Design and Construction
Mull’s hand is evident in a boat that carries the Newport 30’s DNA forward into a more modern hull. The 31 is built predominantly of fiberglass and was designed by Gary Mull, with a fixed fin keel and an internally-mounted spade-type rudder. An optional shoal draft keel was available for buyers who prioritized gunkholing over absolute upwind bite. Capital Yachts, the California-based builder co-founded in 1971 by Jon Williams and Bill Smith after acquiring the Newport tooling from Elgin National Industries, produced the 31 under the Lindsay Plastics/Capital Yachts Inc. brand starting in 1987. The design is now out of production, though no final year is stated.
Rig and Handling
The Newport 31 carries a masthead sloop rig, the same general arrangement that had served the Newport 30 but tuned here for a slightly larger sail plan. With a sail area of 447 square feet and a displacement of 8,500 pounds, her sail-area-to-displacement ratio of 17.17 places her in the moderate-performance band rather than the featherweight racer category. The PHRF racing average handicap of 180, with the high and low both recorded at 180, indicates a tightly clustered rating among surveyed boats—a sign of consistent hull and rig configuration across the class rather than wide owner-driven variation. The 30.59 ballast-displacement ratio, supported by 2,600 pounds of lead ballast, gives her a stability profile suited to coastal cruising with occasional club-racing ambition.
Accommodations and Intended Use
Classified plainly as a small recreational keelboat, the Newport 31 was conceived for the American coastal sailor who wanted a step up from the smaller Newport models without committing to a dedicated bluewater hull. The 10.5-foot beam and 5.16-foot standard draft fin keel give her a roomy yet manageable footprint at the dock. Mull’s development of the 1968 Newport 30 into this 1987 iteration suggests a refinement of interior volume and topside aesthetics rather than a clean-sheet redesign, placing the 31 in the lineage of pragmatic cruiser-racers.
The Verdict
The Newport 31 is a competent, Mull-designed evolution of the Newport 30, built by Capital Yachts in 1987 with a fiberglass hull, fin keel, and spade rudder. Her tightly clustered PHRF of 180 and moderate performance ratios mark her as a stable, predictable coastal cruiser-racer rather than a specialist.
Pros
- Gary Mull design lineage from the proven Newport 30
- Tightly clustered PHRF 180 indicating consistent class performance
- Optional shoal draft keel for varied cruising grounds
- Lead ballast with moderate 30.59 ballast-displacement ratio
Cons
- No stated production-end year beyond “out of production”
- Lacks the specialized offshore credentials of larger Mull designs
