N28 progress

MitchK

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Sep 22, 2017
102
Capital Yachts Newport 28 Burbank, WA
Charlz, I understand in regards to access to the fresh water tank. On mine, it appears they installed the tanks before they installed the liner. I would have to cut out the V berth deck to get either of mine out. If your holding tank is sound other than the additional hole installed by the DPO, you may want to consider patching the hole. I know they make a plastic tank repair kit for RV type tanks that may work. I agree all of the hoses need replacing. I need to do that on mine too. It's on the to do list. As for the water hose type fitting on the deck, and the way it is plumbed to the waste tank, it was probay set up that way so that the tank could be flushed with clear water as it was being pumped out. With the seacock closed, suction on the clean out line would empty the tank, and with clean water bring injected into the tank, probably work well to clean out the tank. From what I saw in the video, that open port in the chain locker does look like your fresh water tank fill. It also looks like your waste tank vents to the chain locker too. At least I think it does from the small line T fitting on top of the tank. Waste tank venting straight into the water tank....Yuck! The waste tank vent should be outboard and away from the fresh water inlets. Peggies book is good. I purchased it a few months ago in prep for my waste tank re-plumb.
 
Jan 14, 2014
225
Newport Newport 28 Fair Haven, NY
Her book is also in my cart at the moment, I hadn't pulled the plug on it yet until I got the boat in the water. Launch time snuck up on me so it got pushed off in favor of floating. It very well could be a fresh water flush for it, that would make sense. I'm still learning bits about the ins and outs (no pun intended) of the systems. I'll definitely be relocating the venting hoses completely when I redo the system. I also didn't know about the repair option, I just figured that the material these tanks are made of didn't seem they would take well to adhesives of any sort. I'm still leaning towards replacing it anyway, since I have no idea if that was original or anything, and in the grand scheme they really aren't terribly expensive at that size. My other option would be to just go ahead and use a porta for the season and do the complete head refit over winter/spring. That would free up more short-term funds to put towards new cushions and the new main. If it even got used twice all year, it would be a surprise anyway. Decisions, decisions. And that's why I tend to say "eh I'll figure it out later, it's nice out! Lets go sailing!"
 
Jan 14, 2014
225
Newport Newport 28 Fair Haven, NY
Had a pretty good Sat-Wed stretch this past week. I went up Saturday afternoon, and spent the day just doing a couple little things - like painting the hatch and the chain locker covers the same blue as the hull. Sure they still stand out from the white deck, but now they at least look like appropriate accent pieces instead of that faded light blue whatever it was. I was able to go out Sunday for a bit, not sure of the wind speed, but the swell was pretty good. Went on a quick downwind run, even brushed 8 knots along the trip, and then spent quite a few more hours coming back upwind into the waves. Gave me a chance to peek at the shroud tension, and things like that. I won't mention how I totally made a mess of things getting out on the water, like trying to make the topping lift work right, and losing it so it was flying everywhere, or running the sheets on the inside of the starboard side and outboard on the port, and lord knows what else..

My dad came up Monday morning, to spend a few days, so we went West again, same situation with a nice NE wind so it was a pleasant rolly trip down to where I used to anchor - if anyone wants to know, just google Dufloo Rd, Sodus, NY. The wind was supposed to shift South overnight, so even though the waves were tossing a little when we went to bed, it was perfect when we got up on Tues morning. The Danforth held fine, which gives me more confidence going ahead to buy a Fortress in the next few weeks. We left Tues to an Easterly wind, ducked a little West while it built and then spun around and had a nice long Starboard tack the entire way back to Fair Haven. All told, a 43 mile round trip. They were calling for more wind on Wed and Thurs, so we just stayed in the slip Tues night.

I did learn this: I don't know if it's because of the liner, or what, but holy smokes this boat likes to creak and groan under stress. Under way, I could catch it once in a while but at anchor, my goodness, it was insane, hearing the groans from the cabinets and such. My last boat had no liner, and had almost no noises like that under any amount of pressure, so that's what I'm guessing? Granted most nights won't be spent in such conditions (4 foot rollers that were just enough off the wind that the wind would catch, straighten us out and smooth down, then the waves would push sideways JUST enough that we'd bounce around again for a few before the wind would get it back, and on and on).

