but I only went as close as I dared - it's a a naval base and once I could see the silhouettes of large naval ships catching light in the sunrise, it seemed like a good time to turn around and head back to SBI).

It's a little mortifying - I've raced storms and fog back to Marina Del Rey for the whole trip, surfing down swells the size of that little boat. Those long weekend adventures are why she's equipped so well for such a small vessel. The solar panels are enough to keep the batteries topped off with the chartplotter and autotiller running. I've steered her for the entire trip before but that's close to 12hrs each direction, usually, unless the wind is just perfect or I run the engine. There's usually a long lull in the middle of it where I'm just bobbing around wishing for a breeze. It's grueling - and doing it solo (as I have all but once) is a lonely but wonderful trip.

I have an Ackerman Newporter that I've taken out there a couple times as well and the difference is phenomenal. The trip becomes utterly effortless in a big cruising sailboat.
 
#32 · (Edited)
I dont like to badmouth designs...for the most part production boats with some decnet and thoghtfull mods are fine for offshore...racing is another story.

having said that when I was in san francisco there was big news when a newport 30 lost its keel out the gate I beleive, or after hitting something inside the bay, Im trying to find the article but it was published in latitude 38

they are one of a very few distinguished boats to have that happen...


just my 2 cents fwiw
 
#34 ·
THATS IT!

sorry

for the not exact accuracy but I followed up on that story while it was happening and they say a lot of them suffered from bad layup aft of the keel contributing to a very flexy and wobbly rear end if you will

that and pay attention to the galvanised bolts...if there is a big gap then its possible to have severely rusted bolts

I clearly remeber though seing the hull with no keel laid up on the beach front

thanks for the refresher:)
 
#35 ·
No, i wouldn't take a Newport 30 off shore. Just not built for it as cited previously.

I was under the impression that Newports couldn't be stored on their keel while in storage due to the lack of structural support. I could be wrong. I see a few in special cradles suspended off the ground.
 
#43 ·
I had the "opportunity" to test out the hull strength of my 1975 Newport 30 shortly after getting it tried anchoring on lee shore, ran aground, boat got anvilled 3-5' waves for a good couple hours; set anchor and winched it off but after that all I could do is wait; the sound from inside as the boat dropped was quite the experience. I think they used more fiberglass in those days. It was exactly what was called: a racer-cruiser; in good weather running a 180 genoa it outperformed any other sailboat I knew; could maneuver within inches of what I wanted, tack on a dime--though would fall back quite a bit after tacking due to wide beam and fin keel; that fin keep and fairly flat bottom really did make for a good racer; and couldn't be beat for comfort; I had the most liveable sailboat of anyone in our anchorage; even larger boats felt narrower in the middle and most companionways had to be descended down into. But for offshore I'd have to say no, except maybe light offshore; I sailed around Gulf Coast of FL w' no problems; but my comfortable open companionway would've flooded and sunk the boat if it heeled over enough--it also would've turtled anyways in that situation. Once early on I ran my spinnaker singlehanded, wind shifted and in that instant I saw the design flaw of the open entryway; spinnaker shredded before capsized. The Newport doesn't heel much which makes for very comfortable sailing in good weather; the width and fin keel makes it hard to hold a course offshore. If you were going to sail open water more than living on I'd go with a boat that's made to cut thru waves and handle rough seas; full keel. I loved my Newport, it was affordable and just what I wanted (keel a bit deep for Central West Coast FL's lot of shallows.
 
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