Make your DS1 cruising friendly

[GreenLake]

@GL, I'm still tinkering with my aft lazarette, as you point out it's good to have SOME things back there, so as not to have to hand it back from under the cuddy. My winter project, besides general upkeep and repair, is to make the boat a bit more "cruising friendly." Not installing a portapotty and sink (ye gawds forbid), but certainly rationalizing storage into something better than "throw it all forward." Always good to steal ideas off of others, so I'm following Brian's refit with great interest (and envy!).

Tom, for cruising setup, you may need to figure out a strategy when you either take water overboard because you're stuck pounding into waves, or get rained out. That means, either a bailer, or a pump. Floorboards are nice to allow smaller puddles from staying away from feet/gear, but they also block access to bailers or even the ability to reach the lowest point of a bilge with a pump (or a sponge).

I currently have a makeshift platform across the keelson. It sits 1-2" higher then the floorboards did, so I can store fenders underneath. (Also good for storing a flat anchor). I have a mast jack, so for me, it works best not extending around the mast, but so that I can move it 6" back while stepping/unstepping the mast. But if that wasn't a concern, I would extend it forward, or have a matching one forward of the mast. For a permanent installation, I would add a fiddle.

During one of my recent day-long trips, various crew members (both adult and children) decided to spend time in the cuddy. One of the adult managed to nap on that platform (sideways, in the sense of athwartships).

I'm not advocating it as a sleep platform, especially as you will have some gear, but if you are sailing by yourself, it might be nice to leave a bit of space to huddle in a downpour.

For sleeping, I would use the suggestion from John Alesch (@jeadstx) who described a board that he could place next to one of the seats to make it into a bunk. Together with a cockpit tent, you'd be all set. If you sail alone, you leave the other footwell open, so you can either sit on the other bench, or use it as a table (to prepare meals, etc).

You should be able to build a shelf for under the transom that is much lighter than the one that came with the original DS.

[GreenLake]

I'm not sure whether I would put the floorboards back in if I wanted to go on an extended cruise. There are benefits. For example, if the CB gasket leaks as they often do, I can just place a sponge and the bilge stays dry. Or, if I take on water, I can pump it out, and then use a sponge to get the bilge fully dry. I'm not sure I would rig an electric pump; main reason is that my motor takes 24V. But if I brought another battery as a "house" battery, I might. Incidentally, the kids toy that's just a straight pump/squirt tube is a great way to pump out small puddles.

You might want to invest on a net to cover the cuddy opening, mainly so you don't lose everything in a capsize. Or a cloth cover.

Some people here use a 1 person tent instead of a cockpit tent. Upside is that it's easily mosquito proof, downside is that it doesn't keep you dry unless you sleep. Or combine the inner shell of one with a tent fly that you use as a shade/rain cover over the cockpit.

[Fly4rfun]

Following

[GreenLake]

Following

Waiting for Tom to find the new thread.

[Anstigmat]

I too am planning a bunch of mods to my DS1 to be more cruise friendly. Much of them are going to be about speeding up the processing of getting going. I found that my partner was frustrated by set up and return times...often a half hour to 45 minutes.

My plans are:

1. Boom kicker as mentioned in another thread. No more topping lift management, if I drop the sail the boom doesn't drop. I'm also thinking about using my main loose footed so I can run strapping around it when it's furled.

2. Jib bag. No more stowing it, it's ready to go as needed.

3. Jib downhaul. There were lots of times this year where I wanted to quickly douse the jib solo.

4. Halyard bags. I'm thinking of attaching them to the roof of the cuddy to clean up the lines, keep them out of the way.

5. ePropulsion Spirit outboard. No gas tank! Dang thing starts...when it's charged.

The bilge pump I'm interested in but not sure if it's worth the trouble. I have a new boom tent from Slo Canvas and it does a good job keeping most of the water out, but there is still some accumulation. Enough to warrant the complexities of flatting the floorboards to fit an electric pump and tubing...not sure... Probably not worth it. OTOH, if someone comes up with a dead simple solution for the floor that doesn't involve a lot of wood crafting and fiberglassing, I'd be down.

[GreenLake]

I'm in the "not worth the trouble" camp for the electric bilge pump for a DS1 (with a single hull). If you need/want the ability to empty the bilge for a boat with double hull, you'll at least need an inspection port close to the lowest point of the bilge. That may be enough for a manual pump.

Also, if you choose electric propulsion, you don't want to add additional electric loads; the day will come when you need every last bit of charge for the motor.

