New to Sailing inherited a Spindrift DS1

[DogSailer21]

Hello,

As the title states I just inherited a Spindrift DS1 from my girlfriends grandfather. He passed away so my girlfriend and I have picked up the boat to try to get into sailing. This boat has been sitting for approximately 5 years outside that I know of. Obviously, the rigging must be done in, but what other things should I look for? Where does one buy new rigging? Overall the boat looks to be in pretty good condition except that there is some cracking around the centerboard trunk on the interior of the boat. It almost looks like dried up calk but calk there doesn’t seem to fit the rest of the boat. I can post some pictures tomorrow when I get out to see the boat again.

We’d love to get her out on the water again and enjoy this beautiful boat. Any tips or help getting it ready to go would be appreciated as I have no sailboarding experience. I am not afraid to get my hands dirty though.

Thanks everyone!

[tomodda]

Grandfather didn't want a Viking Funeral or already had another boat for his send-off? I'll assume the later and let's go from there. First thing you need to do is get the Bad Ju-Ju off the boat. I'd suggest a renaming ceremony complete with copious amounts of Libations. Ask the spirits of Grandfather and the boat for forgiveness and then beg Neptune for permission to re-enter his realm. Standard ceremony. Next, I'd sit down with girlfriend and decide how much $$ you two are willing to put into boat, who is ponying up the cash and sweat, and who actually owns the boat. Whatever you decide, get it on the title.

And then, call Rudy.

Good luck!

Tom

[DogSailer21]

Ceremonies and titling were already taken care of. It’s registered with the state, so now I just want to get it water ready.

Who is Rudy?

[jalmeida51]

Rudy owns D&R Marine in Assonet, Ma. 508-644-3001. He has all the parts you will need to get your boat back into the water. He knows these boats and he is a great guy to deal with. I think his web site is drmarine.com Go on line and check out his site.

Best of Luck, John

[GreenLake]

"Rigging" is a bit underspecified.

There's standing rigging (wire) and running rigging (rope).

The former may or may not need fixing / updating, and if you need that, rudy is the go to source.

The latter is different for each DaySailer as different owners rig their boat differently. Go back in the past here a bit and look for the thread titled "Rope for various lines". That should be a good starting point. (It should be in the Rigging section).

[DogSailer21]

Got it. Yes the running rigging will be what I need. I’d like to change out all rope on the boat. Obviously I don’t know all the words for each rope so I apologize if I’m not able to easily articulate what I’m looking at.

Also, I posted the picture I was talking about below. I think this is called the centerboard locker. Obviously it has the cracks running down the joint. Not sure how much structure is in the area it’s cracked. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

[GreenLake]

Go look up that thread.

Once you know what you want there are many good sources.

[GreenLake]

About the image: I can't make out where on your boat that is.

For posting, to get under the file size limit, try compressing the image, rather than just downsizing it.

[DogSailer21]

Well it’s the center of the boat where the centerboard is stored. That’s on the cockpit side. It wasn’t cropped, just apparently a bad photo, my bad. I’ll post another one I have, not much better but let me know if it helps nail down where im talking about.

[GreenLake]

OK. You have some cracking where the cockpit floor surrounds the centerboard trunk.

We've had someone discuss this very issue this year. It's specific to newer DS1s. You should look back a bit either here, or possibly in the "Repair" section. The title may not be very specific, but we did discuss various options with that poster. (I'm writing this from a slow connection today, so not able to look it up for you).

Let me know if you found it. Otherwise, I'll look for it in a few days when I'm back on a faster connection.

[DogSailer21]

OK. You have some cracking where the cockpit floor surrounds the centerboard trunk.

We've had someone discuss this very issue this year. It's specific to newer DS1s. You should look back a bit either here, or possibly in the "Repair" section. The title may not be very specific, but we did discuss various options with that poster. (I'm writing this from a slow connection today, so not able to look it up for you).

Let me know if you found it. Otherwise, I'll look for it in a few days when I'm back on a faster connection.

Okay I think I found it. From what I understand it is part of the main hull that the cockpit slides over, so it’s not anything structural. As long as water isn’t coming in through the cracks I’m good to take it on a test sail, no? I just want to take it to the local lake, raise the mast and try to understand how the previous owner had everything organized, as well as checking to see if she keeps the water out.

Thanks for the help so far, the more I post and read the more I’m itching to get out on the water.

[GreenLake]

Oh, you are definitely good for a test sail, from what you describe.

As always, when checking out a boat, be alert to unusual / unexpected behavior and ready to deal with it.

Also, no test sail is successful, unless you break something

Good luck!