DaySailer.org Forum

I have recently aquired an early O'Day Daysailer specifically DS #11 built in 1958. The mast is the original Proctor tapered with a very small section, that means bendy. The concern is the mast does not have upper jumper stays like other early masts I have seen and has never had them. Is there anyone with experience with this rig that can advise me? The boat has been going for 55 years but I know I could never replace this mast and I don't want to have to repair it. I am a very experienced sailor but am looking for other inputs and points of view.

Thanks
Clark

Windrider,

You have yourself a gem. The proctor tapered mast is the most sought after for racing. Bendy = good, because it means better sail control. Several of the top racers sail double digit boats and have tapered masts.

A tapered DS Mast allows you to more effectively depower the Main in moderate to big air.
Make sure that the shrouds and forestay aren't as old as the Mast too and if in doubt immediately replace them as they're relatively inexpensive to replace while your Mast isn't!
We're currently in the process of revamping and updating an early tapered Proctor Mast that came out of DS #285 and which we'll be using to make competitve an SLI DS #14028 that came with non-tapered oval cruising Mast.
Dave Keran won five DS NACR's since 2000 on #316 and Len Fiock won several DS NACR's over the years on #156 using the same early tapered Proctor Mast.
Jumper struts were very common on almost all fractionally rigged dinghy and keelboat masts given that most had wooden spars before the advent of aluminum spars in the mid to late '50's.
The thought or perception probably was whatever was good for wood would also be good for aluminum so jumper struts carried over for a period of time until the smart racers started to realize that the jumper struts added weight aloft, windage and didn't allow the mast to bend to depower the Main so off they came!
The tapered Ballenger Mast on #2772 BUBBA starts tapering about 6'0" from the top and tapers from an teardrop shape to about 3/4" diameter circle at the very top allowing only for a very small Main Halyard sheave and little else.
My older daughter Alison posted a video yesterday to Vimeo http://vimeo.com/66536452 that's linked to the DS Facebook page of Dave Keran #13150, Dean Iwahashi #11023 and myself #2772 blast reaching Sunday on Lake Yosemite at 12-13 knots in 20-30 knots of breeze after the last race was cancelled.
Alison jokingly posted "that no Masts were harmed in the making of this video" but if you watch closely you'll see all three Masts moving around a bit as all three of us skippers reacting with rapid mainsheet trimming to the puffs and lulls as we zip across Lake Yosemite.
I hope to post photographs of the modifications and updates to our old Proctor tapered Mast that we'll be doing shortly.
Mike Gillum #2772 BUBBA

Wow, what a great video! The speed is just amazing. Suddenly my repair-and-maintenance project list looks less discouraging.

None of the boats seem to be heeling much. Is that usual when you're going that fast?

Guess the video lays to rest anyone's asking if a Day Sailer can plane!
We're all fully hiked outboard in the puffs and as far aft as possible while the male skippers are steering down in the puffs, up in the lulls and adjusting the mainsheet by easing it in the puffs and trimming in the lulls while the female crew are taking the brunt of the bow spray while trimming the jibsheet to correspond to the heading changes of the skipper.
The puffs were big lifts requiring immediate coordinated easing of both sheets while the lulls were headers requiring immediate trimming of both sheets.
Neither Dave Keran #13150 & Dean Iwahashi #11023 DS have the spray skirts at the back end of their cockpit allowing them to move further aft helping to raise their bows more while #2772 has about 18" left of the original spray skirt still in place at the aft end of the cockpit but after last Sunday they're not long for this world!
Dave Keran commented that I appeared better trimmed fore/aft than either he or Dean but I had the sensation that if the chop were any higher or we were in larger seas that I might have problems keeping the bow elevated high enough to avoid running into the backside of the next wave?
What was really amazing was how well balanced the rudder felt going as fast as we were going and that the load on the hiking stick/tiller/rudder was initially high but as soon as we were planing I had very little helm and it took very little movement of the hiking stick to get big course changes up or down!

Neat video. I probably won't race a lot just some club racing in mid-ohio, but I do like to sail heavy wind and go fast. I will ease into it and upgrade the standing rigging although she has never been in salt water and everything looks good. Does anyone know when they started using the jumpers and when they stopped? Is this mast from boat DS-11 the same as those used with the jumpers?

Thanks Clark

It's always nice to have willing crew to protect the skipper from spray.

I was noticing your position being more forward and that it looked like you were not creating the hole in the water that the other two boats were doing a little more of. It was making me think that maybe I should consider not moving back as far as I do in planning situations, because them Gillum's looked great. It looked like pretty much ideal conditions for the speed run; that is pretty flat water.

How much did you pull your board up?

Thanks for the video and thanks to Alison, as well.

As I noted in my earlier post the original cockpit skirt has been cut away on most of #2772 except for the last 18" at the rear deck that doesn't allow us to move as far aft as Dave Keran's McLaughlin #13150 and Dean Iwahashi's #11023 Rebel as neither of their boats has the cockpit skirt like my O'Day.
On all six reaches we started astern of Dave and/or Dean and by the end of each of each reach we were usually significantly ahead when we started to run out of water with fast approaching shoreline in front of the bow having to tack so I would say our self-imposed location 18-24" further forward than Dave and Dean's position was the correct fore/aft trim for the conditions.
My wife Mardi also noted we were also hiking much harder than Dave and Dean which allowed for greater control in the puffs.
The 1:1 Bridle Mainsheet on #2772 allows for quicker and more effective sheeting of the Main both in the puffs as well as the lulls while Mardi is also quickly easing and sheeting the Jib to closely match my trimming of the Main while I'm also making course changes to head-up in the initial puffs to bleed some of the new power, then heading off quickly to step back onto another plane until the puff dies, then I'm heading back up in search of more speed and the next puff to start the fun all over again!
As far as I know the centerboard was in the full down position for all six reaches until I noticed that it had housed itself just as the video ended while we were taking down the Jib to "Chicken Tack" prior to reaching back to the launch ramp on port gybe to pull our boats.
"Chicken Tacks" were the only preference as there was no way I was doing a slow speed gybe in those conditions!