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Venture of Newport on the way home

We found her in St. Pete Florida. Don had been looking for a Venture of Newport as his next project boat. The boat has classic lines, work-able interior space and a nice long, self-bailing cockpit. She also has a swing keel, 800 lbs of cast iron that can swing up to allow sailing in 2′ of water, which is perfect for our area, which allows for both deep water ocean sailing as well as shallow draft lagoon sailing. At 23′, she would be easy to haul on a trailer, but still give us a solid boating experience.

Before Photos

We’re a sailing family and have owned and lived on a variety of boats over the years. With half the crew heading to college soon, we’re down-sizing our life and this boat will be a perfect fit. With our catamaran (once our home for a year) sold, we dive into restoring this faded beauty on the weekends. We keep her on the side of our house, but park her in the front yard for major restoration steps.

The ‘before’ photo

Her original owner named the boat “Kermit” because the trailerable boat was an amphibian, able to travel on land and sea. First order was to paint the hull. Don loves the look of a dark-green hull on a boat with classic lines. So the first project was to paint her hull. We store Kermit on the side of our house, but to paint the hull we’d need more space, so we hauled her out and parked her on the front yard. She actually looks pretty good there.

The girls prepping the boat

We removed some hardware and sanded down the hull. A little epoxy was used to fill in misc. dings and nics, but the hull in general was in good shape. We used MEK to help strip down any remaining wax and to prep the surface. We contacted the original owner who said he had last painted the hull with a single-part polyurethane paint. So we used the same on ours. After a little research and asking a lot of people who painted their boats, we decided to go with the Interlux Brightside Polyurethane Premium Single Part Enamel. Checking online with other Newport owners, we figured how much we would need and bought a couple quarts of white for the topside, a couple quarts of green for the hull and a quart of red for the bottom. Since  the boat would live on a trailer, we decided to paint the bottom red, which really looks great on sailboats against the green hull. But our initial focus would be on the hull. The existing paint was pretty faded and chalky.

The ‘after’ photo

The bottom is currently painted with a copper-based bottom paint and sanding was kicking up too much toxic dust, so we decided to not worry about the bottom at the moment. Somewhere down the road we’ll probably take her somewhere and have the bottom paint sand-blasted off.

Working on the Interior

The interior of the boat was pretty stock. The original owner didn’t change much down here, so that gave us a clean slate to start off with. The original bulkheads (walls) and table were still in place and showed their age. The interior was mostly molded fiberglass, so we’d keep that in place. We began by removing all the stuff in the boat…sails, boom, cushions, life jackets, etc. Then we pressure washed the interior with an anti-mildew soap solution that helped get rid of some of the interior mildew that had built up over the years. It cleaned up great and smelled mildew-free for once.

Old forward bulkhead

Old aft bulkhead

With the general clean-up done, we removed the bulkheads.  We had some left over wood flooring from a bedroom we just finished, so we sanded down the old veneer on the bulkheads and laid down the planking, gluing it down with construction adhesive and clamping it in place for the night. The next day we took a jig-saw to the bulkheads and trimmed off the excess material. Bingo, brand new bulkheads. Because the wood was made for flooring, it has proven to be a very durable material.

New forward bulkhead

New aft bulkhead

Because the forward side of the forward bulkhead was the wall for the ‘head’ we also painted that. Originally it was just a dark-brown unfinished backing-board color. We painted it bright white using an epoxy based paint. This will help protect the underlying plywood and it really brightens up the forward berth. On the aft bulkhead we used a roto-zip to cut a circle for the centerboard winch. Originally the previous owner had cut a hole for some electrical connections, but we’re planning to re-do the electrical, so we covered up that area.

We also experimented with the table. Since we were going to build a new one anyway, we decided to have some fun. The local library gave us some old charts (we’re friends of the library, and they know we’re sailors, so when someone donates charts they give us a call, since they can’t use them) and we cut one to fit the inside of the table and polyurethaned it in. While it turned out “OK” it’s still too dark, so we’ll build a table to match the bulkheads.

