Ye Olde #37 Gone

[tomodda]

Sigh....

Big storm just went thru here in North Carolina, took down two oak trees on my property. Among other damages, one hit my old girl, DaySailer #37, she's done. What a year of change for us - gained a new job (big promotion, whoo-hoo), wife got a work promotion, dear friends got married, son bought his first house... all good. Lost my sweetest dog in April, and now old #37. At least no-one got hurt! And that mast-work I've been putting off? Now put off to infinity! Sometimes it pays to procrastinate .

I'll post photos when I have a chance, in meantime I'll be parting this old girl out. One-year-old sails, another older set, rudder, centerboard, complete spinnaker kit, who needed a jib track? Hope I can make some forum members happy. We shall see what all survived after we get the tree off the boat.

[GreenLake]

Just too sad.

When parting out, please use the listing section of the forum.

[tomodda]

Will do. Leaving my own personal, "Bound is the Boatless Man" sadness aside, it's such a pity to see another Sub-100 DS bite the dust. I'm sorry, Daysailer Community, I took good care of her - we don't own these old boats, we're only caretakers. She's beyond repair though, the hull is wracked (twisted), and the keel is broken. There's no patching that, much as I'd like to.

[GreenLake]

Short of a complete rebuild, yeah, we understand. There comes a point in a boat's life, near the end, or past the end, where there's enough of the original shape still visible that you think you see a boat, but enough of it is gone, that there really isn't a boat any more.

I think you put that caretaker part very nicely.

Would love to see you continue to weigh in here, at least until you've found a new future. But we can always wish that you luck into a new DaySailer . . .

[tomodda]

Tree is off the boat. Wow, the trailer bunkers that I rebuilt 4 years ago sure are strong! Bunkers went right thru the hull.... basically, the entire boat got "smushed" down onto and into the bunkers. The faint silver lining is that the trailer appears to be OK, at least salvageable. Tires blown, but I think I can roll it, making my life a LOT easier for disposing of the remains. A friend just told me about BoatAngel, I'm going to see if I can donate what's left. Not looking for a tax writeoff, but if they come and take the trailer and boat, it's one less hassle for me. Here's where the fact that I have the title to the trailer will finally pay off, I hope! Will keep y'all posted.

[tomodda]

Finally have wreck of #7 cleared of tree, tarps, broken fence, etc., and can fully see the gory details of her demise. Not Pretty:

Wreck37

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Port Side is even worse (scroll the image for the full impact):

Wreck37Port

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Big gashes where the hull burst like an over-ripe tomato when a few tons of tree came down on the transom. She's dead, Jim! (Star Trek Reference).

However, after much soul-searching and animated discussions with my wife, I've gone ahead and done it...Another Project DS1:

497

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Meet Olde #497, 62 years young. Sold to me by a fine gentleman from Virginia, who's sailed her since 1965. As I wrote before, we're merely caretakers of these maritime souls, so I'm planning to pour in the same blood, sweat, and love that I gave #37. Starting with transferring anything salvageable from one hull to the other (my wooden seats, for instance). Also ruminating on what I'll do better, what I'll simplify, and what I'll just replicate from my experiences with #37. We shall see! My "Winter Sailing Season" (aka Boatshop Sessions) have begun, and I'm hoping #497 gives me as much joy as the Olde Girl did.

I'll start a separate thread for the new adventure, but in the meantime I'm busy stripping #37 and getting her ready for her last voyage . Sigh.....

[cygtoad]

Tomodda,

Happy to see you have another project boat, and #37 will become a donor for the rebuild. I am also happy to know I will not be the only one in the throws of a restoration.

I look forward to following the new thread!

[GreenLake]

Welcome #497

Looking forward to your new thread.

I forgot where the breaks were in early DS1 design changes. Mine should be 3 years younger, about. Is your boat closer to that, design wise, or still closer to #37? Just curious.

[tomodda]

Rigging aside, the only build difference between #37 and #497 is the centerboard case. On the older hill, the CB case has a flat horizontal top and is at the same height as the branches. So the thwart goes straight over the case, in one piece, with metal flanges attaching it to the case. On #497, the case is taller, with a distinct "round off" on the aft side. I doubt that the CB itself is wider, I think it's just extra space for water to slosh about. Or someone broke the original mold? Who knows. Anyway as the top of the CB case is higher than the benches, now the thwart is in two parts, with a flange 2/3 about of the way up.

I think I prefer the 1 piece thwart. In #37, I had the foresail cleats on top of the thwart, easy to reach, and I tied the ends together, per your suggestion. Works a treat. Now I'll have to rig some sort of CB case cap for my jib cleats. Yes, there's other ways to do it, but I like those cleats to be accessible from the windward rail. We shall see how I rig it, but right now the sheets are on captive cleats on the lee coaming, a big NO for me.

Anyway, that's it, the only structural difference between the two boats. Also, for what it's worth, my PO claims the boat is a '61, but from the sail number' 59 or early '60 makes more sense. Even with Marscott Plastics' habit of handing out sail numbers almost at random. But in the end, does it really matter? This is one old girl, but good bones and I know that I can make her shine again!

[GreenLake]

So your boat is among the last with the wooden seats? The CB trunk appears to match its final incarnation for the bulk of the DS1s. What about the deck? Still with grooves from fake planking?

2
Does yours have the same pedestal for the swivel? And I added the photo of my CB trunk cap which is a simple SS steel U channel. Note the placement of the through bolts going side to side.

I had it machined to measure, which saved me the hassle of working with metal and proved quick and less expensive than I had feared.

Build years. There's an upper limit of 365 hulls per year if you assume a single mold. Working back from the supposed 1963 celebration of sail #1500 in August your estimate makes more sense. But a fabrication date in 1960 would have been a "model year" of '61 if this had been a car... but you'd still expect the builders plate to show the actual year.

