thwarts

[jnardone]

Hi:
The seat-side holes in the thwarts on my 1966 DS1 have turned into notches in the ends of the boards. The boat is also about 1/2 inch wider than it used to be so the holes in the thwarts don't line up with the holes in the seats. The previous owner thought this may be due to incorrectly positioned trailer bunks that caused the boat to sag. Anyway, I am replacing the thwarts and I need to know if I should just make them 1/4 inch longer or if I should make them identical to the originals and try to squeeze the boat back to its correct width. Has anyone else run into this before?
Thanks,
Joseph

[Mike M.]

the same way, maybe not quite as bad as yours sounds. I think it's due to the way the PO had the tiedown arranged, it appears to pull the sides of the hull down and out. My thwarts still line up with the holes when it's not tied down to the trailer. I figured I'd have to fill the holes (in both the seats and the thwarts) with epoxy and redrill them to fit the thwarts in order to keep the sides from sagging any more. I thought one of the reasons for the thwarts in the first place was to add some stability to the hull; stiffen it amidships, so to speak. It would seem that if we make the twarts fit the holes in the seats instead of vice versa, we'd just be compounding the problem, and continually pushing the sides of the hull further apart.

I'm anxious to hear from the old hands in here who seem to have run into everything that can happen to a DS. And, have fixed it.

[Bob Damon]

I would recommend squeezing the boat to the original length and marks. If the boat is to wide there will be stress on the juncture of the seat tanks and hull leading the seats to separate from the hull over time. You can use a lever type tie down strap on each side of the rub rail for the tensioning. You may want to consider installing an inspection port under the thwart on the seat tank and use bolts and a backing plate instead of self tapping screws for a stronger connection. Good luck

[Rolias]

I have hull no. 765 and no thwarts. I figure the boat must've been built circa 1960. What determined whether thwarts would be installed. Another departure from the norm is that when I got the boat, there was no main sheet block to speak of, nor was there a reinforced spot on the aft end of the cb housing to place it. All I had was a jam cleat screwed to the aft end of the cb housing. Sound familiar to anyone else?

[Andrew M]

Take a look at "DSI Oddities" in the forum. There are some additional examples of thwartless boats in the posts.

Andrew

[michaelyogi]

My boat is a 1962 (?) and it has thwarts but had no place for the main sheet cleat. I did a little modification and epoxied some mahogany onto the aft end of the trunk for mounting the cleat. It seems to work just fine now.

[Rolias]

Andrew. Deja vu all over again. Didn't realize I had floated that question before.