New DS1 Owner questions

[jcdas]

I just acquired a DS1 Project for $700 CAD. Seems to be in fairly descent condition. I'm going through it one piece at a time so that I can do some sailing on Pidgeon Lake, ON, later in August. Hopefully it will be a keeper for myself and family for the next few years.

Trailer wiring was a mess. No effective ground. Light fixture bolts on hand tight. I rewired with a front to back white ground wire to both lights, and made a bracket to hold an additional pair of lights off the mast.
I added some guide posts to rear of trailer to make it safer to get the boat onto the trailer if there is a current or wind.

Came with a Mercury 60 6hp motor with the lower unit removed. Bucket of parts included 3 different new impellers and associated parts. Managed to get it back together. Has an OMC gas tank with rotten hoses. Got a replacement on Amazon. Dumped the stale fuel in a container for camp fire use. Cleaned out the tank and mixed up some fresh fuel. I was worried about the fuel pump and carb being gummed up or worse. Put it in a tank and it started on 2nd or 3rd pull. Runs quite nice and the water pump is working great. Should be OK to get me to and from the dock.

I have lots of questions. Previous Owners have done some odd things.

1. My boat was made in Brampton Ontario, Hull # 23484, Class No 4327. Any idea what year my boat was made?

2. There are two transom mounted motor mounts. One on either side. My boat has the motor well. Why would someone install two motor mounts? Which side is easiest to operate from for a right handed person?

3. My mahogany coaming is weathered and partly split. Hoping to be able to glue it back together. Maybe cover in fiberglass. Boards were screwed and silicone caulked to the deck. Is there a need to use caulk or a foam gasket?

4. A previous owner started to put a stereo radio in the boat. There are crudely cut holes into the forward floatation box, and the two seat floatation boxes. There seems to be 2" thick Styrofoam sheets in the forward floatation chamber. Is it safe to have these speakers interfering with the floatation chambers air tightness? Should I replace them with water tight access hatches instead? How easy is it to capsize or turtle a DS1. Many years ago I sailed a laser and spent lots of time in the water. Good fun then, but probably not a good thing for a 70 year old sailor.

5. Boat has red & green light fixtures on the sides, and a rear facing clear light. But for some reason, all the wiring was cut and removed. Has anyone used a garden variety solar light for a mast head light, or should I wire one up? I don't plan to camp on the boat, or sail/motor at night, so I was thinking of a small 12V UPS battery, or a garden tractor sized battery that can easily be taken ashore for a recharge. Boat has floor boards front to back and under the stern area. There are some extra wood strips that might have been used to prevent a fuel tank or battery from sliding around. My OMC tank will not fit in the rear with the floor boards in place. Maybe they had a smaller tank before. Where do folks typically mount a battery? Front or back?

6. There is a drain of some sort right behind the center board trunk. Currently plugged and chalked inside and outside. Was this original, and what type of plug should this have had?

Appreciate your help. I'll probably be back with lots more questions.

John.

[GreenLake]

Welcome to the forum.

1. My boat was made in Brampton Ontario, Hull # 23484, Class No 4327. Any idea what year my boat was made?

Look around on the forum for the "DS1 design changes" and the "unofficial hull number list". Those help narrow down your year based on class number.

2. There are two transom mounted motor mounts. One on either side. My boat has the motor well. Why would someone install two motor mounts? Which side is easiest to operate from for a right handed person?

Get a much smaller motor electric, or 2HP gas outboard and mount in the motor well. (needs long shaft). I'm using a 0.3HP (!) electric and it's strong enough to hold the DS into the wind in 20knots (tried it one day when I got tired of fighting and needed to take the sails down). It's super light, and every year I appreciate that more and more. However, I won't go much over 3 knots with it. With just one car sized LiFePo battery and an inverter, I would have a range of 5 hours at full speed. I've sailed on a DS that had a 2.5HP. That seemed plenty of power for the boat, and we had her weighed down for a week-long cruise.

I know you sunk a lot of work into that 6HP motor, but it's way too heavy for a DS and you really do not need that much power. Weight at the stern is deadly for performance under sail in these boats, because the stern will drag through the water. I measured the effect of fore-aft balance. It can approach 1/2 knots (out of 3, which was the speed I measured at). That's 1/6th.

I truly think you'll be better off with selling that restored motor to someone who really needs 6HP and downgrading to something lighter and smaller.

3. My mahogany coaming is weathered and partly split. Hoping to be able to glue it back together. Maybe cover in fiberglass. Boards were screwed and silicone caulked to the deck. Is there a need to use caulk or a foam gasket?

Take them off, strip and sand. Glue split together. Then EITHER oil them, OR coat them in epoxy (check out SystemThree for products and literature on the process). Oil is not permanent, but easy to reapply. But must be done annually. Epoxy MUST be coated in some UV absorbent varnish (like a PU, see the SystemThree info). That varnish can be touched up if breached, and then it will hold up at least a decade. If UV gets to it, it will fail, and if there's any part not sealed (including screw holes) water can get in and get trapped. But if you pay attention you skip annual maintenance.

