Bought my first sailboat!!!

[kokko]

Wow. THis is really sad and I hope you will reconsider. I have followed your progress since the first post. The expression on your wife's face is so precious.

[IndianaSail]

Officially SOLD our boat last night. I am confident it is going to a good home, and you will all hopefully be seeing more of it on the forums. That is one of the great things about communities like this one. They are great places to share information and if you do decide to sell something on them you know it is going to someone who has a similar passion to your own! God Bless!

[talbot]

Looks like a great boat. Don't worry about the terminology. Just ask whenever something comes up. Everyone learns from the discussion. As far as the trailering problems, you are already fully on board. That's where most of the maintenance issues occur. You will find lots of tips in the forum on trailering equipment and technique.

Oh, yeah--whatever the technical term for the thingy on the bow, you will find the part listed in catalogs as a "bow chock," actually a "skene bow chock" (meaning the tangs are offset). The big question is, why did O'Day only give us one on the starboard side? Did Wilcox-Crittenden have a fire sale on right-hand bow chocks that year?

[navahoIII]

re the lone bowchock, the obvious answer is because there is only one way to tie up -- the 'right' way'!

In all seriousness though, isn't it really only useful for mooring, in which case one chock on either starboard or port wouldn't matter. Whereas for docking you would use up to four lines to secure the boat and the need for the bow line to 'stay put' is ensured by the other lines. Sound right?

[talbot]

Maybe. No other boat I have sailed on made that assumption. They all had bow chocks port and starboard. On a 1973/74 Day Sailer, if you run the mooring line from the single cleat in the center of the foredeck to a dock, it's possible to wear a groove on the moulded to rail--something a previous owner left me with. O'Day later abandoned the single cleat/bow chock combo in favor of twin deck cleats. I prefer the chocks. Anyone know where I can get a portside Wilcox-Crittenden Marinium chock? (The company has been out of business for years. I called Rudi at D&R. No luck. Shaeffer bought the W-C molds, but has not produced the same chock. I guess I could replace everything with new stainless, but I'm hoping someone else will do that first and sell me their old hardware.)

[jeadstx]

My 1976 DS has the two bow cleats as mentioned. I would have prefered chocks also. My 1973 Mariner came with the chock on the starboard side only, but Mariners prior to 1972 had chocks on both sides. Attached is a picture of the bow of my Mariner where I added a used early O'Day chock from Stuart Marine. Doesn't match my original, but gives me port and starboard chocks. I saw this pair of bow chocks listed by Stuart Marine in their used parts section. http://www.stuartmarine.com/used-parts/ ... chock-new/ They are like my original one.

John

[talbot]

Sad, the dinghy sale
in autumn, but beautiful the
bow chocks on the web.

Seriously, I emailed Stuart Marine immediately after reading John's post. (It's after hours on their coast now.) They don't seem to have a web order form. Anyone know how to buy something from them? Or is this just downeaster Maine style?

[jeadstx]

I usually call Stuart. Can't figure out how to order online.

John

[erieSeas]

I'm happy to report I'm the new owner of this pretty little '74 DS II. I'll try and post some pictures in the near future. My biggest concern getting this boat was whether my 06' Honda civic could tow it and also if it would fit in the garage. Fortunately, it fit in the garage with inches to spare and weighing in at 1120 lbs. on the trailer (went to a truck stop) its just slightly over my cars recommended 1000 lbs towing capacity. My plan is to have it dry moored next summer so that I won't have to rely on regular towing, although, the civic doesn't seem to mind dragging the boat around and handles the weight well. I've taken her out a couple of times and am so far very pleased with the boats condition. I'm new to sailing so I'm doing a lot of learning. Unfortunately I'm near the end of season here in Ohio and I'll have to rely upon reading and some garage projects on the boat to satiate my appetite for sailing delight.

This winter I'm considering a slight bit of gelcoat and maybe some fiberglass repair, most of the issues seem purely cosmetic. Additionally, I'm thinking about adding a tiller tamer and possibly a boom-vang. The one project I'm sure I'm going to do is a re-design of the cuddy door situation which is frustratingly difficult to use at the moment.

Anyhow, sorry for the ramblings, and thanks for the wealth of information around here everyone!

[kokko]

I think the '06 Civic should be fine. If you were to trailer it often I would add a transmission cooler. Relatively low, steady speeds, go easy on the brakes.

[erieSeas]

If you were to trailer it often I would add a transmission cooler

I have thought about this but I'm not sure if it's necessary with a manual transmission, maybe I'm wrong. If trailering with it ruins anything its going to be my clutch, but I'm going to try to keep it to smaller infrequent trips and I think she'll handle just fine. People underestimate the power of little cars and overestimate the weight of CB sailboats it seems to me. I've gotten a few funny looks trailering it so far as the ~17' boat kind of dwarfs the little civic.

