DaySailer.org Forum

After about a year of scouring this forum and CL and just about every source of info I could find, we finally pulled the trigger on a fine specimen today. She's a '73' and well kept for sure. Not wild about orange but the gold anodized spars really caught my eye. Came with good sails and spinnaker, a nice Harken mainsheet system and a whole treasure trove of extra hardware as in lots of blocks and other miscellaneous stuff. Extra rudder/tiller etc, etc.

Very happy. I'll be adding my 1969 Evinrude Lightwin 4 to the transom and little else since it really is ready to sail. Trailer from the same year is in surprisingly good shape.

Anyway, thought I'd just say hi and add my new boat to the daysailer.org fleet.


Eric


Photos Dropbox Links:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9648qaarn36ns ... 6.JPG?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/141oesh6t39z3 ... 5.JPG?dl=0

Eric,

fine looking boat. Welcome.

Free of any obligations you might consider adding your boat to this list:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1388&start=135

by adding a post with the details to the end of that thread.

And, of course, we always encourage anyone to check out the "main" website of the organization https://daysailer.org and, if you feel like contributing, to become a DSA member (the DSA does finance our forum here).

Let us know how your boat is working out for you. You didn't mention whether you had extensive sailing experience before, or what motivated you to go after a DS in the first place. Perhaps there's a story in there for the telling.

GreenLake wrote:Eric,

fine looking boat. Welcome.

Free of any obligations you might consider adding your boat to this list:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1388&start=135

by adding a post with the details to the end of that thread.

And, of course, we always encourage anyone to check out the "main" website of the organization https://daysailer.org and, if you feel like contributing, to become a DSA member (the DSA does finance our forum here).

Let us know how your boat is working out for you. You didn't mention whether you had extensive sailing experience before, or what motivated you to go after a DS in the first place. Perhaps there's a story in there for the telling.

Hi GreenLake,

Thank you for the welcome and suggestions. I'll look into it for sure.

So, I spent the first 10 years of my life growing up in Southport, CT. I was sailing and crewing for my uncle on a Contention 33 racing sloop on Long Island Sound and also spent a couple summers at a sailing camp in Massachusetts. Moved to Michigan with my mother and didn't do much sailing except for the occasional Sunfish rental. Owned a couple of ski boats as a young man and then nothing for about 30 years and last summer my wife decided she wanted me to teach her to sail. I figured the Daysailer would be the perfect platform on our smallish inland MI lakes to see if she really wants to do this or not. I've been lurking in the shadows here at daysailer.org for some time just soaking up the wisdom and experiences of others. This site helped me very, very much to find what we were looking for. We are both in our early 50's and are looking down the road at a retirement that involves a much bigger boat for sailing and exploring Lake Michigan but first things first and I need to shake the rust off of my skills and help Marsha develop hers. We think its going to be a good summer.

This boat is really in outstanding shape. Hardly any gel coat cracks in the deck and none of them are around stress points where you would expect them on a 42 year old boat. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a '73' because it looks so good. I have a little re-fitting I want to do for the trailer. It needs a sturdy mast support for traveling and a wheel jack for the tongue but that's easy because I'm a professional fitter/welder.

I really won't know what kind of running rigging changes I want to make until I get it rigged and sail it a few times.

One question...

My main has no numbers on it. Is there a way to figure out what they would have been? Perhaps something off the transom hull number?

Marsha and I will be christening this one the "Jackie Beck". Its a combination of her mother and my daughter.

Eric

Eric,

Congratulations on the new boat. It looks fantastic. Enjoy it. I spent the better part of Saturday trying to buff some luster out of my very chalky white hull. Color me envious of that shiny orange hull.

Are the blocks and cam cleats on the cuddy roof for the main and jib sheets, or spinnaker halyard? I would be interested in seeing the details of how your spinnaker is controlled. I'm adding a spinnaker set up to my 76 DS II. I have the halyard block installed and temporary blocks at the rear and stay chainplates to handle the spinnaker guy and sheet. I have not yet decided how I want to handle cleating the spinnaker halyard or how I want to control the spinnaker pole. I'm looking for ideas.

