My wife and I bought an '83 Spindrift DS1 earlier this summer. We've had it out almost every weekend since and have had a blast. Now winter is coming and I'm looking at a a few simple and relatively inexpensive modifications. Our boat is bare-bones stock - the only apparent modification is a pair of ribbons tied to the sidestays. But that suits us - we're old farts sailing for fun. We might enter a few open-class races with our local sailing club, but we're not out to wring every possible faction of a knot out of the boat.
So one idea is to add a simple boom vang to help tame the boom when reaching and running. I'm thinking 3:1 or maybe 4:1 would be appropriate for a set-it-and-forget-it vang. The standard Daysailer vang rig (at $100+) is really more than we're ready to spend. Duckworks offers Racelite parts for a similar rig at ~1/2 the cost ( http://www.duckworksbbs.com/ProductDeta ... e=RL-D-100 ) that looks to be a reasonable alternative. What do you DS pros think? Is the standard vang rig worth the extra cost, or is the Duckworks/Racelite vang a reasonable alternative for recreational sailers?
Next question: how to anchor it? Regardless of which vang rig we choose, it needs to be securely anchored. Our boom has a bail mounted 1/4 or 1/3 of the way aft of the mast (I can measure if it's critical) and angled appropriately. The mast end is more problematic. The base of the mast is occupied by a pair of cheek blocks for the halyards and I'd really rather not drill any more holes in that vicinity. I'd also rather avoid mounting the anchor to the deck. So I'm looking at using a track-mounted downhaul cleat ( http://www.drmarine.com/proddetail.asp?prod=DR206 ) to hold a loop of line that would run back around the mast and provide a shackle point for the vang. Anyone have a better suggestion?
Thanks,
- John