But, ordered the new PortaPotty, that'll be here Monday. Decided on the Dometic SaniPottie 975MSD version. I went back and forth a lot on whether or not I wanted to plumb a pump out or not. I've never used a pump out before, but I can't imagine it would be that traumatic. But even worse case, I can still dump it manually, just without the fancy pour spout. If it even gets used once or twice all season, it'd be a stretch. But I also realized that it was $115 bucks for the Gray colored one, whereas the tan was a lot more, and even the non-MSD was another 40 bucks. So that's ordered, and will be next weekends crappy project.

I also tonight, ordered new foam for the V and for the seats. Once I get those in and covered, I'll go ahead and order new for the seat backs and the quarter (which is sail storage atm). It's almost like progress.
 
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MitchK

.
Sep 22, 2017
102
Capital Yachts Newport 28 Burbank, WA
Charlz,
Sounds like you are making awesome progress. Keep up the good work!
 
Jan 14, 2014
225
Newport Newport 28 Fair Haven, NY
Well, this weekends plans are both comfy, and crappy. I got the new cushions in this morning, surprisingly quick. They're currently unwrapped and getting settled. Can already tell the difference just sitting here. Picked up some fabric from JoAnn Fabrics, 50% off on outdoor fabrics, so I grabbed a few yards of a Tommy Bahama design that should go nicely. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to just go with a backing board or zipper. That's gonna be a question better left to my mom since she's a lot more experienced and I'll be having her do the sewing for me while I work on other things.

Tomorrow's project, is the crappy one. I picked up the Dometic SaniPottie 975MSD from Defender for about $118 dollars. But the kicker, is that it not only comes with the fittings and hold down brackets to be a mounted, but also still includes the pour-out spout on the holding tank. This makes it an even better value. The version without the MSD kit, is $155 dollars. So I get the best of both worlds. But rather than tackle it half tonight and half tomorrow, I'm just relaxing tonight and I'll deal with the complete removal of the old stuff all day tomorrow. Definitely looking forward to a soft-night's sleep on this new foam tonight though.
 
Jan 14, 2014
225
Newport Newport 28 Fair Haven, NY
Oh what a difference a month or two have made. I haven't actually made my progress on the boat side of things, in all honesty, only been up two weekends since then. Well, three, but only took the boat out twice, the other weekend was just to chill.

Last trip up was with my dad again, and went out Saturday to find no wind on the lake. So we just floated for a few hours. I did manage to get a tube out and float around, scrubbing some of the sides down, getting some dirt and spiderwebs off, and I've also been able to clean the topsides off with some actual soap and stuff, so the boat actually looks cleaner, finally.

And then I learned firsthand that when they say those mid 90-s Merc outboards with tiller shifting aren't meant to be shifted into gear when not running, they actually aren't kidding. We got back to the dock Saturday, to get ready to enjoy the marina's Summer Bash evening, and I wanted to make sure I actually had gotten into Neutral. Turned the handle, it went into Reverse, and then stuck. Ended up taking two hours Sunday morning tearing it apart and fixing it. Well, more like an hour the first time, then getting it working and realizing the tube had come off the impeller and we had no water, so we had to drop the lower again and fix that. So then we went out for another four hours or so of light wind wisping along.

In the end though? Still on a boat :)
 
Jan 14, 2014
225
Newport Newport 28 Fair Haven, NY
Went up this weekend, we had a fun race planned on Saturday morning, and I had someone from work that said they wanted to come up Sunday and spend the day out in the sun. So let me retreat two weeks:

Previously, I had made a trip up to make sure that I had removed one of the plugs in the cockpit. When Dad was up with me last weekend, I remember having the plug out still, which was fine, there wasn't enough wind or waves to splash any up into from behind. So when I hopped off the boat two weeks ago, I had in my mind that knowledge that I had left a plug out.

I arrived Saturday morning, and imagine my surprise to see a few inches in the cockpit floor. Well that's strange, I thought. Was there a stray bit of plastic that plugged the hole? My spare gas can sits in that corner so I had to move it to see. Oh, well.. there's the plug, in the hole. Racking my brain, I still to this day have no idea if I had done it, if dad had seen it there and thought to put it in when we were out, anything? No idea. But pulled the plug, problem solved. Or so I thought.

I unlocked the latch, I pushed the hatch open and pulled the boards and oh look, there's five inches of water in the cabin, and there floats my cooler. What in the hell, I think to myself. That's what happens when two weeks go by of near-constant rain while the cockpit drains are plugged, the water rises up to the companionway and rains inside. And without an automatic switch on the bilge (yes, my fault on that), it just made things very wet.

