Well that was an adventure! I finally got to launch my Newport 28 yesterday. The beginning of the day, light breeze with a couple little gusts, but nice and sunny, and great to put the boat in the water. First thing we saw was there was an older transducer thru-hull, with a plug in it. Started seeping just a little after it hit the water. A little extra crank down on the backing nut and the seep stopped. Didn't see anything else, but not exactly something you want on the back of your mind when you are about to undergo what was to come: By the time we came to leave, the sun was finding it's way under clouds, the wind was picking up, and some pretty good 4'+ swells, if not more. Oh, and I had to move it from the place it was launched, 13 miles away to my marina. With an outboard that I had only just recently gotten to run for ten minutes at home..straight into the wind.
My initial thoughts on the boat: It handled the weather just fine, as far as seaworthiness goes. The little 9.9 Mercury, God Bless it, never skipped a beat the entire trip. Took probably 3 1/2 gallons of gas, maybe 4? But we probably averaged a little under 4 knots into the wind most of the trip. A high thrust prop is definitely in order. The other issue is that I don't think whoever put the kicker bracket on, thought too far ahead. From what I can tell, it's as low as it'll go, and the prop is just inches under the surface, even as an extra long shaft. We had a good bit of out of water action for the first half hour of the trip until we got to where the waves had started to spread out ever slightly, and subside just enough that we could angle and keep ourselves submerged. Considering I don't expect to be in weather like that again, I'll leave it as it is, other than a prop swap, until after this season and I'll pull the bracket, and find a better solution or mounting position for it. It's an older Garelick Eez-In or whatever it's called. Also motor-related, if anyone has any idea how the steering lock works on a Merc 9.9 circa 1988, I'd love to know. I found ONE screw that looks like it MIGHT be it? But I didn't have a blade big enough for leverage to try. Because reverse with a prop that's kicking up darn near to the surface, and unable to turn, in a boat of that displacement... yeah, that's not fun. And it doesn't have the initial thrust to make any headway to turn. So maneuvering is something that has to be well thought out. Not the boat's fault, but something I have to deal with.
The rigging on this thing is something to get used to. I'm about to go delving back through all the threads and pictures on these, to see if it's normal, or something someone did, etc. For example, we have a split backstay, with a hanging hook - basically a little mini topping-lift hook for the boom. Ok, that's easy enough. However, I ALSO have a hanging cable from the masthead that I originally thought was the topping lift, however the end just has a block on it. Perhaps at one point, someone had used that with something attached to the end of the boom as a lift, and now it's just.. there? So for now it's just basically tied off back along with the topping lift hook to stay out of the way. The Main sheet is a 5:1, but it's run completely different than the boats I've been used to - in that it looks like it goes up, through a fair lead, then back to a cam cleat on the cabin top. There's also a winch there, though I can't imagine using a winch along with it but maybe? Just new to me.
We hit a thunderstorm and short rain squall two miles from Fair Haven, But after that, we managed to hit the channel into Little Sodus Bay shortly before the sun disappeared completely. Found my slip, and made the turn in, and be darned, didn't even ram the dock. Did I mention that my last boat was half the displacement, and was very easy to manhandle to a stop in my slip? This one, not so much. Again, I attribute a lot of that to the outboard, the prop, and the depth to which it doesn't sit at. I did notice that if I really ramp the revs in Reverse, I actually do get a prop-walk effect that pulls the stern to port, which might come in handy, but then again, if I could turn the stupid outboard, that takes half the problems away.
I do love the boat, and looking forward to getting things in better shape. I'm almost tempted to go back up this weekend and do some more little odd jobs, get some things clean, pull my tools out now that they aren't needed, and so on. But at the same time, I've made the drive up and back three times in the last week (a little under 3 hours each way). There's one more weekend before I head to Newport, so I might just have to flip a coin.
My initial thoughts on the boat: It handled the weather just fine, as far as seaworthiness goes. The little 9.9 Mercury, God Bless it, never skipped a beat the entire trip. Took probably 3 1/2 gallons of gas, maybe 4? But we probably averaged a little under 4 knots into the wind most of the trip. A high thrust prop is definitely in order. The other issue is that I don't think whoever put the kicker bracket on, thought too far ahead. From what I can tell, it's as low as it'll go, and the prop is just inches under the surface, even as an extra long shaft. We had a good bit of out of water action for the first half hour of the trip until we got to where the waves had started to spread out ever slightly, and subside just enough that we could angle and keep ourselves submerged. Considering I don't expect to be in weather like that again, I'll leave it as it is, other than a prop swap, until after this season and I'll pull the bracket, and find a better solution or mounting position for it. It's an older Garelick Eez-In or whatever it's called. Also motor-related, if anyone has any idea how the steering lock works on a Merc 9.9 circa 1988, I'd love to know. I found ONE screw that looks like it MIGHT be it? But I didn't have a blade big enough for leverage to try. Because reverse with a prop that's kicking up darn near to the surface, and unable to turn, in a boat of that displacement... yeah, that's not fun. And it doesn't have the initial thrust to make any headway to turn. So maneuvering is something that has to be well thought out. Not the boat's fault, but something I have to deal with.
The rigging on this thing is something to get used to. I'm about to go delving back through all the threads and pictures on these, to see if it's normal, or something someone did, etc. For example, we have a split backstay, with a hanging hook - basically a little mini topping-lift hook for the boom. Ok, that's easy enough. However, I ALSO have a hanging cable from the masthead that I originally thought was the topping lift, however the end just has a block on it. Perhaps at one point, someone had used that with something attached to the end of the boom as a lift, and now it's just.. there? So for now it's just basically tied off back along with the topping lift hook to stay out of the way. The Main sheet is a 5:1, but it's run completely different than the boats I've been used to - in that it looks like it goes up, through a fair lead, then back to a cam cleat on the cabin top. There's also a winch there, though I can't imagine using a winch along with it but maybe? Just new to me.
We hit a thunderstorm and short rain squall two miles from Fair Haven, But after that, we managed to hit the channel into Little Sodus Bay shortly before the sun disappeared completely. Found my slip, and made the turn in, and be darned, didn't even ram the dock. Did I mention that my last boat was half the displacement, and was very easy to manhandle to a stop in my slip? This one, not so much. Again, I attribute a lot of that to the outboard, the prop, and the depth to which it doesn't sit at. I did notice that if I really ramp the revs in Reverse, I actually do get a prop-walk effect that pulls the stern to port, which might come in handy, but then again, if I could turn the stupid outboard, that takes half the problems away.
I do love the boat, and looking forward to getting things in better shape. I'm almost tempted to go back up this weekend and do some more little odd jobs, get some things clean, pull my tools out now that they aren't needed, and so on. But at the same time, I've made the drive up and back three times in the last week (a little under 3 hours each way). There's one more weekend before I head to Newport, so I might just have to flip a coin.