Kevin

Eric,

good luck with your rediscovery of sailing and the project of teaching. As self-confessed long-time lurker on this site, you've probably come across a discussion of this issue before, but if you want to be successful in your teaching endeavors, the key seems to be to not end up with "scary" situations, especially none where your student senses you are out of your depth.

The only exception to this rule seem to be young males with an inclination to seek out danger. They can be turned off if you play it safe.

klb67 wrote:Eric,

Congratulations on the new boat. It looks fantastic. Enjoy it. I spent the better part of Saturday trying to buff some luster out of my very chalky white hull. Color me envious of that shiny orange hull.

Are the blocks and cam cleats on the cuddy roof for the main and jib sheets, or spinnaker halyard? I would be interested in seeing the details of how your spinnaker is controlled. I'm adding a spinnaker set up to my 76 DS II. I have the halyard block installed and temporary blocks at the rear and stay chainplates to handle the spinnaker guy and sheet. I have not yet decided how I want to handle cleating the spinnaker halyard or how I want to control the spinnaker pole. I'm looking for ideas.

Kevin

Thanks, Kevin. I think the blocks you are referring to are for the main and jib halyards. They are mounted right next to the hole in the cuddy roof for the mast. I too would be interested in seeing the details of how my spinnaker is controlled. The PO is a great guy and I'm keeping in touch with him so its on my list of things to ask about. When I figure it out I'll take some photos and post back. The funny thing is that there is so much extra stuff that came with the boat in the way of hardware that its rather difficult to separate the basics from the extras. I have a ditty bag half full of blocks, cam cleats etc. I just took some photos to send to the PO to try and figure out what's what. He had the boat for 25 years and if he sailed it much I certainly can't tell.

The plan for this week (bad weather this weekend) is to practice rigging the boat since we'll be trailering every nice weekend and we really need to have our boat ramp scene together. I also want to put the sails up in the yard on a calm afternoon so that I kind of know what I'm doing on the water. Marsha wants to know the process as well so she can sail the boat in case something happens to the skipper. I really think it will go well. She and I have been kayaking for the last 3 summers and this is a woman who was pretty scared of the water before I met her so she trusts me somewhat to steer us in the right direction.

Eric

A symmetric spinnaker, like on the DS, needs five lines to control it.

The first is the halyard. The block for that should be on the mast right above the forestay. It needs a cleat somewhere. If not on the mast, it needs a cheek block on the mast, near the base.

The next two are the sheets. Those need to be twice the length of the boat (I'm using 35'). They each need a block at the stern quarter, from where they lead back to the front of the cockpit for the crew to operate them. You may want to cleat one of them, the upwind one, or guy, esp if you are on a broad reach. So you'll need one spare cleat there.

Then you need two lines to control the spinnaker pole (up and down). For the uphaul, I use a short length of line with a doubled bungee at the end. There's an eyestrap on the mast, a bit below the forestay. The other end is tied to a shackle that clips on the middle of the pole. For the downhaul, I use a line from the same shackle down to a fairlead (or block) at the base of the mast and from there to a cleat. The downhaul then defines the pole height, the bungee on the uphaul keeps it tight.

You'll need a spinnaker pole, with fittings at each end, one goes on the mast ring, the other on the spinnaker sheet. In the middle there should be some kind of eye or ring to attach the shackle for up and downhaul to.

That's a lot of lines and parts and can be bewildering at first, but if you take your time and systematically rig everything, and then practice flying the spinnaker in light winds, you should be able to sort it out and get comfortable with it. In light to moderate conditions I fly the spinnaker single handed.

Had a beautiful evening at the homestead to raise the sails for the first time. All went well especially with the help from my first mate. Please feel free to comment on things I either did wrong or could do better.