It was really gusty, and quite the wave state for the race, but I was also solo, so I made the choice to forgo the race, and focus on clean-up. Flipped the bilge switch to ON, and grabbed a bucket, sitting straddled across the cabin and scooping into the bucket, dumping out into the cockpit to drain out, while the pump did it's little bit too. It didn't take TOO long to empty but I was right annoyed with myself. I pulled the two carpets out of the cabin and draped them on the dock to dry out, and walked to the piers on the lake to watch the start of the race for a while.

I spent the rest of Saturday watching some Netflix, and surfing online, had a couple sandwiches, and passed out for Sunday. At least I'd have company coming. Except they never were able to make it up. It was a nice day, but almost no wind for most of it, so I just spent the rest tidying up a little more, getting the now-dry carpets back in, took some pictures of some activities, and called it an early evening. I did start the motor up to get it some run-time, and managed to actually get it started it in under ten pulls. Miracles still happen.

And I still was on the boat for a weekend, despite all of it. I'll take that every time. And I made sure BOTH plugs were out, and locked in the cabin this time.
 
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MitchK

.
Sep 22, 2017
102
Capital Yachts Newport 28 Burbank, WA
CharlzO, good to hear you are spending time on the boat even if it is not doing what you wanted. Its all good! Maybe I missed it, why do you plug the cockpit drains? seems to me you would want to keep them open all the time. I know on mine, when leaves an such will plug the drain holes. A previous owner had modified a flat sink strainer to fit in the holes too keep leaves and such out. I modified their idea by taking a small cup style strainer and attaching it to the flat strainer. That way if leaves get in the boat, the obstructions have to get about 2" high before it would plug the drain. I'll try and get some pictures of what I have if you are interested. I need to make another one since I made a tribute to Poseidon last Fri when I was pressure washing the boat.
 
Jan 14, 2014
225
Newport Newport 28 Fair Haven, NY
I generally don't keep them in unless I'm underway with a following sea state, and even then I'm usually too lazy to put them in. I don't mind the water, but the first time Dad was out with me, it was splashing in a bit, so we put them in to cut down on him looking down. Didn't really matter to me, but just kept the cockpit clear. I do have the outboard on the back so my weight balance might have me down a half inch closer, but yeah. It's really nothing I would ever normally have in, but then I figured with my dad aboard, I'd appease him. Maybe I just need flappers! Until then, just means I have to get around to wiring a float switch soon.
 
Jan 14, 2014
225
Newport Newport 28 Fair Haven, NY
New season! Finally getting ready to get in the water, and with so much work lately, I can really use the get away. I have the last full week of April slated for vacation, and plan on spending as much as I can on the boat. The marina is set to be opening on the 19th, but I won't be able to get up until the following week. Plan is, initially to purchase new halyards, and a wireless wind instrument for the mast head - and probably just redo the arrangement up there anyway - to install on the 13th, and replace the one mission stanchion. Then order up the rest of my goodies to take up to launch - new Jim Buoy, new Fortress FX-16, brackets, and a replacement ball valve for that thru-hull with the leaky-when-closed one. Get all that stuff done, launched, and then mid-summer, new main sail. Little progresses are better than none.
 
Jan 14, 2014
225
Newport Newport 28 Fair Haven, NY
Still no launch for me, for a few reasons. First, I found the starboard bulkhead had rotted, due to failing sealing around the chainplate over winter. I went up this weekend and planned on replacing it with 1/2" marine ply sealed with Epoxy. It appears the original was 7/16 instead (is that even a thing? but that's what it measured, and the the new is definitely a tighter fit). However, as I let it sit over night to soak in and cure, it started pouring again, so I didn't get a chance to do anything else on my list - like run new halyards and cut other pieces into new companionway boards, and maybe a new table. But can't really cut things out in the rain.

Which leads to the 2nd reason - the flooding caused by the high levels of Ontario. The marina has water all over it - when I got there, there was about 6" of water surrounding my boat. Did I mention it's on the hard? They ran pumps overnight, and had dropped the level before I fell asleep. With the rain overnight, there was even more on the ground when I left than when I got there. Crazy, indeed. The other issue is that with all the water and the high level in the bay, launching isn't happening without a little relief, so the odds of that happening between now and the end of next week, well... I'll only cross my little fingers.

