DS1 restoration story

[MAXUM]

Hi everyone!

Got a great story to tell.

About 3 months ago I was having a conversation with my Uncle and interestingly enough the subject turned to his boat. Now my uncle is getting up there in years and when it comes to his boat, well it's one of those things that he would love to have and use, but over the years it had seen better days. See his boat happens to be a 1970 O'Day DS1 he bought slightly used in 1972. She was a looker from what I understand, however at the time I was a mere 1 year old at the time so I cannot really remember! The boat was used at his lake front place by our entire family over the years. Needless to say the memories of sailing her as a kid go as far back as I could remember. Anyways, although she was never really abuse, she was not overly cared for either, spending the summers moored in the lake and the winters tarped and left outside in the elements. Now being in new england, that certainly takes it's toll. Due to the fact that it's been in slight disrepair and some of the rigging was showing it's age, the boat has not been in the water for about 5 years. The hull was all faded and scratched, the interior finish was all chipped up, some of the glass cloth was exposed and broken, the wood work was all faded, finsh was gone and what little was left was peeling bad. The mast and rigging was OK , but some of the stays are frayed and some rivets were missing. The trailer was trashed, all rusted out, no paint left, bunks rotted out etc.... He was telling me that he was thinking about selling her off and calling it a day since it needed TONS of work. Well that was simply not going to happen and I expressed my immediate interest in restoring her and bringing her back to life again. While she may have looked like a complete basket case to the average Joe, to me she was a diamond in the rough.

That said he gave the boat to me. Well that was about a year ago. Knowing little about such things I spent several months researching the boat, restorations etc... which is how I found this site. Needless to say I was overwhelmed by the information you all have here and it was really helpful in my quest to make this happen.

So about 2 months ago I dragged the boat back to my place. Needless to say my neighbors got a good laugh at my expense (and hers too) at the condition of the boat and gave me grief over how much work I was in for. Ah what do you expect, I live in a neighborhood full of the "beautiful people", what do they know. I started out by restoring the trailer, lots of work, complete teardown and rebuild of everything, stripped and blasted the frame and everything was replaced. I then started in on the hull. Had lots of repair work to do, but managed to fix everything and give her a fresh coat of paint. The woodwork while it was in very bad shape was solid and re-finished beautifully. I still have some work left to do as I have not yet done the rigging, that is a spring time project, but she will be back in the water next year for sure.

I will be uploading pictures of the hull restoration. Unfortunatly I lost a bunch of "before" pictures, especially of the trailer. Got some great ones of the hull though.

Once spring comes all the woodwork will be installed once again, the rigging completed and then the true glory shots can be taken.

In total it took me about 1 month to restore the woodwork, 1 week to restore the trailer and three solid weeks to restore the hull. I've spent so far a total of about 750.00 which is short change far as I'm concerned, although by the time that all is said and done I'll probably have about 1500 into her, as I plan to outfit her with new sails.

In case there is any interest, I have complied a list of the materials I've used to do this.

Trailer: after cleanup got 2 coats of rustoleum primer and 5 coats of high gloss navy blue oil based paint.

Boat hull: repair work done with West Marine glass resin and cloth, pre-cleaner was Interlux 303 stripper, no need to prime per directions, bottom paint was West Marine non-ablative black, bootstrap (water line) Interlux Bilgekote and above the waterline Interlux Brightside. 4 coats of paint for the waterline and 3 coats with light sanding between coats for the hull above the waterline.

As for the results, the pictures say 1000 words, the finish I got exceeded my expectations considering that I used (much to my reservation) a closed cell foam roller to apply the finishes.

I will post additonal followups as more progress is made, although with the winter fast approaching up here, there won't be many till spring. Needless to say I was awful proud to roll her out of the garage last night and see her gleam as if she was brand new!

As a side note, and a funny one at that. I've never had the chance to sail her myself! Look forward to that next year.

[rnlivingston]

Thanks for the description of your restoration project. It's great to see one of the original Day Sailers brought back to life. I've ice boated near you on Lake Massabesic and noticed they had a Day Sailer fleet. I'm not sure if it is still active.

Good luck with your Day Sailer.

Roger Livingston
DS 11538

[MAXUM]

There is a yacht club there where you'll see quite a few sailboats moored. I've spotted one or two daysailers out there as well. I've also been down there several times and saw them out there running races. That would lead me to believe that there is some sort of organization or club still active in the area.

[Roger]

Its always great to hear about another daysailer brought back to life. Mine sat in a barn for several years. The previous owner had tried to give her away, but the new owner returned her after a season, finding that he was overwhelmed with her.

If you are interested I have a book on understanding maintaining and repairing you DS II. It is mostly a how to book, and most items apply to the DS I as well. Check the DS II site for details on the book.

http://forum.daysailer.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1346