Back to the exterior

Now it’s time to deal with the topside exterior, and that is where the project is at the moment. We’ve removed a lot of the deck hardware and we’ll take off what is left. We’ve pressure washed the topside and now it needs a complete sanding/MEKing.

We’ve removed the tafrail and decided the wood was solid enough to re-use. The tafrail is one of the unique features of this boat and helps give it the classic look. We sanded down rails to bring up new wood and then we tackled the posts. To sand these, Don bought a long bolt, slid it through the center and clamped it down with a washer and thumbscrew. Then he slid this array into his Roto-Zip locked down to a workbench. Then with safety glasses on the ‘lathe’ sanded each spindle. It worked great.

We decided on a dark-wood look for the exterior and we did something a little un0rthodox. Instead of using teak oil (classic) or lacquer, we stained it with a penetrating waterproof stain. Don’s tried this on previous boats and it’s worked great. In this case we decided on a red mahogany stain. We did the same with the bow boards.

Painting the deck

The boat came with a blue deck to match it’s hull and has faded and worn off in places over the years. We decided to give the boat a ‘faux wood deck’ feel.

Before, you can see the blue decks a bit here

Bow section taped off

After, Sundown Buff decks

A better look at the painted decks

To make the process easier, the day before the big paint Don painted the deck step generally used to access the boat. This way, even while the whole boat was stick ‘tacky’ he could get on and off the boat. After a section was taped off and painted, Don would wait about half an hour and then pull off the tape. If the paint dried completely, the paint edges would ‘rip’ as the tape was removed.

We also painted the non-skid on the cockpit seats as well. All the blue is finally gone!

Here’s the process for painting the decks:

1. Pressure wash the deck with soap to remove dirt and anything greasy.

2. Remove some of the hardware. We left some on, took some off.

3. Sand deck. For these non-skid surfaces we used a rough 60 grit sandpaper. We used a rotary hand sander for most of the work and hand-sanded in the tight spots.

4. Scrubbed the areas to be painted with MEK (methyl Ethyl Ketone) to strip off remaining waxes and solvents that soap and water didn’t get off.

5. Tape off areas. Classic blue tape used, to do all the surface area we used one roll. Tape off any deck hardware left on.

6. Paint! Like the hull, we used Brightsides 1-part Polyurethane Topside paint. We picked Sundown Buff because it had that light teak-deck color.

Our goal, is to next tape off faux teak-fill lines to fake a wood deck look, but that’s for another project. Now it’s time to re-mount the deck hardware using 3M’s marine sealant 5200.

Meanwhile, we also stripped down the tiller from it’s many coats of varnish and stained it with the mahogany stain.  We also sanded down the rudder and painted it with the same Sundown Buff to give it a classic wood look.

Renaming

While the previous owner called the boat “Kermit” he never actually applied the name to the boat, so we decided that maybe something less frog-like would be appropriate, plus we wouldn’t have to go through the elaborate boat-name changing ceremony. The crew decided on “Osprey,” a much more graceful name. We watch ospreys fish down at the beach, a bird gracefully gliding on air over the water seemed to be a perfect match for us.

Don worked up the design in Adobe Illustrator and took it to the local sign shop (two blocks away, gotta love living in a small town). Within two hours they had output the graphic and came over to the house and put it on. Three hours from concept to delivery. Very cool.

We haven’t done the hailing port for the stern yet, but decided we’ll use “Tranquility Bay”

New aft, note the taffrail and hatch slats!

We spent Saturday morning re-assembling the deck hardware, seating everything with 5200, a marine sealant. This included attaching the taffrail, hatch slats, cleats and the bow boards. Don also put the battery back in to check the running lights for the upcoming Christmas Boat Parade, they worked fine.

New bow, note the trail boards (on bow)

With the trail boards on, we applied the registration decal and the boat numbers. While we were at it we also put of the new trailer liscense plate.

Deck view, sans the hand rails

The new handrails we had ordered came in on Saturday, but we wanted to stain them before attching them to the deck. It’ll take at least a day for them to dry, so they’re not in these photos.

