Just bought a DS I

[AlanH]

daysailer-port.jpg (290.04 KiB) Viewed 8172 times

I''ve been sailing for years, mostly keelboats and overwhelming shorthanded, but I've had the itch to do some dinghy cruising. So today i picked up a '69 DSI for a reasonable price. It has relatively new standing and running rigging, the hull is in good shape, and all things considered I'm happy with it. The jib is crispy, but discolored. I'll try giving it a scrub with soap, on my deck. The mainsail is pretty old, the cloth is soft and it's also discolored the way the jib is.However, both are functional. The trailer is in good condition. I just drove it home, 119 miles from the pickup spot to it's new home in dry storage with no issues. My Subaru had no problems. Here's a photo.


This will be fun! I don't think there's any Daysailer action on San Francisco Bay any more, but maybe I can zip down to Morro Bay now and then for a good thrashing at the hands of more experienced DS skippers and crews!

[AlanH]

A good scrub in the driveway got most of the brown stains out of the sails. They're pretty discolored at the corners, especially the jib at the tack and clew, but overall, much better. I'll put a reef in the mainsail myself, as I have some leftover sailcloth and a substantial sewing machine. Setting a grommet is not a big deal. The jib is actually in really good shape. The main won't win any races but it'll get me across the estuary.

I've managed to get half a storage slot, shared with another DS, in the storage yard in that photo. That's great, as it's half the price since we're sharing the space, and it's 15 minutes from my house. There's electricity on-site, if I used a really long extension cord!

[GreenLake]

Cool, sounds like you are all set.

[AlanH]

So, I have the "mast through a hole in the deck" version of the boat, not the tabernacled-mainmast edition. I picked up the mast, solo, today and I MIGHT be able to jockey it in there without some sort of overhead lifting point but I'm very much not sure of that. Is it common for folks to convert to a tabernacled system?

I expect there's GOT to be a thread on this forum, somewhere about this.

[AlanH]

---I expect there's GOT to be a thread on this forum, somewhere about this.

Ta-Daaa!!

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6937&p=42056&hilit=tabernacle#p42056

OK, I'll be making something like this.

[GreenLake]

I am really satisfied with this system for raising keel-stepped masts. I singlehand the boat quite often. If there's a friendly bystander at the ramp, I may ask them to "catch" the mast, because moving it forward onto the cradle by myself requires getting off the boat and walking back and forth, but I don't need a helper to actually get it vertical or to lower it. I'll ask the same helper to undo the forestay; saves a trip forward. So it's more than just doable, alone, but with any crew, even casual crew it's a snap.

[AlanH]

Clearly, some kind of 2-step folding stepladder is going to be a must-have, here shortly. After an hour of crawling in and out of the boat without one, I borrowed one from a neighboring boat (returned it when I was done) and that made everything 10x easier. OK...first purchase.

[GreenLake]

Seems like a smart thing. I still manage without, but it used to be easier . . .

[AlanH]

Well, the mast is up. How you people with straps and hinges on the cabintop and so on do it, is beyond me. I made a strap, made sure to sew a "cup" into it to hold the mast base and lashed it to some turning blocks that are mounted on the cabin top. I struggled hugely to get the thing up...FAIL. Fortunately, that yellow wheeled gantry in the photo was in place and I managed to keep it half under control on the way down, so no damage.. I tried again....FAIL, and I'm a 295 pound guy that does Scottish highland games.

There's an enormous, outsized, but moveable gantry in my storage yard. I think it's like, a two-ton capacity. You can see it in the horrible picture, below. Anyway, using that, with a rope thrown over the top to get a fulcrum point 7 feet above the deck, I managed to get it done. My apologies for the disastrous photo, I have no idea why my phones focus function went insane.[album][album][album][/album]

[AlanH]

Anyway, she's home, she's got a decent canvas cockpit cover on her, which I will slightly modify this fall, and next up is to make some adjustments to the standing rigging. It's WAY too loose. I have to wonder if the looseness of the stays contributes to some dimpling of the mast at cabintop level. I need to get some small turnbuckles, cut the current wire (which is OK, considering) shorter, and swage on a loop so it can fit into the turnbuckle.

[GreenLake]

You need the "hinged sleeve" design. No fuss no muss.

