replacing mast

[Ricky]

An accident destroyed the mast of my 1976 Daysailer II. I found a replacement mast from an early DSI with mini stays. Does anyone have experience swapping out their mast. What modifications to the DSI mast are needed to fit the DSII? Can I eliminate the mini stays?

[tomodda]

All DS masts are the same length, so you'll be fine. If by mini-stays you mean the stays at the top of the mast, rigged in a diamond shape around a set of smaller spreaders then yes get rid of them. They're more usually called jumper stays and are the Devil's work. I'm not actually religious, but I am nautically supersticious. I'm convinced that Beelzebub himself sat at George O'Day's left hand as he drew up those jumper stays. Get rid of them ASAP.

Speaking of the supernatural, how did you manage to find a mast? And transport it home? Any tips would not doubt be appreciated by future mast-seekers.

[Ricky]

Thanks so much for the reply. I will definitely get rid of the jumper stays. I found the replacement mast at "Sailboat Yard of Lynden" in Lynden, Washington. I'm in Tacoma about 4 hours south of Lynden. I towed my DSII to Lynden and secured the mast on top of the boat. I considered tying the mast to the top of my Chevy Silverado, but finally decided it would be more secure on top of the boat.
Rick

[GreenLake]

@Richy. welcome to the forum. I like your solution for transporting the mast.

I agree with Tom on the jumper stays. I removed the ones from my mast, even though I'm less religious about them

If you look at the DR Marine site, they list the DSII mast as a few inches shorter than their DS1 mast. I believe the difference may be due to slightly different height of the mast step above the keel. The height of a DSII mast above the deck should be the same as for the DS1. (The website has the measurements, so you should be able to compare to your old and new masts).

In case, you find a discrepancy, here is a useful drawing from the DaySailer class rules:

Drawing-7.1.JPG (45.13 KiB) Viewed 3021 times

As you can see, the height of the spreader attachment above the deck is fixed at 15'3". That number is important for two reasons:

1. if you or a future owner want to race your boat in class events, the boat needs to adhere to that spec.
2. If you want to use shrouds and forestay of the standard length, they are designed to that distance.

As you can see from the diagram, if you find your new mast a bit longer, you can move the attachments or shorten the mast at the foot. Either would be class legal as the height of the mast above "band 3" is not controlled.

If you care for neither, the boat can certainly be sailed as long as the length of the stays corresponds to the one required by the actual distance of the attachment point above deck.

PS: If you don't already know about DR Marine, they are a good source for replacement shrouds and forestay. If you haven't replaced yours in a while, you might think of replacing them. Especially if you sail on saltwater.

[Ricky]

It turned out that the mast step that came with the DSI mast was 6.25 inches taller than the DSII mast step. I cut 5 and 1/8th inch off the DSI mast step to accomodate the stays. Still the turnbuckles are close to their maximum length. I tried stepping the mast before I cut the step, but the stays were two short for the taller mast step. I may cut another inch off the foot of the mast because the riveting of the mast foot to the mast is poorly done. I'd like to redo the riveting, but not sure how difficult that will be.
Rick.

[GreenLake]

Sounds like you are approaching a resolution. I would make sure to measure the height of your shroud attachments above the deck against the nominal figure of 15'3" from the diagram. Just in case there was something wonky about the the setup of your own boat. (As always, assuming you are not the first owner, or not otherwise in possession of reliable confirmation that the rigging came to you in its original state).

As for the cap at the mast foot. If it's designed so that the mast profile rests on a flat plate forming a lip, with a bit of a plug extending into the interior of the profile, then the riveting won't be taking any of the heavy compression loads, and the purpose of the rivets is mainly to keep the cap attached when the mast isn't stepped.

In that case, any kind of aluminum rivet would work. They should be plenty strong enough as long as the mast doesn't rest directly on them. Assuming, as always, correct diameter and depth of "grip".

Good luck.

[Ricky]

I stepped my new mast with upgraded (1/8th inch) shrouds and forestay. How do I know how tight the shrouds and forestay should be? I'm not sure how much to tighten the turnbuckles so that the mast is positioned as it should be.

[GreenLake]

There's a NorthSails tuning guide that you'll find discussed in a recent post (probably in the "Rigging" area, where I might move this discussion as well). That gives a way to confirm correct mast positioning by measuring the distance between top of transom and mast top.

Now, you can go an get something called a Loos gauge to measure rig tension (and if you hunt around you'll find certain values suggested for the target tension).

However, I have a mast jack in my boat, which means I'm tensioning the stays everytime I step the mast (and the turnbuckles only set the relative tension). I use a simple test to tell me whether I've raised the mast enough to tension the stays: when I "pluck" a sound on the shrouds, initially they mostly rattle, but there comes a point when you can hear something like a note. Not much beyond that is the point I tension my shrouds to.

Then you take your boat out sailing and observe the leeward shroud go slack around 10 knots. If it gets slack to early, just add a few turns on your turnbuckles.

[Ricky]

Thanks for all the information. You have helped me immensely. My turnbuckles have the cirdular cotter pins that have to be removed to adjust the turnbuckle. Is there a better way? I find these circular cotter pins are a real pain.

Rick

[GreenLake]

As I mentioned, I have a different setup where the length of the stays is set and then I raise the mast from below to tension the rig. Perhaps, someone here uses a boat that's set up more like yours and can chime in.

I have sailed on other boats, including a DSII that did it differently, but can't quite remember the details. What I don't recall is any adjustments to the turnbuckles as part of stepping the mast.

As for the circular pins in general, they come in three flavors. Well, technically you could use an actual key ring for a fourth.

1. a simple overlapping ring, from 1½ to two full turns: all parts fully align and you may need a fingernail to separate them to get started in engaging or disengaging the ring (the version with closer to two full turns is more secure)
2. same, with two full turns but hammered flat (key ring style) so that the ends don't stick out
3. like the first, but with one end bent in a slightly tighter curve so there's a gap between one of the ends and the main ring: when you twist that one one way, it will self-disengage, and to attach it, you only need to catch the end that points in.
4. like the first, but one end is bent 90°: that makes it easy to push at that part to separate the windings to get it started.

Be aware that rings can come undone. I've sailed with one former forum member who told the story of a ring coming off, the mast going overboard and the boat capsizing. Wave action with continual loading and unloading of the rigging may contribute to that, but so can sheet's etc. that get snagged and pull a ring free.

Ideally you would tape these down (or, depending of where and how they are used, replace them with mousing wire). The latter is not practical for the clevis pins that hold the turnbuckles to the chain plates, but either wire or straight cotter pins with bent ends may be better for more stable applications such as preventing a turnbuckle from turning.

That said, I've never taped the rings for my cotter pins, but I make sure they are on the inside so that they are out of the way of the spinnaker sheets. I also generally sail for shorter distances/duration and have never seen an indication that any of them were tempted to work loose when it came time to disconnect them to take down the mast again.

The stays I have are adjustable, but only in terms of setting the length one time. They have a cylindrical knurled nut that you turn with your fingers to set the length and which is secured with a hex nut. To prevent the threaded rod from rotating in the fitting, the end has a ring in it, but you never need to remove that (there's never a need to rotate the rod, only the nut). The rings that I do remove are for the clevis pin that connects the adjuster to the chain plates.