Used Daysailer 2 questions

[deadfast]

Hello, new to the forum yet not entirely new to sailing. Got a few questions for anyone familiar with their factory (un-messed with) daysailer 2.

Picked up a second sailboat to go with my trusty Rebel 16, a 1978 Daysailer 2 that appeared for sale on the usual drive home from work. Wasn't exactly in the market for a second boat, but I've got plenty of friends to teach to sail and the owner only wanted an off-key song for it. Considering the rigging wasn't in terrible shape and it came with a whopping 3 mains, 3 jibs and a spinnaker with bag and pole, I couldn't really turn it down.

Sorry about the history, now for the questions. Once I got it home and began inspecting things alittle closer, I began to find all sorts of mystery holes drilled everywhere and other questionable tidbits. Some of the holes may have been factory weep holes in various places, others looked like some jack-a-loon added them because he thought it might help in some way. I'll try to keep it as brief as possible and break them down one by one to keep things easy to address. And thanks alot in advance for anyone with the patience to put up with my rambling!

Mystery hole 1: The transom

Below what I assume to be a regular cockpit drain hole thats a few inches above the floor inside, large enough for my finger and sleeved nicely with a metal collar, theres a second hole drilled near the very bottom of the transom thats angle Up toward the floor inside the cockpit. It's visible coming through on the cockpit side in the following picture as a very small hole, maybe a quarter inch across at the most.

What's the deal with this? It certainly doesn't look like standard practice, but I'm not familiar with this old bird at all so I could possibly be wrong. The transom still seems pretty solid despite this extra hole drilled through it, so my first instinct is to let this spot dry completely and patch the hole. Am I wrong?

Mystery holes 2: The Benches

Both benches in the cockpit have these holes drill through them, low to the floor and at the very back. It appears that there may have been a smaller, neater hole done before this larger, somewhat messier one was added. What's with all these holes? I assume the benches are there for sealed flotation, thus filling them with holes would be a pretty bad idea. Am I wrong again or should I patch over and fill these holes as well?

Mystery Holes 3: The Cabin

Forward of the cockpit on the cabin, there are two more holes in roughly the same place on each side. The previous owner had a bunch of wires running through them for a trolling motor and who knows what else on the back of the boat. Yanked that junk outta there, naturally, but that left these holes that either were added or possibly for draining the cabin in case of a capsize. Someone let me know if this is standard or if I should patch these as well.

The Keel/Centerboard:

My first boat was a Compac 16, fixed shoal draft keel, so there was little need in even thinking about lowering or raising any sort of centerboard. My Rebel does have a swing-keel that weighs several hundred pounds and must be raised by a system of pulleys and a cable, which was already set up and in good working shape when I bought it. The Oday clearly has some sort of swing-keel/centerboard thing going on too, but what's there for possibly raising and lowering it is...well, entirely inadequate looking compared to the beefy setup the Rebel requires. It doesn't even look like someone has it set up correctly at all.

Aside from the more-familiar keel cable inside the cabin, there appears to be another one inside the cockpit on top of the keel housing. This second cable and its function are a mystery to me, and that's beside the fact that it also appears to be installed incorrectly because its carved a groove into the the fiberglass. I might need a pretty thorough breakdown on how the keel in this thing is supposed to normally function.

The Cabin Roof and the Mast

Here I have what I consider a much more obvious problem to my diy sailboat rehab skills. The topside is cracked up like a crusty old pie, though the pieces that have been cracked aren't loose or wiggling. In the next pic, its pretty clear that someone tried to reinforce the cracking with a large square patch from the bottom, inside the cabin. This, at least, seems rather solid.

Would it be adequate to resurface the topside or is a greater extent of fiberglass repair recommended, like cutting the entire hole out and replacing it?


For now, those are the primary concerns of the $200 Oday. There are a few other, smaller issues that I can handle on my own, but if anyone knows of anything not immediately visible that can arise I'm all ears to that as well. Thanks again and good sailing!

[GreenLake]

First off: welcome to the forum.

