A Special Kind of Hell.

[Boat]

Happy Easter all. Please forgive the heading on this sacred day, but I have to vent. I am in the process of installing a windlass, with all the new deck work that will be done, the commodore and I think we should paint the decks. Fine by me. we have wanted to anyway. In the process of taking all the deck hardware off. Stancions, pulpit et. al. WHAT THE HELL IS WITH THE SLOTTED BOLTS!!!!! I am taking Marty and Doc"s time machine and going back to 1969 to Costa Mesa or wherever Newport boats were built, and when hull #20 is rolled out and started to be built, I am beating the person putting in slotted bolts with a hammer!!! Mother eff. 90 percent of them no problems, 5 percent with some swearing, 5 percent cutting wheel. AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGG!!!!!

There, now I'm off to confession and get my Hail Marys and our fathers.

[ndutton]

Yep, I feel your pain. Imagine assembling one Newport 30 per week using only slotted machine screws and sheet metal screws too for that matter. Such was the trend in that era. The popularity of Phillips screws coincided with the popularity of cordless screw guns around the very late 1970's. Prior to that we were using corded Skil screw guns (no clutch) with slotted screw driver bits that had collars to keep the bit centered on the screw head. See pictures.

Something that we did, at least on the boats I built, was to align the slots in the screws to the aesthetic direction of the hardware it fastened. For example, screws holding a track to the deck had all the slots aligned with the length of the track for a 'First Yacht Quality' appearance. Same with cleats. Round hardware like deck plates and pedestal steering bases had the slots aligned with the perimeter. Of course that doesn't mean much right now as you struggle with the few stubborn fasteners.

Your Newport 30 was built by either Lindsay Plastics or Enterprise Yachts, both in Santa Ana, CA. Later on the product line was acquired by Capital Yachts in Harbor City, CA. where I worked up until the middle of 1973.

Your colorful language today deserves a few extra dollars in the collection plate.

[DDO]

I am sooo running down to my boat to see if my Ranger also had that first yacht quality appearance anywhere along the rail or hardware.....

[scratchee]

Until recently I lived in a hundred-year-old house that had slotted screws all over the place. The thing that really drove me crazy was how shallow the slots were! It's hard enough to keep the tool aligned without slots that are a fraction of a millimeter deep. And I doubt they were using power tools when the house was built in 1911.

[Hawkeye54]

Scratchee, I had an old 1903 farmhouse, as well - Odds are, the screws were driven using a brace and bit with the carpenter leaning his chest on the top for weight , and the screws lubricated with tallow or wax.




Rick

[Boat]

ya Lindsey Plastics. Fantastic boat. Sails soooooo great. and im finding further proof shes built like a brick **** house!

[Boat]

oh and yes, a few bucks in the collection plate! lolol

[JOHN COOKSON]

ya Lindsey Plastics. Fantastic boat. Sails soooooo great. and im finding further proof shes built like a brick **** house!

"Built before they found out how thin they could make them."

ex TRUE GRIT

[ndutton]

This thread brought back a lot of good memories so I spent a little time (VERY little time) looking at what the internet had to offer on the Newport 30. As usual, the signal to noise ratio was pretty low meaning more Bolshoi than good, accurate information. Sailors do have a reputation about making up stories and from what I read, it's deserved. Take anything you read on the internet with a grain of salt especially when it comes to boats.

Unless it's from me, of course.

[lat 64]

Same can be said for my 1968 Colombia too.

I used to hate flat-blade screws, so I would chuck them out and replace with phillip's-head whenever I got the chance.
Then I learned to hate phillip's too.
Along the way, I had love/hate relationship with square-drive as well.
Now I'm a torxs man all the way.

Praying for the day when even sheetrock screws come in torx(star-drive) heads.

I contend this will solve all the world's problems

Happy Easter, 12 inches of snow here yesterday.

russ

[Boat]

This thread brought back a lot of good memories so I spent a little time (VERY little time) looking at what the internet had to offer on the Newport 30. As usual, the signal to noise ratio was pretty low meaning more Bolshoi than good, accurate information. Sailors do have a reputation about making up stories and from what I read, it's deserved. Take anything you read on the internet with a grain of salt especially when it comes to boats.

Unless it's from me, of course.

this is so true. We bought her because of the classic lines and the look of her is real nice. we get alot of compliments on how "Hippy" (Beam) she is. love that low slung fatty type of boat. When we first got her there is a book face group that i have since had to leave. ALOT of just plain bad information out there that is just wrong information. its frustrating because these classic plastics are many peoples first boat. with so much bad info out there it makes those of us that try to help seem in the minority. dont even get me started about the anti atomic 4 crowd. Morons, all of them.

looks like there will be more offerings in the plate this week. lolol