DaySailer.org Forum

Hi all
I ended up buying the 2.5 mercury outboard. When I set it on the stern, there is barely 1/2” of space for the screw clamps to tighten down even when fully loosened. My question is do I need some kind of wood to be mounted inside or outside of the stern where the outboard clamps on? So it clamps onto wood?
Right now it is just fiberglass.

I am also seriously considering doing the Texas 200 this year. I ordered a new main with 2 reef points from precision sails. The boat was never set up for reefing. So do I just install cheek blocks on the boom? What is the best cleat to use for the reefing line on the boom?. I have read that some jamb cleats can slip under load.I plan on buying the reef hook from D&R.
Any tips on installing the cheek blocks and making sure they are at the correct location?

Have read that if doing the Texas 200 you need to make sure you boat is bullet proof. What do I need to check and what can I do to make that happen? I did add new backing at stern where rudder mounts and glassed it in. It has the larger stays with turnbuckles, updated spreaders. I can be a paranoid person and part of me wants to go crazy and get a bunch of new hardware, gooseneck, etc...
Any tips or input would be great.
Thanks

I've always used some wood shims for clamping my motors. (Even though mine are electric and therefore have less power and are lighter). I also used a bit of felt padding, the stuff you put underneath furniture, to prevent damage to the gelcoat from the clamp.

With 2.5HP I think you should still be good for clamping it to the boat and wouldn't need a separate motor mount. (Most, but not all of the discussions for motor setup are now in the "miscellaneous" section, anyway, you might look up some of these past discussions, which include description of various motor mounts).

The Texas 200 is particularly hard on rudders, it wouldn't be unreasonable to bring a spare (also spare pintles/gudgeons). The guy I sailed with did bring an electrical drill or impact driver and a pump. One year, he loaned that to another boat that had sprung a leak. The best thing to do would be to go to their site (not the FB group, but the website) and look for older write-ups. Some people covered their strategies for parts and redundancy.

Reefing has been discussed here a number of times, mostly in the "Rigging" section. You may find much useful info there. My main suggestion would be to make sure you use a reef hook at the gooseneck. Don't try to rig reef lines for the luff of your sail.

For the leech, you need one eyestrap and one cheek block, plus one cleat, for each reef line. The reef line starts at the eyestrap, goes up to the sail, goes down and 90 degrees through the cheek block, and then forward to the cleat.

The location of eyestrap and cheek block has to be such that the reef line not only pulls the sail down, but also stretches the new foot. It has to act like an outhaul for the reef point. Perhaps set these up so the line going to the reefpoint (when everything is tight) goes at 45 degrees, so it pulls both down and back.

I'm using a cam cleat (not jam cleat) on my boat for my (first and only) reef. I've not seen it give. I ended up mounting it 90 degrees rotated (the mounting holes in line along the boom, not across), because that seemed to work better with the curvature of the boom. Seems to work fine.

Some of the upgrades you've made sound about right. Generally, anything else that make the boat stronger or easier to sail. While it's said that the Tx200 is a downwind event, we had one day, where I had to play the mainsheet all day as we were sailing close hauled in the Corpus Christi channel. I would have loved to have a ratchet block for the main on that boat (and the cleat on the mainsheet swivel was really eager to auto-cleat: if yours does that, it's worth fixing).

One other item you may want to fit is a downhaul for your jib, so you can douse it and keep it down in strong winds without having to go to the foredeck.

For the rigging you'll want to tape down all cotter pins and split rings, they can work loose with the result of rig failure or capsize. John Alesch, who used to contribute here as jeadstx did write up some scenarios that happened to him on the Tx200. You may want to search for older posts.

You should probably inspect your CB for any cracks or damage.

You'll need a suitable anchor, not so much for anchoring in open water, but to anchor your boat when beached. A Danforth should work well.

One unexpected item that proved useful was a board that could be put across the two seats in the back. It allowed the helmsperson to sit facing forward a bit, which is nice for long downwind runs.

On my Daysailer 1 built by Rebel it has a built in motor well. The previous owner attached a piece of 1/2 marine plywood to the transom so the outboard bracket would not mar or damage the transom. I do check the clamps every 3 or 4 weeks for being tight. I usually get a turn on the clamps. If you put something under the clamps like Green Lake suggested maybe the clamps would not loosen up?
I have 2 reefs set up 1 at about 20 percent the other about 35 percent. I don't use eye straps to connect the reefing line to boom. I tie the line around the boom with a bowline knot. I have reinforced slits in the foot of my sail to run the reefing line through. A sailmaker told me you should not use eye straps due to the straps could be torn out of the boom. I used eye straps before and I never had any problems with them. I used the slits because they were installed when the sail was built.
I use a Ronstan jam cleat or some call it a v cleat for the bitter end of the reefing lines. I never had a line slip.
I had a sailmaker put slugs on the luff I find it helps control the main when you drop it to reef.
Also I made up a topping lift for the boom.
The sailmaker installed webbing with d rings at the luff reefing cringles made it much easier to hook it to the reefing hook.
As Green Lake suggested add a down haul for your jib. I use 1 it really helps dropping the jib.
I use a down haul and a up haul on my rudder. It really helps in sailing in skinny water.
Hope you enjoy sailing in the Texas 200. John

Thanks for the tips
My main sail I ordered is loose footed with with slugs on the luff. I have no plans for racing so it is a cruising mainsail.
I have been searching this forum for a modification to the rudder. Even when it is up all the way it will still extends Below the hull and subject to damage.
Do I have to build a new head? Or can I modify my existing. Worse case, I will just remove it when I beach it.
I also had a guy on the Texas 200 site who said to drill a hole on the top of the center board trunk so I can manually push down the center board down when it gets all packed with mud and sand after hours of being beached.
Would I still need to do this even with the DS1 with the handle to lower it?

Relentless wrote:I have been searching this forum for a modification to the rudder. Even when it is up all the way it will still extends Below the hull and subject to damage.
Do I have to build a new head? Or can I modify my existing. Worse case, I will just remove it when I beach it.

This has been discussed here before. Various people have built rudders that allow 100% clearance. However, you may find these discussions distributed across the other subsections here (like DSII, or Repair).

The way the class-legal rudder dimensions work, you won't be able to get the blade above the waterline. If you feel this is essential, then you would need to build a new rudder head as well. Not necessarily a bad thing, because it would allow you go make it a bit sturdier than the factory original. There've been discussions on that aspect here as well.

I occasionally beach launch my DS1 and have no particular issue with the rudder as is, usually, when the bow hits the beach there's just enough water depth left at the rear.

Relentless wrote:I also had a guy on the Texas 200 site who said to drill a hole on the top of the center board trunk so I can manually push down the center board down when it gets all packed with mud and sand after hours of being beached.
Would I still need to do this even with the DS1 with the handle to lower it?

My thought would be that the lever gives you more control, but don't have experience with a DS1 in Texas conditions.

Here's a picture of John Alesch's DS2 that had to be careened at the beach because the CB wouldn't lower. Not that difficult to do, if you have a helper. (If no helper, you'd need something that's about 50lbs of weight to hold the boat down while you work on it). It took Johns just seconds to clear the CB once he had access to it.



If you do drill a hole (and remember to bring a suitable dowel to push on the CB) you need to make sure it can be plugged. Otherwise you'll have a geyser in your boat. You would not believe the overpressure that can build in a CB trunk. (Notwithstanding the fact that other types of boats manage to get away with open CB wells).