You will find that the DS2 centerboard mechanism is something that invited a lot of discussion on this forum; there are some suggested maintenance items and improvements. I would suggest that you take a free afternoon and scroll back and read some of the recent discussions and the older threads that they refer to.

You might also want to purchase Roger's book (PDF), see the pinned thread for it.

Now, there are a few small things we can set you straight on. The drain holes from the cuddy cabin are original. Esp, if you didn't do any CB maintenance, you can expect a lot of water to enter via the CB uphaul.

More in a following post.

[GreenLake]

About the deck reinforcement around the partners.

As you noted, it's easy to reinforce that section from below. The photo isn't quite detailed enough to gauge whether the patch is strong enough, but it's encouraging to see that it doesn't show any cracks. If the repair is solid, the deck should support your weight. If it doesn't, you can sand and prep the patch and add more layers, or even a short "ribbed" section for more strength.

If it looks fine, nothing should prevent you from doing crack repair on the deck. If the patch is strong enough, you don't care if some of the deck laminate is cracked, so just repairing the gelcoat would be enough. You'd widen the cracks a bit so you can access the bottom (a steep V or U shape is fine, no need to grind a shallow V). If deep, fill with a bit of polyester filler. Then apply gelcoat at the top and sand flush.

If you're planning to paint the deck, you can simply use filler all the way.

This only works if the patch below is enough to keep the deck from flexing. If you get flexing, chances are some of your repairs will develop new cracks.

Some of those cracks look deep. I'd think you'd need to grind out any torn laminate so you don't have voids under you repair, but if the patch provides the strength, you may not need to remove every bit of weakened laminate.

Crack repair has been discussed frequently here, look also in "Repair and Improvement".

[deadfast]

Thanks for the reply and the welcome, mate. I'll certainly be scouring the forums over the next few days/weeks for the needed nuggets of information. I saw the pinned book thread but hadn't asked yet if it was still available; good to know it is. I'll pick one of those up for sure, an entire book specifically about the model of boat I have is sure to be a boon of knowledge about its use and maintenance. And I always enjoy a good read.

The roof of the cabin roof might be okay, going on your said parameter: I've walked around on it a few times already and there's no bowing or deflection of the roof that I can feel. Granted I'm a mere 160 pounds on a good day, I feel pretty confident about the structural integrity. Ribs on the inside are a good idea though; may add some over the winter just to double up on the reinforcement and give me something to add thats stained and varnished. Gotta love the timeless look of wood on a sailboat. Sadly, there are little surface cracks and tiny nicks literally all over the topside, so I'll be doing a whole heap of sanding, grinding, filling and fairing before I paint the entire top. I suppose that makes the mast hole in the cabin roof a done decision. Thanks again on that one, I always feel better about it when I'm able to ask a second opinion.

Edit: Emailed Roger about a pdf copy of the book, hopefully he's still checking his inbox for them.

[ArchSail]

Hi deadfast - I know a couple of us here purchased Roger’s pdf over the summer so I’d expect to hear from him soon. I had to pay him via paypal (the amount showed up in Canadian dollars).

Congrats on the purchase. I think all of our 70s vintage DS IIs have similar issues and quirks introduced by previous owners. At $200, you scored a heck of a deal. I really like that you already have an inspection port facing the bow; one of the next things on my list. The inspection port just aft of the cuddly is in good shape too.

The transom holes (outside view) are factory - you should have plugs for both of these. Hard to tell from the cockpit view, it appears the auto-bailer was covered over and replaced with a rear drain hole into the bilge. My auto-bailer is problematic and clogs often. I trailer my DaySailer and almost always find standing water against that transom/cockpit floor joint.

As Greenlake stated, the through holes in the cuddy are factory. Two should be for centerboard uphaul/downhaul control lines and the two near the floor drain to the cockpit. I always have water here as well. No idea about the seat holes. Those are a head scratcher.

You’ll find lots of variations described and documented here in regard to the centerboard control lines. I removed/repaired my CB a couple of months ago. Still struggling with getting everything back together but finally seeing light at the end of this tunnel. I need to update one of the other threads in this section with my progress.