by persephone » Thu Aug 21, 2008 5:41 pm
Howdy,
Hope you can pardon a ds1 guy poking around in the ds2 posts. I did have a later javelin before the ds, and I believe they are similar.
The transom rotted on the jav, and before I got my wits about me and bought a ds I was going to fix it. When I removed the transom here is what I discovered.
The inner and outer hull were separated by about 1 inch at the sump of the cockpit (lowest point at the back where the water collects). This space is filled with an epoxy mixture (looked like a composite of epoxy, wood shavings and the sweepings off the floor the night before...). That is what the self bailer is mounted through. Forward of that the inner hull is open up to the c/b trunk.
On the jav there was one inner hull drain high and to the starboard side. Unfortunately it was located just outside the longitudinal reinforcing rib, so no mater how high up you tilted the bow the inner hull would never drain completely.
To compound the problem, and this is the blight of the javelin guys, the factory did not always do a perfect job sealing off the transom wood from the bilge area. Hence all the javs with rotted transoms.
I don't know just how close the later javs and ds2s are but I have pictures of the hull with the transom removed if anybody thinks they might be helpful.
Geoff Plante, former DS1 owner
1950(ish) vintage National One Design.