What kind of D! do you have? Single hull? What kind floor do you have? Bare? Building the "platform" I mentioned takes no skills. The jury rig version is a bit of plywood that happens to have the right width, and I nailed a few sections of 2x2 as "feet" in the corners. I used a single nail each, so the "feet" are only loosely attached and rest at an angle to conform to the hull. The middle portion rests on the keelson.

A more sophisticated design would start with a cardboard template that goes all the way to hull. This would mean a curved cut, easy to do with a jigsaw. To support the edge where it rests against the hull, you might use some foam pipe insulation. With the full edge resting on the hull that should be enough (in my jury rig, I have actual corners that I need to keep from digging into the hull, hence the feet or spacers). If you want, some foam where it rests on the keelson. Nail/glue some length of a thin pro profile to the rear edge as a fiddle to keep stuff from sliding off into the cockpit. And consider repeating this for the space in front of the mast. Dead simple, and allows you to sail w/o floorboards.

Flat, waterproof gear like fenders, anchor, etc, fits underneath. So you don't lose any space.

I get you on streamlining the setup. I need to step the mast each time, so there's some amount of setup that I can't optimize away. but I keep the mainsail on the boom (rolled next to it). I take the boom off with the sail and don't need to lash it. (Only time I'd lash is if I dock at some destination. I find it easiest to simply roll as usual.) I've given up on a bag for the jib as well. I have to take it off, but just keep it loosely rolled on a cockpit seat.

Boom kicker would be great for the times I dock, but an extra step to rig. Tom's method for a topping lift (fixed eye on the mast, open cheek block at the end of the boom) seems like the easiest way to go; but so far, I'm OK with using the halyard to keep the boom up while docked.

[tomodda]

Hi Guys:

Sorry haven't replied, have been reading with interest though. Answering some points:

you may need to figure out a strategy when you .... take water overboard

Yes, the answer is manual bilge pump. Works very well when you shell out $50 and buy a good one. Works adequately when you go cheap and buy a $30 one with lousy seals. Guess which I did? Well, I'll put up with it for a bit, see if I can put in a better seal (throw good money after bad). But after two weeks in Maine sailing wooden boats every day (aka beautifully built seagoing sieves), I've come to a newfound appreciation for the humble manual pump. All the boats I sailed had strategically placed access holes in the floorboards (near the CB), so I may do that if/when I build floorboards. Also, for bailing purposes, I have a big ol' carwashing sponge for those last bits of mopping up, and a 5 gallon multipurpose bucket for the desperate "bailing out a swamped boat" routine... hopefully never have to use it, but it's there under my cuddy, usually holding my anchor line.

Whatever I do for floorboards will be in 4 pieces, two aft, two forward under the cuddy. What a great idea to raise the forward bits to the level of the keelson. You're not losing that much headroom and you have a much more useable dry space + underneath for the anchor. I'll do some measuring. In the meantime, I have a salvaged set of forward floorboards, and nothing for the rear. I usually sail with only the portside forward floorboard, good for things I want to keep semidry and/or for the dog to nap on, and the rest goes to starboard.

One of the adult managed to nap on that platform (sideways, in the sense of athwartships).

Yes! Big as I am, I've hidden out down there while beached during a rainstorm, laying kinda diagonally, somehow avoiding the mast and happily reading a book for a few hours. Dead athwartships with my knees up also works. It's a pain to get in and out, but once you're there it's pretty snug. Impossible for overnight sleeping though!

For sleeping, I would use the suggestion from John Alesch (@jeadstx) who described a board that he could place next to one of the seats to make it into a bunk.

I've been dreaming and scheming about sleepaboard for ages. My idea is a raised platform FORWARD of the thwart, from there to the forward bulkhead. Seems a shame to waste a nice dry roof (aka cuddy)! I'm 6' tall, from thwart to bulkhead is 5'8" on my boat. Add the 6" of thwart width and you have a reasonable single bed on one side, I'd sleep with my body in the nice dry cuddy and my head and shoulders out. But what about mosquitos and rain? Well that's where my bivy sack comes in. It's essentially a the 1 peson tent approach that you mentioned. But the bivy sack is even simpler, its built like a very light but waterproof sleeping bag with a hoop at you shoulders to keep the fabric off your face. You can either close it completely (for rain) or just just the mosquito netting (for bugs). Put a sleeping mat in there and you're set! So, essentially, I'd camping ON the boat, under the cuddy. With the option of not using it at all for dry nights, or camping ashore, or whatever. Whole thing rolls up and gets stowed away in the morning. I'd still need a boom tent of some sort for using the rest of the cockpit while it's raining, but now it's much simpler, an old tent fly will do. Which is what I use now, a tent fly from an 8person tent, thrown over the boom and held to the gunwales with cheap spring clamps. Works fine, but will probably get refined as this whole sleepaboard idea evolves.