Photos linked to the dropbox folder below.

Thanks.

Eric



https://www.dropbox.com/sh/56cx9jt52kk3 ... 1qIza?dl=0

From the photos it looks like you have the fittings for running a spinnaker (and the clamps to stow a pole on the foredeck).

GreenLake wrote:From the photos it looks like you have the fittings for running a spinnaker (and the clamps to stow a pole on the foredeck).

Yes, the PO had it all set up to fly the chute. I found no less than 3 adjustable aluminum whisker poles in the cuddy when I took all the items out to inventory what we had.
I found a set of Widgeon sails, what appears to be a Widgeon rudder/tiller, a spare DS rudder housing, 2 boom vangs, an aluminum reefing claw, two wooden paddles and a cornucopia of blocks and cleats. And the three original DS sails of course. I'm going to sell the Widgeon parts online somewhere and perhaps the reefing claw since I'm not all that confident about the "roller reefing with the claw" system.

2 questions here for you GreenLake...

Your earlier description of rigging the spinnaker is excellent but I'm more of a visual person. Do you know of a diagram that shows how to properly rig the chute for raising? I would at times like to have it all ready to go up but stowed in its bag and lashed or bungeed to the bow so that it would just be a simple matter of hoisting the halyard and trimming.

Second, the wooden scissors type of crutch for the mast or boom seems quite unstable and I want to make something else. I've seen some owners opt for a crutch that goes into the rudder gudgeons on the transom. Does this put undue stress on the gudgeon fasteners or the transom? I used the spinnaker halyard as a quick topping lift last night in the driveway and it worked well to assist in getting the main bolt rope into the spars.

Welcome to the O'Day Daysailer community! It looks like you got a very nice boat! There were so many of these boats made that one can still find them in amazingly good condition, like yours. I think that it was definitely worth your time to find a good one.

Some comments and suggestions: first off, I like the international orange, of course my boats has the same color scheme from 1974. Next, I have a 1971 light twin and it's still a great motor, nice and quiet. It does have its quirks but I've got mine running sweetly and starting on the first pull. If the motor hasn't been gone over and isn't running in top condition it's pretty easy to tune it up. For the tuneup, I'd suggest new points, sand any rust off of the magneto (the magnets inside the flywheel and the coils). A carburetor kit is cheap and dead easy to do. Do make sure that the water pump is circulating water and you are good to go. If not, that's pretty easy to do, as well. Fortunately, these parts are readily available. Oh yeah, it's sensitive to having fresh fuel. And, it's sensitive to fuel line tightness. If you've got any minor leaks, not only does it stink of gasoline, but it also allows air in the line and it doesn't run as well. Also, I found that the Johnson/Evinrude plastic 3 gallon tank is garbage, I like the Moeller I replaced it with better and it's half the price.

It looks like the boat was kept inside or at least under cover. The orange will fade with UV exposure so I cover mine in the off-season and when it's on the trailer in the yard. I did not put any wax on mine for a couple of years after I got it and I noticed some fading so I had to compound and wax last year to get the color back. So, I would suggest some preventative maintenance in that regard. Because you said you are going to be trailering, I would also suggest that you make sure you have really good support bunks that distribute the load as much as possible. The relatively flat bottom on these boats makes them plane really well but is a weak point when trailering. Too much flexing of this area will soften it up pretty quickly and it's definitely a lot of work to get the stiffness back once it's gone.

The roller reefing, as you suspect, is not very workable. However, turning the boom 90° does make feeding the bolt rope in easier. From your pictures, it does not look like you have reefing points on your mainsail. If that's the case, be sure and not overextend yourself on conditions until you get your sea legs back. I would suggest if conditions are such that it's "a little scary" that you do not cleat the mainsheet and hold it in your hand. If your boat has ratchet blocks this is the time to engage them. The reaction time to being able to let go of the mainsheet as opposed to un-cleat the mainsheet can be the difference between being in control and being scary. Sailing gloves definitely help. I also like hiking straps, as it allows me to sit out or hike out considerably without worry. This adds quite a bit of control to the boat as the wind picks up.