This weekend, and next week off, I should at least be able to touch up the bottom paint, get the chainplate sealed with the bulkhead bolted tight, halyards changed over, last stanchion placed, maybe get the bow pulpit repaired, interior repainted. Without being in the water, I'll have plenty of time to work on things.
 
Jan 14, 2014
225
Newport Newport 28 Fair Haven, NY
Scheduled to launch this week sometime. Not sure yet if they'll be able to get me in mid-week or if they'll wait until I'm up there this upcoming weekend. Either way though, I did manage a few things done over the last weekend. I got the new starboard bulkhead in and chainplate sealed. Then replaced the table with a larger, fold-open version, ran the new halyards in the mast. Also added a halyard for the spinnaker, flipped the masthead mounting around to get the wind indicator to aft as it should be. Made a panel to fill the gaps and odd holes where the electrical panel is, and started to repaint the interior headliner where someone previously had used some not very flattering colors (tan in the main cabin, and then dark blue in the V-berth. Made it too dark, so the white I went with is starting to brighten up a little. Small projects but getting there.

Also went up this last Saturday and put new plugs in the outboard, and ran some carb cleaner and seafoam through it for a bit. Had to get the serial number so I can order a rebuild kit at some point, but wanted it at least running recent enough to make it easy once in the water.
 

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Jan 14, 2014
225
Newport Newport 28 Fair Haven, NY
Finally! well, halfway. Was finally able to launch yesterday, though the wind was gusting too much to step the mast. But at least we're floating, and no leaks that I can see. It did take me a while to get the outboard started, yet again. I found one possible common issue -

Every time the motor sits for more than a couple weeks without running, it's always been hard to start. And I find myself sitting there yanking the pull cord over and over, I'll reach down and choke it, or.. fast-idle it, whatever it is on this dumb thing. Pull a bunch more. drop the choke, pull. Flip the on/off switch a bunch, yank the cord. Choke, cord, no choke, cord, on/off again..And eventually it would start to sputter and then a few pulls later, it'd start. After extended weeks, this process can take upwards of 20 minutes to start this thing.

Fast forward to yesterday. Luckily they didn't have anyone lined right up after me, so they left me in the slings while I messed with it. Pulled the still new plugs, double-checked the gap, cleaned them off again, pulled a few times with them out, put them back, still nothing. Now, there's a kill button on the tiller handle, in addition to the On/Off switch. I've never used it, I always just flip the switch to off. Not sure why there's two, but whatever. The Button on the handle has never really felt like it had much play, so on the off chance that maybe it was stuck or something, I traced the wire down and unplugged it. A few pulls later, we had success. I plugged the wire in, died out. So it seems like something in the switch has gone wonky, or maybe it's been wonky a while and every time I've wiggled the switch in the past, maybe it did something. For now, it's a theory I'm running with.

But we do have floating, and now I'm hoping this weekend will be mast raising time. If I can get my car sold, that might get the new mainsail ordered up for next season (unless I can find a suitable used one)
 
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Jan 14, 2014
225
Newport Newport 28 Fair Haven, NY
Mast is finally up again, thankfully. I hoisted the little spinnaker I found, while at the dock. Definitely small-ish, and much easier to use without the chute thing it's bundled in. More trouble than it's worth for that thing, though the theory is nice. Perhaps it's just worn out, but either way. I went out for the evening, in very light winds with almost no sea state, but just enough that I set a stern anchor to keep me bow into the waves (was on the lee shore and the waves and wind were about 10-15 degrees out, so I didn't want more side-to-side rolling). Woke up overnight, the waves obviously had picked up. Finally got up around 6-ish or so, to find 15 knots of wind, gusting almost 20, and 4-5' waves head on. I thought the first miracle was that I was able to manually break loose my stern anchor (which really, is a tiny thing so that shouldn't be THAT surprising), and then the second miracle was that I was able to muscle the main anchor (13s Danforth on 30' of 1/4" chain with 1/2" Triple Strand Nylon at about 7:1 or so), back to the boat. Or rather, was able to muscle the BOAT to the anchor in that wind and wave action. My fingers are still sore. Took a bit to get the anchor broke free though, because while I was only in 12' of water, I have 30 feet of chain and that shiz is hard to hold onto by hand. When I finally got it to pop, I yanked it up as fast as I could, tossed the anchor into the forward hatch (no time to waste, and since it doesn't fit anywhere in the locker, that was the easiest way to get it out of harm's way), and got the boat turned back into the wind. Two hours to go the just under 2 miles back to the dock in that stuff, and the only time I've really wished this still had the inboard motor. Stupid prop..