Like you, I have read about the non-monotonic assignment of sail #s. However, it seems hard to believe that the "wiggle" was larger than a few dozen numbers. But all of that is speculation unfortunately.

[tomodda]

Hi GreenLake!

Answering your questions:

Yes on Wood Seats, they are the exact same as my old, pre-restoration seats on #37 (Honduran Mahagony). Except for the thwart, of course.

Yes on fake planking grooves on the deck, in the same pattern as on #37.

No on the swivel cleat pedestal, my CB trunk just rounds off at the back. PO built a nice "block" out of some tropical hardwood and epoxied it on sometime in the 90's. Hasn't ripped off yet, so I'll trust the epoxy. Well.. trust but have a backup. I'll post photos once I start the new thread. Just for dating purposes, what year is your boat WITH the pedestal?

Yes, a "channel" pedestal is one very probable solution for the foresheets. P.O. built one, again out of some sort of tropical hardwood, but was using it for a snubbing winch. Said winch was sheered off (apparently glued on? There's no bolt-holes) during a squall and wound up at the bottom of the Chesapeake, so the little pedestal is bare for now. I'm still ruminating on what to do.

Lastly, I stand by this being a 1959 or 1960 boat, for all the reasons you've mentioned. I questioned the PO on how he came up with 1961 and the answer was "it's what my Dad put on the registration in 1965." As they were the 3rd owner, I'm not too confident of that date. Again, doesn't really matter, what matters is getting her back to Bristol shape and getting on the water!

[GreenLake]

Love the details. Mine was registered as a '71 but I've come to see that as a catchall date from when they computerized the registrations. It just predates the modern HIN so not being able to get the year validated from the HIN they seemed to have settled for that. Best interpretation I've heard.

The "HIN" listed is a a 4-digit number a bit below that '63 milestone, and is most likely the sail #. So I'm assuming early '63 or possibly late '62 but I tend to think it's more likely the former. Build features match the ones listed in the DS1 Design Changes database in the forum, which I take as confirmation even though the sails never carried a number. Just the DS logo.

Secondary confirmation from the age of the trsiler.

Looks like they kept tweaking the molds for the CB. If you use epoxy to glue wood, you need to seal it, otherwise the moisture cycling can overcome the bond. Especially, if the wood is allowed to get wet or even soaked. If sealed w/ a coat of epoxy, I'd expect the bond to last within the parameters set by surface prep. Etc.

[tomodda]

GL:

Yes. the wood pedestals built by the PO are nicely prepped, surface epoxied sealed, countersunk screws, screw holes plugged, edges all chamfered - overall great work! So I'm happy to keep using them.

My #497 has a HIN somewhere under the seats, I haven't spotted it yet, but PO says it's there. He couldn't suss out what the numbers meant, if anything, so it's a project for future research. No builder's plate, though. Instead I have a little placard showing buoys and their meanings, very cute but I don't think I'll keep it. Anyway, details. First big project is to get everything salvageable off of #37. I realized that I don't actually have to crawl up into the bows to get my stem fitting and bronze anchor cleats, I can just cut the whole bow off with the grinder. It's going to hurt by heart (even though #37 is well past dead), but save my back!

[GreenLake]

Remember to take some pictures ...

[tomodda]

Pictures taken, need to resize, upload, yada yada. Takes time and effort, and worth a new thread on #497.

In the meantime I can report that I mounted the one-piece mast on the new boat, just lifted it and put it thru the partners, brute force. Was nowhere near as hard as I thought it would be. Of course, I'm pretty big (6'1"), so that helps. All I had to do was spread my grip as much as possible on the mast, get up on the cuddy, lift the mast, lower the butt to the ground, then lift it straight up and into the partners. Actually, the only real hard part was getting myself up onto the cuddy, being a big guy also means that I'm just about heavy enough to dent the cuddy top when I stand on it. I'm going to try this again but standing on the foredeck, facing aft. And there were two other "hard parts"... When I first lifted the mast, the butt landed on the cuddy by my feet, I had to drag it over to the partners. Right now, the gelcoat is a mess, so who cares, but for future I'd rather not scratch the cuddy top. I'm thinking of laying down a cut-up yoga mat as a "landing pad" for the mast, temporarily of course, keep things from sliding around. The other issue is that I thought the mast butt had nicely landed on the mast jack, but once I looked I saw that it had landed about 8 inches aft. So I had to worm my way under the cuddy (always a pain) and lift the mast butt over to the pin. There's got to be a better way! I'm thinking that a small post from the partners to the keelson would help guide the mast onto the mast-jack. I may even grind off a vertical "slice" of my old compression post (from #37) and use that. We shall see. @GL, does your hinged mast sleeve help "aim" the mast down onto the mast-jack?

In other news, after stepping the mast but before re-attaching the stays, I stepped aft in the cockpit to hop off the boat (remember, she's up on her trailer). Completely forgot that I hadn't put a support block under the trailer, so of course it tipped over backwards as I hopped off... Wham! Transom hit the dirt, then boat/trailer tipped back forward and landed on the trailer tongue... and the mast went boing-boing-boing, and.... nothing. All was well. I don't plan to repeat that performance, but nice to know that the mast is quite secure once it's stepped, even if/when it's not properly stayed. I wouldn't bet on it if the BOOM was on the mast, but naked, just the mast - no problem!

OK, that's my usual over-wordy brain dump, I learned a lot about #497 yesterday. Of course, since I was doing all this in my front yard, my neighbors were sure I had lost my mind and came over to check on me. Fortunately, my wife was at work, so wasn't around to say YUP!