[GreenLake]

I've seen pictures of a Smart being used to tow a Hobie 16, so nothing surprises me

[talbot]

I pulled my first DS with a Toyota Tercel 1500cc 4WD manual wagon, and it worked OK. I did burn out one clutch. The most common recommendation is for tow vehicles to be automatic. For the same vehicle, the published tow capacity is usually higher for the automatic models. I understand one reason is that they have a feature that gears them way down in the moments when you are just starting to move. With a manual, I am always on the verge of popping the clutch when moving off of a dead stop, particularly on hills.

I think you'll find lots of advice on the forum for your projects, including gel coat, fiberglass repair, cuddy doors, and towing. Just don't get too deep into modifications during the winter, or the boat will still be up on blocks when it's time to sail in the spring. Anyway, as soon as you start sailing, the things you really want to work on will become obvious. And some of the things you thought were important will probably turn out not to matter.

[Alan]

I've pulled my DSII with a Jeep Cherokee (torquey inline 6-cylinder) and a Toyota Sequoia (big snorty V8). Neither one seemed to notice the boat was back there.

The feature that gears automatics down when they just start to move is the torque converter. To simplify, it's made up of two turbines facing each other in a housing filled with thin oil; the engine spins the forward turbine, the forward turbine spins the fluid, and the spinning fluid spins the aft turbine, which is connected to the gears in the transmission.

All that friction (yep, there's friction, even with liquid involved) creates heat. The good news is that transmission fluid in an automatic is circulated by a pump, so you can add an aftermarket transmission cooler and the pump will push the fluid through it. Automatics from the factory generally cool their fluid by pumping it through a small tank inside the radiator, where they make indirect contact with the engine coolant. That's usually enough for normal use; if it isn't, an aftermarket cooler is an easy add-on.

Manual transmissions are generally lubricated by splash (the gears pick up oil inside the transmission as they spin, and then throw it around), and don't have a pump. A transmission cooler isn't going to do anything unless you devise a way to pump the oil out of the transmission, through the cooler, and back into the transmission.

The clutch in a manual transmission gears down when the vehicle first starts to move in essentially the same smoothly gradual way as an automatic, but it involves varying the friction between dry surfaces: the flywheel on the engine, and the fibrous friction material on the clutch plate. The variance is controlled directly by the driver, who allows partial or complete contact between the plate and flywheel by releasing the clutch pedal partway, or all the way. Friction between dry surfaces, naturally, creates a lot of heat. There's no good way to dissipate this heat unless the vehicle is moving forward, so releasing partway for a long time will burn the clutch out quickly.

Hmmm, I've gone on for a while here. One last thought: When you're looking at tow ratings, it's worth considering whether the vehicle is rated under the new or old system. There's a new system as of 2013, which most manufacturers applied as of 2011. It's a lot more realistic than the old one, and gives ratings about 20% lower for a given vehicle.

.

[erieSeas]

I secured a nice slip at a nearby lake and in preparation I made several changes to sail # 6938 early this spring including some bottom paint (a process which had its own fun detours/missteps), a 12 V system with a bilge pump, a topping lift and some new spreaders. The boat came with some new side stays in packaging from someone other than DR marine but they were never put on the boat - my guess is because they are maybe 2-3 inches shorter than the stays currently attached. As the previous owners before me I decided not to install the new stays because of this discrepancy.

However, after weeks of preparation and hours in the garage I get to the lake at sunset to dock her in her new slip, only to notice once I'm on the lake that the side stays are extremely lose - most definitely a consequence of installing the new DR Marine spreaders which disagreed very much with the probably not stock previous spreaders. I was only motoring to the slip so there was no sail force on the mast but the first passing boat caused my rigging and mast to shudder and slam violently - I'm extremely surprised nothing broke, at least that I noticed thus far. So I tied the boat up in lieu of putting her back on the trailer in the dark. To tighten the rigging a bit I tied a line from one side stay to the other and secured it as tightly as I could to a cleat on the deck. This seemed to have taken the slack out enough to restrict movement of the mast while the boat rocks to and fro. I know this isn't ideal and obviously I wouldn't try to sail the boat in this condition but hopefully it will keep everything together until I have a chance to drive back out to the lake and put on the new shorter, hopefully perfect length stays.

Please note this is my first season with a sailboat, but lesson learned, next time I change anything involved in the standard rigging I will double check everything before putting the boat on water.