Deck view from the cockpit

Handrails installed

We mounted four handrails on the boat. She wasn’t designed with lifelines, but we wanted something for the crew to grab onto underway. Fourteen more holes in the deck. But, all-told we re-mounted 24 old deck-fitting hulls on this re-fit with new marine caulking. Most sealants had turned to dust when we pulled the deck hardware off.

We mounted a new 9.8 Nissan 4-stroke on the motor mount. We picked the 9.8 because it was the smallest motor with an electric start, and it could charge the battery. Electric start was important because our girls would be sailing the boat and we wanted to make sure they could start the engine. After our trial run (below) we found that when we ran the engine slightly above minimum, we kept up with the shipping traffic in the port. Granted, we didn’t have any currents or winds to put up with, but then again we didn’t get anywhere near the medium range output of the motor. We picked Nissan because we have another Nissan on our outboard which is still running great on our dinghy. We have a Honda that runs when it feels like it. Maybe.

She’s finally ready to head out!

It’s kind of tight on the side of the house, so we brought her to the front yard a couple weeks ago to paint the decks. While it’s cool to have her sitting there when you open the front door, it’s time to haul her to the water. Don’t worry, after the Christmas Parade we’ll park her for a couple weeks in the front yard again, adorned with Christmas decorations and lights.

Osprey Splashed!

We splashed the Osprey for the first time this week. After a month of focus, a project that began a year ago wrapped up and with the last handrail installed over the weekend, she was ready to hit the water. Don’s friend Chip was in town for the holidays and helped out on the occasion.

Osprey at the yacht club (click photo for larger image)

We trailered the boat to the west-end of Port Canaveral, a couple miles from the Foley house and launched her fairly painlessly. A few lessons learned, but mostly the launch went well. Before taking her to our yacht club, Chip and Don motored down the inlet for a bit.

The next project will be building a mast-raising rig for her. After that the interior will need some upgrades to make her ‘liveable’ for anchoring out.

It was worth all the work just to see her in the water (click photo for larger image)

Sidenotes

As a side note, we’d like to thank the people on the Venture of Newport Yahoo Group, they helped out when we were deciding on how to approach some topics, and their archive of past posts helped solve a lot of questions. This project would have been much more of a challenge without their experience and inspiration.

Another side note. After a heavy rain, we’d get an inch or so of water in the cabin and a little more in the ‘bilge.’  The spots were tight, and it wasn’t much water, but we’ve always had ‘dry’ boats, so I never was happy about this. While we didn’t reset all the deck hardware, we did reset a total of 24 “holes” and after our last big storm (first since the re-fit) the boat was bone dry. Yay! I’m thinking the 10 holes on the tafrail, with age, was most likely where most of the rain trickled into the bilge.

Osprey update

We’ve taken her out for ocean sailing and took her out for a couple Christmas Parades (1st Place in one) and generally had a blast. Getting her ready for the holidays was a push, but she looked great. Now, with some sea-time under her hull, we have a couple of things to address.

First is a mast raising system. Yeah, loved the photo on the brochure of the guy lifting the mast by himself. Right.

Second is the interior. It’s bare, and the goal will be to gear her up to be a weekend cruiser. We live in Florida, so if there’s any weekending to do, it’ll be BEFORE summer. I generally don’t sail during the summer because of the heat, and I certainly don’t anchor out because of the bugs.

Osprey all decked out

I could write a small book on launching a V/N from the lessons I’ve learned, but I’d have to heavily footnote it to the folks at the V/N Yahoo site. Every time I come across a problem, I find myself saying “oh, yeah, don’t do that…I remember a post about that.”

The Mast Raising System

I built my mast system based loosely off what Macgregor offers on their stock system. The differences would be that I mounted mine on a 2×4 (theirs is on an aluminum pole) and I used a 2:1 pulley purchase, it looks like their pulley is just 1:1. Theirs also mounts to the deck, I just built a platform for mine to distribute the weight. Also, they wanted $200 for theirs. I originally built mine for free from parts I had laying around, but then at the last moment replaced my old trailer winch with one I bought at Harbor Freight for $34. The new one offers auto-braking, to keep the handle from ‘free-wheeling’ if I should let loose.