Anyway, Point 1, is that the anchor did hold just fine. Point 2, I still need to order a new Fortress FX-16 for this thing, and a proper hanging bracket. Because Point 3 - I guess I don't know my own strength.



Also, I managed to repair my bow pulpit finally on the port side where it had been broken since purchase. I now have a stable bow rail from which to actually mount a hanger on, for the anchor I need to now buy sooner than later.

 
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Jan 14, 2014
225
Newport Newport 28 Fair Haven, NY
Plans for 2020 are under way. The marina has been working on improvements for expected raised water levels, but also want to get boats in the water as soon as they can this year. That bodes well for me getting in a lot sooner than a lot later this time. Granted, I might be on a work trip to California for May and June, go figure. But I guess if I have to suffer somewhere that I can't use the boat, Long Beach at the beginning of summer can probably do.

I picked up a Richie 202 compass cheap for this year, to replace the old one that's not sealed very well. And then I also managed to score a Rocna 15 (33lb) on e-bay for about half price. Probably way oversized, but I'll have both the Fortress I bought last year, and now this, for multiple options. I'll pick up a Mantus swivel just to be safe. I'm going to look into trying to fasihon some sort of roller or bowsprit/roller combo this year to mount them to. The Fortress is a little large (though light) to keep walking up from the cockpit storage locker when I want to use it, and there's no way I'm doing that with the Rocna. Plan is to find a mount for the Rocna at the bow, and make up a stern mount for the Fortress, since it would work as an emergency stern anchor, as well as being light enough that if I DID want to use it for a hook, I can carry it up, it would just be less often.

I took two weeks off at the end of April to get the boat launched (if it isn't already), start the projects, and hopefully get some quality time in. We'll see. Other project aspects are another pair of batteries and a 2nd solar panel, probably a bimini to mount them above, and ideally a better wind indicator. And finally do cushions a little better.

Time will tell, but I'm more optimistic about go-time this year, at least.
 
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Jan 14, 2014
225
Newport Newport 28 Fair Haven, NY
Man I sure was more optimistic a month ago, wasn't I? My how times have changed...

I haven't heard officially from the marina yet on their plans for handling the season. Official open date is April 17th, but with all that's going on, it's hard to gauge what can happen between now and then. Oh wait, as I write this, I see an e-mail. Back in a sec.

Ok, back. So, the good news so far, is that they've received the answer that the RV park they also run falls under the classification of "other places of accommodation" provided it follows COVID-19 guidelines for distances and whatnot. As of now, they're waiting on clarification on the marina falling under the same category so plans are to continue as, well, planned, in the meantime. Obviously this can change, but fingers crossed.

Back to the season at hand, then. I've been starting to slowly put together not only a plan of attack, but also getting things slowly ready. The boat itself can go in the water with no issues at all, I don't have any below-the-waterline work to do or anything of the sort. I did pick up another pair of GC2 batteries, and ordered a 175 watt solar panel to replace the 100 watt one I have now. I managed ok with the smaller panel and half the capacity, but for the relatively inexpensive outlay, it seemed silly not to. I went up yesterday after an appointment for an airbag recall, to take the batteries, and the Rocna up (stubbing my toe on that in the bedroom is not something I wish to risk any further).

I got the battery situation figured out now, as far as mounting goes, which will be done in another week or two. They're temporarily in place in the meantime, and the panel hooked back up sitting in the cockpit. And the fun part is I found a Schulink Wireless Battery Monitor at Wal-Mart on clearance that I wanted to try. It hooks up to the marina's WiFi network, and allows me to monitor it from anywhere via an app. I figured a) for 20 bucks why not, and b) even if just a rough idea, it's still a way to monitor the boat from 3 hours away. I figured out the anchor roller too. I'll be removing the starboard bow chock off the rail, and glassing the anchor locker lid in place, and over. A small opening cut in the rear for access, and a hawse for the rode, and then I can mount the roller there for the Rocna to sit on. A plan for warmer weather, at least.

Now we just need the next few weeks to pass without getting worse. Fingers crossed. Stay safe, all.