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Nova 28


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Hi all. I just wondering if any active Nova 28 owner around who interested about to share their relevant experiences with newbies like me, or even just have a talk about these boats. I know Novas are, how can I say nicely, a bit out of date now and also plenty of bad examples around, mainly caused by poor workmanship or just the lack of maintenance. In the other hand Novas are very reliable, safe boats in my opinion and quite a few worth lot more than we have to pay for them. 

Of course I have a very extensive "to do list" with many dreams about upgrades....

 

Anyway, for the start I'm actually the owner of Waimanu II, since last year.  As many novices, I also had a hard time to pick the best suit design in terms of size performance etc.

After a few months of agony I ended up to making an offer for Waimanu II, which been accepted by the owner and within a couple of days I had a "new" boat.

Next challenge, to bring her home....

I'm happy to share the entire story if any interest and also I looking forward to hear yours.

I don't know if it is worth it to open a class topic for Nova 28, possibly not. We'll see...

 

 

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I used to own a Nova. Great reliable design.. She was Dble diag Kauri with a non-standard cabin top. I preferred the wooden ones as they had a bit more room inside. One of things that put me off getting another one is they are all under powered in in the engine dept and you need a minimum of 15knots to get any decent sailing. And we had some fantastic trips in the 20 kn wind range.

Is Waimanu II glass or wood?

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Had a Nova for 7 years, and loved the boat. We sailed her up and down the East Coast of the South Island, no trouble. She's one of the best wee sea-boats I've sailed, handles heavy weather quite nicely - and we did overpress her a few times. We never felt as if she was going to let us down. "The Wet" is double diagonal planked with a glass skin, with a flush fore deck. Limited room inside, but great for working on at sea. Never found her performance lacking in lighter airs, but, with a 14HP Sole diesel she was certainly a bit underpowered.

 

The experience with the Nova made me quite keen to get a bigger Alan Wright design when we were looking around earlier this year, just couldn't find one with a configuration that suited us.

 

Enjoy the boat, they're great !

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Hi thanks for the comments, great to hear others has same opinion what I have as well. I agree completely Nova is slightly under powered even I have a slightly larger main sail. Unfortunately the mast is standard so only way to grow is to lower the boom which makes a bit tight in the cockpit. I also noticed she need a decent wind to make her "fly" but I'm a bit concern about the weather helm as it could build up quite quickly. Again any advise would be much appreciated.

Back to the beginning, I purchased Waimanu II from Dunedin (used to be on a mooring in Deborah Bay) she is full fiberglass, probably from a shipyard as she has a pretty similar finish as many production boat what I seen. Would be great to know about her past but according to Alan Wright, there is no record of Novas not even hull number recorded. I hope someone could come forward with some "history".  Waimanu has been re-powered with a 17hp Lombardini (positioned too much aft and not enough space to do anything with the gland packing on the prop shaft, or install a drip less shaft seal therefore I thinking about to move the engine forward about 100-150mm some point advise welcome) engine before the previous owner took her down from North. The cabin layout is a bit different than most of Nova has. I have a large chart table on starboard forward with cross benches beside look aft and forth(the table could lowered to make a comfortable berth), and galley on port side  aft. Of course two quarter berth aft, beneath the cockpit and a decent forward v berth. I found this unusual layout works reasonably well for us. At this point we only doing short trips, overnights which is not bad at all.

I already stripped back the under water area to the gel coat, I didn't found anything wrong on the hull but the skeg and the rudder was in quite bad shape. Their cavity was full of water , many blisters on both so I almost re-built them. Also a complete electrical refit in progress as most of wiring was corroded, old-school light fittings just as most of old boat has.

In general i'm just happy with her and I look forward for the second season with small improvements.

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Thanks IT I remember when last year before my purchase I found a website where the author mentioned Totore with relation of circumnavigation but unfortunately that site just disappeared. I hope someone will come back with stories about long distance  passages, one version of my long term plan to keep her, working on her towards cat 1 and something like Chatham islands or who knows even further. I'm aware of the disadvantage of small vessels so I have plan B (C, and D) as well. Possibly something like robinm hoping to do... Yes I'm still a dreamer, but I made the first step already and fingers crossed, I will not run out of time.

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Sad tale about the end of the Totorore here http://ranui.co.nz/voyages/totorore.

Another interesting Nova 28 was Innovator of Mana, still around berthed in Tauranga, did an early Round North Island Race and was rolled a few times also competed in the 1976 Ostar race https://www.luvmyboat.com/news/1976-ostar-yacht-race/57/

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Hi Willow thanks for the links, and apologies for the spelling mistake I'll be more cautious next time.

