first rigging of the season, now questions...

[calden]

Hey all:

I'm in the penultimate stages of finishing things up on my boat, readying it for the water. After installing a mast hinge last fall, I finally got around to finishing attaching all the odds and ends and other things to the mast, and put on the shiny new halyards I bought during the winter. I filled all the old coaming screw holes with epoxy, and in a few days I'll be able to reattach all that newly varnished wood.

So this afternoon I raised the mast to see how well the hinge works, and to re-familiarize myself with everything. Being a novice sailor I'm still consulting charts and diagrams and drawings to tell me what to do, and I figured I might as well stumble and bumble in my driveway first so I don't do it on the boat ramp.

Everything seemed to fit where it ought to, based on my one-time experience with this boat in the water last fall. However I've got some questions:

1) I bought new standing rigging (the old forestay had some meathooks.) However, upgrading to the larger diameter as I did, the new clevis pins were too fat to go through the holes in the chainplate tangs (or whatever they're called - where the shrouds attach to the hole.) Should I use a smaller diameter clevis pin, and not worry about the little bit of play, or slightly enlarge the hole to accomodate the new larger clevis pin? If the latter, what's the best way to enlarge the hole diameter without weakening the metal? Small round file? Drill?

2) There is an eyestrap on the mast right between the spreaders. What's this for? Didn't look like anything ought to connect to it.

3) There is a cleat on the fore end of the centerboard housing. Is this for the jib sheet to cleat to?

Thanks, and I'll be back with more questions tomorrow, I'm sure. I'm going to rig it again. I figure the more times I do it, then when I finally get on the water (maybe next weekend) I'll have minimized the time it takes to get going.

Carlos

[calden]

Also...

I'm looking for the hardware for attaching a paddle crutch to the transom. I've got an old canoe paddle I've cut to fit in the floor slot, and I could make some kind of brass keyhole attachment for the transom, and put a screw in the paddle, but it'd be nifty to get the real deal. I haven't found it through the internet search engine magic yet.... any ideas?

Carlos

[Roger]

Forgive me if this is a repeat message. I stepped away from the computer and think I lost the original reply.

I added pintles to my paddle so that it acts as an emergency rudder. It fits into the rudder gudgeons on the back of the transom.

The eye strap at the spreaders is likely for a topping lift for a spinnaker pole. If there is a mast ring at the 48" height, then likely, the higher one is for the topping lift and the mast ring is where the pole clips in.

I drilled out my chainplates to manage a 1/4" pin when I upgraded my rigging as well. I used a drill, but a round file to enlarge the hole to the bottom and sides only, would preserve more of the metal at the top.

The cleats on the CD trunk forward are indeed for the jib sheets leading aft from the clew of the jib to the jib blocks on the tracks inside the coaming, then to their respective cleats.

You might be interested in a small book on upgrades and maintenance of the DS that I have advertised on the DS II section of this forum. It speaks to many of the questions you likely have about your boat.

[michaelyogi]

Sounds like you're getting close to being finished (?) with the upgrades on your boat. It's gets to be exciting when you get to this portion of the project. Sailing in the Inland NW has been really good for the past week. Yesterday on the Columbia was very nice... sunny w/ NW15g22 (sometimes very light winds). The river is really flowing with the spring runoff, kinda' like being on the Straits of Georgia except the flow never reverses!

[calden]

Roger:

Thanks for the helpful reply!

If you recall I pruchased your book on CD, then found it wouldn't play nice with my Mac OS, so you graciously sent me a hard copy book. I saw it arrive in the mail some months ago, but in getting my sailing stuff together for this season I cannot track it down.

I've sent my entire family on search missions throughout the house, and it's not to be found in any likely place - newspaper pile, garage stuff, upstairs bathroom reading library, bedside collection of guitarmaking, Chinese history, and sailing books - this thing has disappeared. I'm going to get ahold of a friend's PC and print up the book on disk you sent me.

Thanks,
Carlos

[calden]

Another question...

When I set everything up ther other day and stepped the mast, I noticed something odd: The new forestay was about an inch or so too short, and I had to open up the turnbuckle till the bolts were to the end - not enough room even to put a pin in. The shrouds were perfect - the turnbuckles were right in the middle range.

I didn't buy this new stay from D&R, but rather had it made up last fall at a local rigging place. Looks just like the shrouds I got from D&R, though. I took in the old stay for length measurement, and checked that again yesterday - and sure enough, they matched exactly. I had the boat rigged up last fall and the stay was fine - it was the non-turnbuckle variety, and all the standing rigging tightened up just right with the mast jack.

So something I did in installing the mast hinge is making the forestay too short. I double checked the amount I cut from the mast and it's short by about 1/4" or maybe a hair more - so I should have cut a little more out - but this couldn't be accounting for the forestay being an inch too short, could it?

I can probably get a slightly longer turnbuckle, or some kind of lengthening strap to attach to the stemhead, or even a new stay made up, but it still doesn't answer the question why this is happening. I'm a little concerned that I'm missing something in how I set it up with the mast hinge. If it was simply a case of it being too long I might see the shrouds needing to be lengthened, too, but that's not the case - it's only the forestay, as if the mast is now angled aft too much.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
Carlos

[captainseasick]

Hi Carlos.
The Daysailer requires a great deal of tension on the fore stay. many racers attach the jib halyard to the trailer winch and crank down on it until a tape measure from the mast head (attached to the main halyard) is shortened by two inches from the end of the transom (back edge of the boat) this allows the short fore stay to easily be pinned into place. All slack is taken out of the wire, and the jib halyard is released. The result is much tighter tensions on all the wires. This should result in less head stay sag when the sail is filled with wind power and less healing with better pointing.
Nothing is probably wrong with your head stay, it is that your rig requires more tension than you realize.

[calden]

Thanks for the reply, Cap'n.

That makes sense. However, when I stepped the mast last fall, pre-mast hinge, I didn't recall the forestay feeling "short." I was thus wondering if I had changed something about the geometry or angle of the mast when I installed the hinge.

But it sounds like it's fine. I guess I'm just tentative about how much to pull on the mast, being a newbie at all this.

Carlos

[Roger]

I know this is really embarrassing, but it might be as simple as a twist on one of the upper shackles attaching your shrouds to the hounds. A twist at the chainplates is usually more obvious. If not that, then I would simply attach your jib halyard to the stem, cleat it then pull it back like an archery string on a bow to bend the mast until you can engage the pin with a 1/4" of thread engaged in each end of the turnbuckle. Failing that, purchase an extender. They are about $6; significantly cheaper than a new forestay.

[calden]

Thanks, Roger. It's sounding like all is A-OK and I should expect to be pulling on the jib halyard to pull the mast forward to get the forestay pinned. I was just tentative about how much to pull on it.

I found the book! And let me say how informative it is on all aspects of any of the Day Sailers. Nothing new that can't be gleaned from hours of google searching, but you've got it all in one place and added lots of your own photos. Great resource.

Carlos