You should have some seal between deck and coaming. Outdoor weather stripping is enough (a thin strip right at deck level).

4. A previous owner started to put a stereo radio in the boat. There are crudely cut holes into the forward flotation box, and the two seat flotation boxes. There seems to be 2" thick Styrofoam sheets in the forward flotation chamber. Is it safe to have these speakers interfering with the flotation chambers air tightness? Should I replace them with water tight access hatches instead? How easy is it to capsize or turtle a DS1.

Unless a stereo is a must, out they go and replaced by access hatches (inspection ports, or "deck plates"). Check the styrofoam for any waterlogging. Replace with modern builder's foam or pool noodles to taste.

Seats and front tank should have drains with plugs. In case water ever gets in.

It's not "easy" to capsize a DS1. I've sailed in conditions where a Laser that we were following capsized repeatedly. You do need to be alert and know how to depower in a gust. Get reefs for your sail and know how to put them in, even under way. Put a vang in to help keep the sail flat when you let out mainsheet. You'd be surprised at the difference these upgrades make. (All of these described in posts in the Rigging or Sails section. Or the Repairs. Most of the stuff not specific to cockpit interior or CB operation is pretty generic across DS models).

5. Boat has red & green light fixtures on the sides, and a rear facing clear light. But for some reason, all the wiring was cut and removed.

These are nice. Replace bulbs with LED replacements and run new wiring. For boats, don't use solid wires, and best would be if the strands were tinned. Marine place would have those. But the DS is small enough that not-so-perfect wiring could be redone, if needed, so no need to go out of your way. Could use a kit of trailer wires.

Having navigation lights allows you to be out after sunset. A time that I find totally magical to be on the water. You should not rule it out.

Has anyone used a garden variety solar light for a mast head light, or should I wire one up? I don't plan to camp on the boat, or sail/motor at night, so I was thinking of a small 12V UPS battery, or a garden tractor sized battery that can easily be taken ashore for a recharge. Boat has floor boards front to back and under the stern area. There are some extra wood strips that might have been used to prevent a fuel tank or battery from sliding around. My OMC tank will not fit in the rear with the floor boards in place. Maybe they had a smaller tank before. Where do folks typically mount a battery? Front or back?

Batteries go near the mast. Best place for weight. I did second best, and had two batteries right in front of the seats. During those years when I used a trolling motor to get around. I now use an EP Carry with a small LFP battery that fits in the motor well (and is light enough to keep at the stern).

A solar light is great for anchoring or mooring. Doesn't need to actually sit on top of the mast, can be hoisted with a halyard if the boat is out over night.

6. There is a drain of some sort right behind the center board trunk. Currently plugged and chalked inside and outside. Was this original, and what type of plug should this have had?

Original. Mine is glassed over. I have a 1" drain at the bottom of the transom. Works well, but on land, the boat needs to be stored at a slight incline to prevent puddling in the cockpit.

[jcdas]

Thanks greenlake for your detailed reply.

I looked at the DS1 Design Changes, and based on Sail Number, I'm guessing that my 4327 being between row 92 ( sail 4234 Scooter63 year 1970? ) and row 94 (sail 4411 doug8684 made in Brampton ON), my guess is that mine is from 1970. It has a motor well, floor stringers, molded seats, has a drain aft of the CB trunk. Not sure about rigging yet.

I removed the right side motor mount. I tried to mount Merc on built in motor well. It would work, but probably interferes with boom travelers path when tilted up out of the water. I'll keep the 6HP motor for now so I can at least do an on water test and see if it's sellable. It is a long shaft motor, and it looks like low hours with minimal corrosion. Might work with a bigger boat in the future.


When I removed the motor mount, I found that the original colour was light blue or teal. At one time there was some vinyl graphics like a Whale on the front hull. When the previous owner pulled it off, it pulled off some paint leaving it pretty ugly. Has anyone had any luck using a paint stripper to remove paint on the hull?


Mahogany coaming is looking better. I separated the splits and glued them back together. For now, coating with Sikkens Cetol.


There is an exotic lumber yard my son deals with who has a end of summer sale, so might get some rough cut mahogany and use the old pieces for patterns.

Probably remove the speakers and replace with some inspection covers.

Lots of work to do before August vacation. but I think it will be presentable and safe.

John.

[GreenLake]

I had to add ".jpeg" to the end of your links. Then I could see the images.

Except for one. Which now shows as "no longer available".

The forum software does not deal well with 4K images. It doesn't have a clever algorithm to scale them down for presentation. So it's necessary to open such images in their own tab.

If you want to have people read the text, best to scale them down, and you can attach them here in the forum, meaning your post is not depending on you maintaining your account wherever you stashed your images.

[GreenLake]

Looks like a lot of good progress.

The advantage of a smaller motor is that it arranges itself better with a traveler.



In this image, the very long control wand of the motor should have been fed through the traveler triangle. Then it would have been perfect.

This long arm is one the features I really like about this little motor. It reaches far enough forward that you don't have to sit all the way in the back, but can still operate the tiller normally.