You should be able to build a shelf for under the transom that is much lighter than the one that came with the original DS.

That's the plan! I'm stuffing some nonmoveable flotation in there first, though.

I'm not sure whether I would put the floorboards back in if I wanted to go on an extended cruise.

Floorboards are for daysailing only, there will be enough weight as it is for an extended cruise. My raised bed platform, though gives the advantages of your raised forward thwart, with even more stuff that can be stored underneath. One important point for my raised be platform, it doesn't have to be built with rot resistant, meaning heavy, wood. Pine is fine. Most of the time, it'll live in my garage, so plenty of time to dry out between adventures. Besides, once I have template built, its easy enough to build a new one. Keeping it light means that I can build it as an outer frame with 2 or 3 sections (going fore to aft) that can be lifted up to access storage underneath. Pretty much same as underberth storage in a "big" boat.

Anyway, those are my cruising ideas. Add a galley box, small cooler, plenty of freeze dried meals, a few 5gallon water jugs, and a portapotty and you're off adventuring. (PortaLoo goes as far aft as possible!). Overall, I think the right approach to cruising the DS is like backpacking in the boat. Or at least carcamping....

[GreenLake]

John's approach was of course the only option for him (DS2), but when I sailed with him (camping on the beach) the entire cuddy was filled with gear.

He stored his extra board athwartships close to the transom. That's a location that's out of the way, really, but we noticed that if moved forward a bit, it allowed the helm to sit facing partially forward. For long downwind legs that was very comfortable.

But for real camping in all conditions it would require a boom tent. (Or at least a tent fly suspended from the boom).

Your solution is interesting for a DS1 (if you can manage to fit your gear).

[Slim]

Yes! I am as well on the quest to make my DS1 the ultimate solo cruiser!
This has been my take on some of the elements you all bring up:
Lazarette: very handy for stashing stuff. I ended up closing in that area similar to the earliest DS1’s and installing a watertight access door. Now it is a very secure, dry spot and will add flotation in the event of a swamping. Had to relocate my drain plug from the transom to the floor of the hull just forward of the lazarette. Also added goofy seat drain tubes through the lazarette that are marginally effective.


Floorboards: I scrapped the original forward floorboards, as they were somewhat busted up and very uncomfortable to sleep on since they slope towards the keelson. I glassed in some locust floor frames that are level with the top of the keelson and built new floorboards held together by 1/8” aluminum straps that sit on the frames. This gives me a a decent flat area under the cuddy. I also trimmed back the original aft floorboards so that the new forward floorboards extend to the aft edge of the thwart. This gives me (6’ tall) plenty of room to lie down with my legs somewhat scrunched between the seat and centerboard trunk. I sleep on the port side to avoid the centerboard handle, and pile my gear to starboard. I wouldn’t exactly call it comfy, but it’s way better than the original setup. Once you are laying down it’s ok, but it is definitely a challenge getting in and out!

Bilge pump: The reworked forward floorboards gave me enough room to install a Whale low profile automatic bilge pump just forward of the centerboard trunk on the starboard side. I bought a small 9ah agm battery that fits through the 6” inspection port of the forward flotation compartment. This is wired to a 3 switch panel with a 12v outlet. I leave the pump on auto whenever I’m sailing and have another switch for manual which is helpful for clearing out bilge water when sailing in the rain, as the automatic feature is only triggered if the pump is fully submerged, which would mean 3 or more inches of water in the bilge. It’s comforting to know that if I swamped, the pump would be making some headway while I dealt with everything else. I still keep a 3 gallon bucket handy and secured, though! Also a big grout sponge is invaluable on board. I plan on rewiring the manual bilge switch to something that is easier to activate while sailing on either tack, as the switch panel is way forward under the cuddy. The 12v outlet is also handy for recharging my handheld VHF and other electronic gadgets.

Boom tent: always room for improvement there... Mine came with the boat and is adequate but not ideal. It’s mostly waterproof and made of very heavy material. I added some clear windows that improve life aboard. It’s dark blue and can be hot in the summer. It also doesn’t extended far enough back to prevent some rain from falling on the seats that gradually makes its way forward if I am under the cuddy. The biggest safety concern I have with my boom tent is that if the s**t went down in the middle of the night at anchor, it is very difficult to get out on deck where I could fend off rocks, reset the anchor, etc. For bug protection, I rigged a screen over the cuddy opening to at least give me some protection while sleeping...or trying to sleep.