The goal is to make raising and lowering the mast a stress-free, one person operation.

I also fashioned two baby stays from 1/4 inch nylon line. On one end of each I put a snatch clasp and the other a carabiner.  About 7 feet up on the mast I pop-rivented two eye straps. To this strap I attached the snatch clasp, and to the club sheet fairleads (with the sheet removed) I ran the carabiner. I used carabiners because they had wide enough of a mouth to fit into the big fairleads. While these line were snug, the weren’t too tight. Since they sit slightly forward of the mast, I counted on them tightening up while the mast went down. I used nylon for this so they’d had some stretch.

This photo shows the basic function.

I wrapped a new dock line around the mast about 6 feet up, it probably wrapped around ten times or so, then I tied it down. I left three turns loose, these I ran the pulley snap shackle through and closed it up.

The thinking here is that this is the point, when the mast is about 45 degrees, and I’m struggling to get it up, this is where the ‘make-it-or-break-it’ moment is. I have no idea what the actual weight ratio is at this point is, but It’s definitely above 150 lbs but most likely less than 250 lbs. So that’s the basis when I worked up the math on this project.

Then I ran the cleat lines forward and tied them snugly to the bow cleats. These attach to the top U bolt.

After removing the fore-stays, I gave the mast a gentle push and it leaned over and the bow lines drew taught. The auto-breaking winch worked perfect, it locked in and I was easily able to drop the mast. As the mast lowered, the baby stays drew taught and help guide the mast into the after roller assembly.

Lowering the mast into the aft roller assembly, I pushed the pole to align the mast so it could drop into the roller assembly aft.

Absolutely the easiest I had ever dropped the mast. It worked like a charm. While I was in this mode, I also raised it again to see how it would go. Perfect. The 2:1 purchase on the blocks may not be needed, but I happened to have the blocks around…so why not.

After the mast was down, I disconnected the mast bolt from the tabernacle and rolled the mast forward to the mast-retention fork on the bow of the boat.

The system

I’ll cover some general construction notes below. Please note that I built this around my own specific needs and abilities, your needs, abilities and materials may be different and have different results. I do not recommend you attempting to follow my example. This following is only to show what I have done to accomplish my own specific task. Yes, the entire has been recorded via advice from council.

OK, first the wood. This is a piece of kiln dried 2×4 that began as an 8 foot piece. I cut it down to 6 feet and used a piece of the scrap as a platform, about 1 foot long. I used three 3 inch deck screws to mount the platform.

Then I drilled six holes on the top for U bolts. I think these are all 1/4 inch U bolts. The top one (facing aft) is for the termination of the line. The next (facing forward) is for strapping down two 3/8 nylon lines to the bow cleats. I happened to have some really small cleats laying around, so I attached these to the same side of the pole to give me a place to store the lines when the unit isn’t in use. You can’t see them in this picture, but you can see them in the top photo. Obviously, this isn’t required. The third (facing aft) is for a pulley attachment.

Much of the tension of this rig is going to be represented in these three bolts, so I wanted them close, and in-line, so there wouldn’t be any twisting. I actually cut the board to make sure there weren’t any knots anywhere around this area.

Next, I mounted the winch half-way up the pole with three 9/16 bolts and washers. I found an auto-braking winch online at Harbor Freight and then drove down to Melbourne to pick it up. They only had the 1500 lb winch, so I bought it. The 1200 lb would be fine. I ran a 3/8 inch line instead of the strap that came with it. The 3/8 inch line is rated at 135 lbs, and since I would be using a 2:1 purchase, I figured (loosely, having lifted the mast by myself) that it couldn’t have more than 270 lb of weight on it.

I ran the line through two heavy duty pulleys. One on the rig to re-direct the energy, and one on the mast brace lines to give me the 2:1. Then the line went up and terminated on the top of the pole in one of the U bolts. I had a small swivel eye laying around, so I attached this to the bottom of the pole to store the floating pulley on.

