New to me DSII

[bilbo]

Hello all, I am as of yesterday evening the proud owner of a 1977 DaySailer II. Back when I was in the Boy Scouts we did some sailing at camps and it was a riot. Never did get to do it again, until now! This is the first boat I've owned, my family never had boats so there are big holes in my watercraft knowledge. I'm excited to learn and relearn! The boat itself was in very good condition, the hull and gelcoat looked very good, no soft spots. I looked through some internet info and leaned on knowledge of composites from other things and I think it's seaworthy. Anyway, I have a couple of maybe dumb questions right off the bat.

When I bought the boat it was only secured to the trailer by the ring on the bow with the winch. I added a strap to the trailer from there, and another strap over the back third or so of the boat down to the trailer. Back when I was a kid and went with friends in their boats, I always remember straps that tied the transom down to the trailer. How do I accomplish that with this boat? It seems to overhang the trailer quite a bit, and I didn't see any spots to tie it down on the boat.

I also noticed the back end of the mast sat in a crutch that was in the rudder gudgeons. This swayed a bit side to side as the pins were free to rotate. Is this secure enough? The mast weight bounces up and down on those while towing; I don't know that the rudder would produce that same stress on the gudgeons, so are they able to withstand it?.

I do tend to overthink things sometimes, so that's certainly a possibility.

[GreenLake]

Welcome to the forum!

May I suggest the following thread on Basic Concepts and Techniques as a starting point for refreshing your basic sailing knowledge. Feel free to ask specific questions on issues of how to sail the boat in your own thread in the "Seamanship and Boat Handling" section of the forum or the thread "Everybody is an expert sailor?" which tries to collect the seemingly "dumb" questions that people may feel to shy to ask.

The mast is not very heavy, about 25lbs or so, which means that supporting it at the back in a mast crutch like you describe is quite reasonable. Mine is about as minimal as you can bet, it's simply a bit of 1/4 with a notch at the top. I do strap down the mast in the rear. First, I have a PU strap (bungee would work as well) that holds the mast to the crutch. Then I tie a very long bungee from one of the stern cleats, once around the mast, and to the other stern cleat. That cuts down on the bouncing, but I like to also tie a bit of parachute cord from cleat to cleat and around the mast. That one, because of the inevitable slack that develops, would allow some bouncing, hence the bungee, but it acts as the fail-safe in that it positively limits how far the mast can go.

You correctly noticed that most powerboats are secured to their trailers with two straps from the transom. That method is very secure, but can't be directly replicated for the DS. On my trailer, there are attachment points for straps right in front of the tail lights. I hook a ratchet strap into them that I lead over the boat, about 4' forward of the transom. That will keep the boat from flying off the bunks at the rear of the trailer, but, because it's a single strap, it does allow the boat to shift a bit. I trailer routinely up to about 50 miles and it's not been an issue. I do stop en route and check trailer bearings for temperature, and the boat for shifting. One note on the strap: make sure it has some twists in the free span across the cockpit: a fried of mine, a former trucker, advised me that this will cut on fluttering in the air stream compared to a nicely "flat" strap.

I also tie a strap over the bow, making sure to hook it under the aft edge of the foredeck cleat. Without that, the strap can slide forward over the bow: while it doesn't look it, the bow narrows just enough to make up for the longer distance, so if your boat does not have a cleat in the middle of the foredeck you would have to install one before using a strap across the bow. This second strap acts as a fail-safe on the winch strap in holding the bow to the trailer. (Because I don't take the painter off the bow eye, I also wrap it around the winch post and cleat it off on the foredeck. (That still leaves the bow eye as a single point of failure, hence the second ratchet strap).

The forward end of the mast is supported by a wooden support I added to my trailer winch post. Some trailers come with integral mast support. I use the tail end of the painter to tie the mast to the foredeck cleat (with spiral wrap leading forward that would grip and hold the mast in the event of a very sudden stop) and also have a bungee cord to the mast support to eliminate bouncing. Again, I wouldn't trust the bungee alone to positively hold the mast.

My boat has a third support for the mast in the middle of the deck. Many people do not have that, but I like it because it limits swinging as the mast bends int the middle. I tie the mast to the cuddy deck with a line from one of the cleats on the aft end of the cuddy to another (not all DS models may have those cleats). There you have it. I tend to worry more about trailer bearings overheating or failing than about the boat or mast coming off and over a moderately long tenure with the boat, I've indeed have had issues with the former and never the latter.

In this instance, I don't think that you were overthinking things, but you correctly noticed a rather unsafe setup. With a single point attachment, if the bow eye fails (and one of mine failed spectacularly on my second or third outing, right when I wanted to pull the boat out of the water ), the boat easily separates from the trailer and being heavy with a smooth bottom will travel considerable distances on its own before it comes to a stop.

Being new to boat and trailer, I advise you to repack your trailer bearings (unless that was positively done by the prior owner right before the sale), and if the hubs aren't equipped with them to install "bearing buddies" - those are spring-loaded hubs that hold a reservoir of bearing grease under slight pressure, making water ingress while launching the boat that much less likely. They original brand may no longer be in business, but you'll find equivalents from other vendors. They are held in by press fit so you need to measure your actual (not nominal) hub diameter with great precision with a set of calipers. (One of mine is just a bit out of tolerance, but will hang on if I use the green thread locker). I did not know about this and at the end of my first season was rewarded with a spectacular show of smoking rubber when one of the bearings seized up !