As far as streamlining the ramp setup process, my take is just to enjoy it as part of the sailing experience and keep working at becoming more efficient. Once I’m at the ramp, 95% of the work it takes to go sailing is behind me and it’s time to enjoy being at the lake! My mast is one piece keel stepped and I have a devised a way to raise it that is not quick, but is very safe and controlled to do alone. It generally takes me about a half an hour to 45 minutes which includes hanking on the jib, and getting the main all set up to raise. I find it’s best for me to do everything possible in the parking lot, so that once I’m on the water I can get away from the ramp scene and get sailing!

[GreenLake]

Nice. Very nice!

[Fly4rfun]

Great write up, plenty of ideas to play with. do I see a crutch in the cuddy? what is that used for. the one thing I would try
to do is raise the boom to get the tent cover higher. I like head room!
G.

[Slim]

Yes, that’s a “modified” crutch that’s part of my mast raising contraption. For those who might be interested in it, maybe I will post a write up in the rigging section.
I agree more headroom would be better in the boom tent. Wouldn’t want to go too high because of windage at anchor. On another boat I had the boom tent set up on a windy night tied to a light aluminum dock on
legs. The boat pulled the dock over and catastrophe ensued! Lately I’ve been thinking about something that had short flexible fiberglass spreaders that hung under the boom to create a tent that had a wider amount of headroom. Also that would keep a dripping wet sail out of the cockpit after setting up for bed on a rainy night. And what would be sweet would be a side zipper door on either side just behind the cuddy, for access to the dock and or deck.

[GreenLake]

There are a lot of designs out there that use the fiberglass tent poles to change geometry from A shape to a half hoop. Booth for temporary accommodation as well as winter storage (to create a better working space under the tarp for larger boats).

I'd like to throw into the discussion the difference between a heavy duty boom tent that you might use to keep water out of the cockpit when moored or at a dock (continuous long term use) and a much more light duty design that must be able to handle wind and weather during your overnight stay, but doesn't have to be UV proof or tolerant of long-term use.

That puts in play many of the modern light weight tent flies. Some may work almost as is, some it might be possible to tweak a bit. The fabric is light enough, it would seem you might make progress with even a regular sowing machine (if you get the special goop to seal the seams afterwards; that should be a standard item in outdoor stores). And adding zippers should not be a problem.

Good point about windage when you don't swing at anchor. The dock from that story would have had problems with windage from any moderately sized motorboat, was it something configured for launching kayaks?

[Slim]

The dock that my boat pulled over was under new ownership-friends of mine. The previous owner had used a boat lift that my friends had not yet figured out how to deploy. However, I think that if my hi-profile boom tent was not up, midnight excitement might have been avoided. Also, I’ll note that the first thing my son and I had to do in that situation, while our boat was washing up against ledge, was strike the boom tent in the dark in a hurry, and stash it below in a heap.
Definitely my current boom tent is of overly heavy fabric- Sunbrella or equivalent. It is a large bundle to stow and slow to dry out when wet. Good camping tent fabric would be ideal-one could definitely make good use of a cannibalized camping tent!

[JimTan]

Yes! I am as well on the quest to make my DS1 the ultimate solo cruiser!
This has been my take on some of the elements you all bring up:
Bilge pump: The reworked forward floorboards gave me enough room to install a Whale low profile automatic bilge pump just forward of the centerboard trunk on the starboard side. I bought a small 9ah agm battery that fits through the 6” inspection port of the forward flotation compartment. This is wired to a 3 switch panel with a 12v outlet. I leave the pump on auto whenever I’m sailing and have another switch for manual which is helpful for clearing out bilge water when sailing in the rain, as the automatic feature is only triggered if the pump is fully submerged, which would mean 3 or more inches of water in the bilge. It’s comforting to know that if I swamped, the pump would be making some headway while I dealt with everything else. I still keep a 3 gallon bucket handy and secured, though! Also a big grout sponge is invaluable on board. I plan on rewiring the manual bilge switch to something that is easier to activate while sailing on either tack, as the switch panel is way forward under the cuddy. The 12v outlet is also handy for recharging my handheld VHF and other electronic gadgets.

!

Hi, I like to install a low profile bilge pump at the same location on my Falcon 16.
May I ask where do you put your through hull?