The Newporter was an early glass sheathed plywood motor sailor. They were meant as coastal cruisers in a simplier gentler time. They were actually pretty well built given the chosen materials and the time that they were built.
They sailed reasonably well for a high wetted surface, short of canvas ketch
rig which is to say, they reached well in a decent breeze but were meant to motor in light air and were not really designed for heavy going.
If they have a short coming it was in the use of polyester resin and fiberglass for the sheathing and the fact that the plywood was only sheathed one side. The short coming here is that polyester has substantially less adhesion than
epoxy, and with only a single side coated, water can get to the plywood and rot it out, or cause delamination of the sheathing over time.
I have seen one of the boats that was stripped and resheathed and I was impressed with how well the plywood had stood up.
At this point in time the boat would need to be very inexpensive, well maintained and updated, and located in a suitable sailing venue for it to make much sense, but given that criteria, there are worse designs out there.
Jeff
Old Newporter 40
Linear Mode