[bilbo]

Thanks for the reply and insight. I'll breathe a bit easier on the mast. I did notice one of the pins was jury rigged with a bolt that's too long and it scrapes on the transom, so I'll have to fix that.

I'm no stranger to trailers, and have had bearings get warm before so I know to check those. I also have a grease gun set up with waterproof grease already for snowmobiles and trailers. I do think next summer (or over the winter if my hoist can pick the boat safely) I will switch the roller trailer to bunks. I had a friend with jetskis back when I was in college and we forgot to tie them once on the trip back to where he parked them. Thank God it was only a couple of miles of residential. The jetskis just canted a little bit but mostly stayed put. Not sure that would have turned out the same with rollers. Plus there is the weight distribution benefit to the bunks.

Good advice on the bow strap. There's a lot riding on that little eyebolt thing.

The trailer does have bearing buddies, but they are missing the caps so I'll have to get some of those. Bearings seizing are no joke, it's amazing how much heat that generates. I work in a sugar factory and we have a lot of areas that are prone to dust explosions so there are tons of extra precautions and special explosion prevention systems. The most common cause is dry/seized bearings getting hot and touching things off.

I've been doing tons of reading on the internets, including the thread you mentioned. The guy I bought the boat from also gave me a couple of books that he had. Some of it's coming back to me and I'm hoping the rest will when I try it out. The hardest part for me is relearning the terminology! I'm going to head over to small lake nearby tomorrow to give things a go. It's a non-powerboat lake and winds are supposed to be pretty calm, a rarity here.

[GreenLake]

Sounds like you have a plan for your maiden voyage. Go and enjoy!

The BB caps I believe mainly serve to keep out dust. You could fake with some tape until you get replacements.

[bilbo]

Well our maiden voyage went fairly decent. No injuries, no deaths, no tipped boats. But the wind didn’t cooperate. It was extremely light and variable and made learning the boat frustrating. We got around wherever we wanted, albeit slowly. I’ll have to try again when there’s a bit more wind; I think it will be easier. We ran into some centerboard issues; it wouldn’t go all the way down and was generally not behaving well. I’m wondering if the lines and tackle are just old and tight.

The wind did pick up for the hour or so we were on shore making lunch and conveniently died again as we headed out, go figure.

Even with puttering around barely making a ripple in the water, my 10 year old was having a blast. He was standing on the foredeck pretending to be a pirate and didn’t want to stop.

[GreenLake]

You can never predict how kids react to sailing. My youngest liked to come out on race nights - she built herself a nest out of spare life jackets in the cuddy and wasn't seen or heard from again until the finish line, when her head would pop out and "is it time for dinner?". So you did well on that score!

True light wind sailing can be a fun challenge, but you need to imagine in your mind the best trim and then set it, without the feedback from telltales. And sometimes you need to trim, not to the wind you feel, but the wind as it will be during the few irregular puffs that will give you most of your propulsion. It can be rewarding to get that right and to have the boat move magically. But best results require you to keep very still and to heel the boat to leeward. The former may not be easy with an active child and not all family members are keen on sailing in boats that aren't flat .

Moderate to light is almost different already, you'll get some feedback, even though the telltales won't fly. Still, it helps if you know what the trim is supposed to be. Still, not a bad start it seems and as long as your family wants to try again, you can book that in the win column.

The DSII Centerboard is a bit of the weak spot of that design. You'll find plenty of discussion and different approaches how to resolve it. You may have to read back quite a bit in the forum, but you never know what interesting things you might find. (I know, I read I think every single post when I joined, something that was a bit easier then, but I learned a lot).

[bilbo]

We went out for a couple of hours yesterday evening. The wind was 15mph with 20ish gusts, so I was nervous. I read about reefing and my sail has reef points so I used those and tied the mainsail down to the boom. All in all, things went great. The only butt-puckering moments were when we launched and immediately, quickly drifted toward a fishing pier, and another time we got a little close for me to some private docks & boats. The lake was big enough that we got to try all the points of sail, and I never felt the boat was overpowered.

I do have a couple of questions. When I bought the boat, the PO said the jib sheets go around the shrouds to the cam cleats on either side of the boat. How do I trim the jib when close hauled? The sail only comes in as far as the shroud, as the line goes around it. All the other points of sail I think we're on the right track. It's fun when you get everything set and the boat just lights up. My son was sitting there and said "whoa, did you turn on an engine or something?" I could really tell the difference when the jib was happy; I don't think it was happy when we were sailing close hauled.

Also, we found there is water coming in from the centerboard cable hole. We took on a bit of water in the bilge. I'll have to investigate that further; I hope it's just the pipe fix and not a crack. This fall or next spring I'm also going to see how the foam looks between the inner and outer layers of hull and replace as needed.

[tomodda]

HI! Glad you had a great sail, and with son even better. Answering your questions:

-Jib sheets go INSIDE the shrouds (side-stays), the PO is wrong. Read here for more tips:

https://forum.daysailer.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=6280

-I don't own a DS2, but there's been several discussions about the leaking CB cable hole. Search for these threads using google: "site:forum.daysailer.org +Centerboard +leak" should do it, minus the quotes, of course.

Fair winds!

Tom