Nice Newport 30 on eBay
- Thread starter Marcia
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I almost bought one this spring.
We had a deposit on a 1979, but it flunked survey due to wet decks. To be fair, there was a lot of deck hardware mounted by on of the previous owners that wasn't maintained, so I don't think it is a Newport specific flaw.
Structurally the area of the hull behind the keel is not particularly well re-enforced as it has few cross-members aft of the keel. On the 79 there was an large shallow indentation aft of the keel that may or may not have dissappeared once she was in the water again.
Apologies in advance to Newport 30 owners, but I found it to be a pretty lightly built hull (about 8000lbs vs. 10000 for many 30 footers). Structurally the area of the hull behind the keel is not particularly strong as it has few cross-members aft of the keel. On the 79 there was an large shallow indentation aft of the keel (perhaps due to how she was blocked on the hard) that may or may not have disappeared once she was in the water again. The ebay boat (a 1987) appears to be a shoal keel (4ft), so this might be less applicable, but one of the two the mark III boats we looked at (mark III's changeover was in the early 80's)had apparently grounded and there was a hairline crack where the keel trunk met the rest of the hull. I thought it was still structurally sound (perhaps just cracks in the gelcoat), as there were no cracks inside I could see, but it made my surveyor VERY uncomfortable and he ultimately recommended we look at other brands.
They remain very popular on the west coast and are pretty good performers. There aren't many around here, which also contributed to us ultimately looking at other brands. I really liked the tee-shaped cockpit layout, engine accessibility and think that the interior is very roomy and usable for a 30 footer. My Wife thought that the interior was a bit busy and likes the open floor plan of our S2 better. The price of the ebay boat is a bargin, as the boats we looked at in that age range were about 18K.
We had a deposit on a 1979, but it flunked survey due to wet decks. To be fair, there was a lot of deck hardware mounted by on of the previous owners that wasn't maintained, so I don't think it is a Newport specific flaw.
Structurally the area of the hull behind the keel is not particularly well re-enforced as it has few cross-members aft of the keel. On the 79 there was an large shallow indentation aft of the keel that may or may not have dissappeared once she was in the water again.
Apologies in advance to Newport 30 owners, but I found it to be a pretty lightly built hull (about 8000lbs vs. 10000 for many 30 footers). Structurally the area of the hull behind the keel is not particularly strong as it has few cross-members aft of the keel. On the 79 there was an large shallow indentation aft of the keel (perhaps due to how she was blocked on the hard) that may or may not have disappeared once she was in the water again. The ebay boat (a 1987) appears to be a shoal keel (4ft), so this might be less applicable, but one of the two the mark III boats we looked at (mark III's changeover was in the early 80's)had apparently grounded and there was a hairline crack where the keel trunk met the rest of the hull. I thought it was still structurally sound (perhaps just cracks in the gelcoat), as there were no cracks inside I could see, but it made my surveyor VERY uncomfortable and he ultimately recommended we look at other brands.
They remain very popular on the west coast and are pretty good performers. There aren't many around here, which also contributed to us ultimately looking at other brands. I really liked the tee-shaped cockpit layout, engine accessibility and think that the interior is very roomy and usable for a 30 footer. My Wife thought that the interior was a bit busy and likes the open floor plan of our S2 better. The price of the ebay boat is a bargin, as the boats we looked at in that age range were about 18K.
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