Both article are interesting, I think I read the Totorore story somewhere else.

It may prove it the only reason why people did not chooses Novas for longer trip because of the size and not because they are weak. Even as far I know Innovator of Mana was slightly modified for the requirements but I don't know details about the changes. Even if we talking about a production boat, everything is going back to the two main component, the build quality and ongoing maintenance. I still feel my one has one of these (not the recent caring owner). Also she already proved herself on the delivery trip from Dunedin to Akaroa (originally Lyttelton but we stopped after a bumpy ride).

I'm working on it to bring her back, even if I have no chance to win line honor trophies ever. 

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I have a DD kauri Nova 28  bilge keeler, my first and only yacht, had for must be 8 years now. Still learning, have a spinnaker thats never flown and I wouldnt know how to, maybe this summer. There was a site with a lot of information called "Alderwicks web" but cannot find it now, out of Wellington and a lot of stories and infomation on trips to the Sounds etc. Someone might be able to find it. Yacht called SV "Smile" also had a list of all the other Nova 28s he knew of.  

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Yes I noticed Alderwicks page has disappeared, which is a shame as this site was the only source of information about Nova 28 apart from sailboat data which is very brief anyway. 

Hi rossd, don't worry about to try the spinnaker the rig is strong enough for errors... I can tell you.

We tried already a few times and if we not looking the 10 minutes recovery time, which was spectacular indeed, we had a nice 5 minutes run before. In the other hand that specific time we gained only one extra knot (7.5 knts max) of speed against the large genoa, we had around 15knts of wind that day. So that was a success, in terms of nobody got hurt and we did not break anything. Also lots of space for improvement.  

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I'm not a Nova 28 owner but am currently the owner of another Alan Wright design a Lotus 9.2 and hopefully soon to be owner of an Oceans 12. I'd be keen to hear more about the Nova 28.

Hi Robin, seems to be you are on a same track as myself, Only difference is you doing lot faster. Good on you.

I think you already experienced how great could be an Alan Wright boat, so I only could repeat that. Definitely not the fastest especially the Nova, but I think it is a worthwhile compromise. I really like the masthead sloop as they have pretty impressive appearance. So I hope you will get your Oceans 12 soon and you could start to make you improvements on it and on your technique as well.

At this point I will keep Waimanu for a five six years at least than I'll see.

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Nagy, thanks for the reply. We finally went unconditional today on the Oceans 12! Our track probably does seem fast, but the dream has been a long time coming and there will be a lot more work to do to get her up to Cat 1.

 

Sojournie, our Lotus, has been fantastic for us, she's clearly had some unknown history too, but we've done several coastal passages in areas between Nelson and Wellington and has given the family great confidence to go bigger and further, being such a capable boat. The wide beam has given us lots of room for carting all the gear we need for a 2 week holiday with all the toys and still room to be comfortable. We've not really had that much of a problem in light winds.

 

Speed on boats always comes up in discussion, and I have been often reminded that the Lotus 9.2 is considered slow, but 7.8kn around Wellington harbour always felt fast enough for me. The currents in Cook Strait help with the speed, we hit 12kn over the ground and 11.5 sustained for about 45 mins on the last crossing, felt like it too! Your Nova is probably fast enough for you and would be for me too.

 

Running out of time is something that does worry us, we really want to head off before our daughter is too much of a teenager to join us. Thanks for the good wishes, we are all excited to be at the start of the adventure.

 

I often see the Nova 28 Gypsy Girl sitting at Seaview and wonder why she's been on the market so long, seems like a great boat... from the outside at least. The owner has a huge Beneteau called Millenium Spirit now and is trying to sell Gypsy Girl, he's probably got some good stories for you.

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Congratulation. It just getting exciting from now. I guess we will hear details later on.

I was looking at Gypsy Girl from the distance and she was on my list (unfortunately that time was only one boat in Welli  so the trip there was pushed away in obvious reason). I think the price for her is quite reasonable and shame how difficult to sell. She is well equipped boat and looks in better nick as Waimanu, probably the engine is the weakest point but I'm possibly wrong.

Speed... hmmm if you did that speed upwind I'm just jealous. I need about 20knts of wind to reach 6 knts of boat speed i think the new sails would help a bit (new genoa is on the list for this Christmas, I try to find sailmaker to make a traditional crousing sail) The main is lot better condition so that will be fine for the next few season.

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