The sleeve fully captures the mast foot, so raising the mast is no different from a tabernacle, except the mast is a bit longer. Open cups are not as secure and you would need to ensure the mast foot doesn't slip out. That's perhaps fine with a helper.

The sleeve part is different from a tabernacle. Once the mast is almost perfectly aligned vertically, you will be able to lower it. Before, it will tend to rest on the mast partners. Once it's aligned, it's easy to lower. Someone your size should be able to do it from the cockpit floor. Two hands on the mast 3 feet apart is how I do it.

Having a helper stand on deck to assist is something I recommend until you get the hang of it.

The sleeve will just let the mast slide down when it's vertical. In the beginning I thought I'd need to pin the mast foot while raising it. But it is surprisingly easy to control the mast from sliding while horizontal. As soon as you get it halfways vertical, the foot will rest on the edge of the partners and the whole mast will not drop until it is aligned. The alignment is so good on my boat that it is almost enough to aim the mast foot at the mast jack.

I know I did solo trips with my boat almost immediately after a friend helped me puzzle out how it was set up during the maiden voyage, and that means that simple device that I inherited from some previous owner did what it was supposed to.

I later experimented with a tripod. It turned out that was unnecessary, so it sat unused until I had a shoulder injury. Then it was a godsend but that's again long in the past. It might be of use if you are shorter, not as strong or lighter. It's a bit fussy to use but will fully control your mast if used with the hinged sleeve, or without if a helper can hold the mast foot in place. In the linked thread, the person modeling it is much smaller than me, but had no problem getting the mast up. In a way, it's a portable version of your gantry

[Bud]

Lifting the mast and holding it vertical while inserting through the deck is doable but sketchy. One slip and it's coming down. Maybe on you, or on your truck. I purchased a tabernacle online. And can now raise the mast without leaving the cockpit. I never have to remove the side stays which makes set-up and tear down a lot quicker.

[GreenLake]

Lifting the mast and holding it vertical while inserting through the deck is doable but sketchy.

As you know I don't recommend manhandling a freestanding keel-stepped mast, and mostly I've avoided that on my DS, thanks to that "hinged sleeve" system a PO had installed.

However, as I accidentally found out recently (don't ask me how ): once the mast is vertical, it is possible to prevent it from falling, by yourself, even if you stand in the cockpit and only grip the bottom part with your hands 3' apart and it is otherwise in the air with the foot not connected. . . .

So, in my experience, it's perhaps not quite as sketchy, and with the "hinged sleeve" system, I routinely raise and lower the mast single-handed.

Incidentally, because the mast partners are a tight fit, once the mast is lowered, it will stay up, even if you "missed" the mast step at the bottom. That makes realigning the mast foot with the step, or connecting the stays a comparatively relaxed process. I've owned boats with deck stepped masts and while they were a bit shorter and their masts were also shorter, the process actually felt less secure because of the need to keep the forestay tensioned and in the end, I never got comfortable doing it alone.

[Bud]

I have also had other boats with deck stepped masts, 20'*, 22', and 26'. Those masts were heavy; and I was never comfortable raising any of them single-handedly without either an A-frame or a gin-pole and baby-stays. The daysailer, on the other hand, has a light mast and is no big deal. I attach a jib downhaul to the mast just above the spreaders. The downhaul runs through a carabiner on the trailer's mast support, then through a shackle at the bow, and finally to a cam cleat on top of the cuddy. Once the hinge pin on the tabernacle is installed, I move to the rear of the cockpit and raise the mast over my head. Then I simply walk the mast up hand-over-hand until I it's supported by the side stays. At that point I can hold the mast forward with one hand while snugging up the jib downhaul. Once that is done the mast is supported and I can attach the forstay at my leisure.

*For some reason the mast of the 20 footer was heavier than the others.

[GreenLake]

I simply insert in sleeve (no pin), raise to vertical (no shrouds attached) and drop mast once vertical (it won't go down, until it's aligned). Usually hit the mast step on the first try, but need to shift a bit to make it mate with the mast foot.

That initial raise is not supported sideways, but I find that as long as I'm centered under the mast as I raise it, that's not an issue. No need for a temporary line to the bow. (I don't get the convenience of keeping the shrouds attached, but the difference is only the time spent connecting/disconnecting them, as the mast will stay up once the foot is dropped through the deck).

Doing it freestanding on a 15' felt more sketchy, even thought that mast was so much lighter.