I put two heavy-duty felt pads on the bottom of the base to protect the deck and help spread out some of the weight.

The whole rig worked great. I did have to put my foot behind the rig while the mast was lowered. The cleat lines stretched a bit and the pole leaned aft. On my next run I’m going to run a 1/4 inch line to the tabernacle, so if I need to run around and fix any jammed stays, I don’t have to worry about the pole slipping. There wasn’t much ‘push’ on the base.

Mast mounted forward, secured aft

All lines lead aft. I found some great ‘bungi’ type cords at ACE. They don’t have hooks, just knobs that fit into sockets. I like this. And there’s a reason that involves me, bungi cords, a ski trip and many, many dental visits. Let’s just say that I’m not a fan of ‘bunji’ cords. Not even remotely.

But I like these. I have half a dozen and use them as sail ties and many other uses. Today, they strap down all the loose stays and shrouds. They’re less than two bucks each, and having a dozen on hand is a good idea. No hooks.

But, let’s note the glass-like sheen on the photo above. You’d never guess the shinest part of the hull had the BIGGEST goudges on our first launch. Ripped it to shreds. The mount for the lights has a nice hard-edged metal mount that danced nicely along the hull as we set her off. I acted casual at the time, but…grrr.

But upon return to land, she was repainted, and she looks great. Love the 1-part poly gig. The offending element will be dealt with…I’m guessing a swim noodle or a tennis ball mounted aft. As Poe would say…Nevermore.

Jan 28 update

Tennis balls worked great. Cut a big hole to cover the plate, and a small one to run a zip-tie through. Worked perfect. Have been using a dock line wrapped around the base of the ‘pole’ and the tabernacle. It works good too, allows me to fix stuck shrouds and such. Will fine-tune in the future to make a dedicated snap-shackle attached at the base of the pole.

Real-world use of the new system was a HUGE success. Single handed launching and recovery of the boat is stress-free.

Click for larger image.

Spring 2010 update

When launching the boat this spring, I left the mast raising system on the curb next to the staging area, planning to pick it up and put it on the trailer like I’ve done before. In those few minutes, somebody took it.

So, using my instructions above, I built a new one. Since I didn’t have the cool ’snatch blocks’ that I had when I built it (about $100 each) I bought a couple 250lbs pulleys from Home Depot for $3.95 and one stainless carabiner rated at 650lbs for $4.00.

Also, instead of using a pad-eye for the storage attachment, I put in an eye-bolt/screw. Workeds just as well, but not as pretty.

I just happened to have a spare braking winch and the line needed about. If I didn’t, I would have used my old trailer winch, because with a double effort block, I would have been fine either way. I’m thinking I really over-engineered that call after years of raising the mast. While it is nice to stop half way without a thought to go fix some stay that was caught up, toggling a gear switch wouldn’t have been hard. So, the self braking winch is GREAT, but not really needed. The whole effort takes 30 seconds. Again, all of these suggestions are based of MY experience, yours may be different, so plan accordingly.

So, in short, I bought a new 2×4x8 kiln dried piece of wood, three U bolts, 2 pulleys, 1 carabiner (that clips to the line around the mast) and a couple small cleats to tie the deck lines to the unit for storage. About $40 in hardware. I put together the thing in about an hour. It worked great.

I try to make “victories” out of things like this, so I spent some time thinking about how to make the lifting unit better. But, to be honest, I spent so much time figuring out the first one, that I couldn’t come up with anything to improve. I did, however, make it cheaper by using the cheap pulleys and the eye-screw.

Bottom line, I can raise and lower my mast with almost no effort. Some fisherman who took my mast-raiser (the only ones that use our ramp are fishing boats) now can fly a spinnaker…which is what the blocks he took were made for. That’s fine, my spinnaker days are over. Those great blocks have sat around for years.

Such is life. I am, however, really glad I documented how to build this thing, because making another one was incredibly easy. And  when we pulled the boat out the next week…the unit was on task.