DSIIs in Racing- How are they doing?

[DSII Guy]

There has been discussion in this forum (multiple threads) about advantages that the DSIs may have in racing. Does anyone know of any DSII owners that race frequently and do well? Or some that race frequently and don't?

Just curious, as I have recently started to race my DSII in a competitive fleet, but I'm the only DSII in a large and experienced group of DSIs. I am fairly experienced at racing on other boats, and have sailed for many years.

It seems that I haven't been able to point as high as the others upwind (get creamed, really), but I'm not convinced that it is a problem with the DSII- I think that proper rig tuning and more familiarity with the boat itself will help me in that area (but could be wrong if this is experienced by others). I have decent sails (a couple of years old, but not bad), and I can do pretty well against the fleet of DSI's going downwind. I'm not having leakage problems, etc., and the boat is in good shape (hull is smooth, foils are tapered and good).


As always, this forum is a blessing. Thank you for all of the wonderful information and knowledge.

I'm curious to see how others have seen the DSIIs perform... any experiences/race results to share?

-Jamie

[rnlivingston]

We have had a couple of DS II in our club races over the years. One was owned by our club champion and he did very well with it. He told me the best upgrade he did to the boat and to his current DS 1 was to replace the old rudder and centerboard with custom made foils. With this one improvement he is able to point quite a bit higher upwind than the rest of the Day Sailers.

His opinion about the DS II, was that the hulls were not as stiff as the DS 1 and therefore were not as fast.

Roger Livingston
DS 11732

[DSII Guy]

Thanks Roger, I think that’s sound advice too. I haven’t done it myself yet, but have heard that the rudder and centerboard upgrades can be as beneficial as new sails in some cases. Do you know where he had the blades made, or did he buy them from D&R?

I could also see that the hull may not be as stiff, but with all of the added structure (bulkhead, double hull, etc.), one could also argue that the supports are in place to make it even more stiff. It could be argued though that the many layers of gelcoat on the DS1 make the outer hull stiffer on the DS1 too, and maybe that’s the case.

Was the hull stiffness why he switched to a DS1?
-Jamie