Well, feel free to ignore any of my goings-on here and just enjoy your boat!

Any sailmaker can put in a set of reef points for a bit over $100 usually. Well worth having. Get two, if you venture farther afield, three if you plan to sail the Texas200 ...)

There are tons of digrams (google "spinnaker rigging diagram"). Some of them are very nice and in perspective.

However, most of them are for keel boats, they show two sets of sheets (lazy and working). For the DS, we only use one set of sheets and they are lead to the back of the boat (you appear to have blocks there) and then forward (you appear to have cleats on your side decks -- looked that way from the picture). But I'm sure you can make the mental adjustment.

For example, in this diagram:


simply ignore the "blue" lines (and note that on the windward side, the red line would need to go through the pole).

The second difference is that the up and downhaul (black and yellow) should be fixed to the middle of the pole, not near the end as in the diagram (and also, there's no need for a bridle, as you'll find on some bigger boats).

I fly my spinnaker from a plastic tub in the forward end of cockpit, with all the lines rigged ahead of time. As you want to launch the spinnaker on the leeward side, that's where your bag or bucket needs to be. In other words, you need to anticipate where the wind will be from at the point you'll launch the chute. If you are not in a race, you can always adjust your course to match the setup, raise the sail and then jibe as necessary.

Finally, all sheets and the halyard need to be led so that they are underneath the jib sheet, otherwise you'll have difficulties getting the spinnaker to set forward of the jib
Try it out at the dock, or on land (when there's just enough wind to fill the sail). Also a good time to get the tension right in the bungee portion of the up-haul.

I assume you remember how to fly the spinnaker? Pole at right angles to the wind direction and the tip raised or lowered so that both tack and clew of the sail are at the same height. Enough tension on the sheet so that the luff (windward edge) of the sail just begins to curl.

K.C. Walker wrote:Welcome to the O'Day Daysailer community! It looks like you got a very nice boat! There were so many of these boats made that one can still find them in amazingly good condition, like yours. I think that it was definitely worth your time to find a good one.

Thanks, K.C.

This has been my best CL find in all the years I've been sourcing things from that .org.

My 1969 Lightwin has only a few hours on it and I've already rebuilt the carb and checked the fuel pump. I'll have to check the magneto this season but I'm not having any ignition issues at this time. Got it all adjusted and running well the other night. Those mixture adjustments are really touchy. Took a photo with my phone for reference and after our maiden/shake down voyage I'll make a heavy pencil mark on the cowling to "lock" it in. I have an impeller on order but for now the original is working fine. Not sure which plastic tank I want to go with. The Moeller's and the other brand (can't remember which one but its the Walmart variety) have terrible reviews on Amazon for leaking and venting issues so I'm steering clear for now.

Glad you mentioned the finish. I'll be keeping this baby in my pole barn when not in use but a wax job is definitely on the agenda just to add some seasonal protection. I accidentally scratched the gel coat on the transom and I'm wondering how to repair that. Its not deep, more of a scuff. I had hopped in the boat while on the trailer in my barn and as soon as I moved aft guess what happened? As the stern came down it rubbed another piece of equipment in the barn. I work on a lot of trailers of the heavy equipment variety so my common sense boat trailer skills are also rusty. Geez.

My trailer does not have bunks but more like articulating roller sections and keel rollers. Seems like it will be much less friction for winching but I wonder if it is less support for the hull?

Yes, reefing points for the main are going to have to happen soon. I'll only be able to tolerate sailing with just the jib for so long in stiffer breezes. Does it have to be a sailmaker to get them sewn in? Is it something my wife can do with her sewing machine? The DS main canvas does not seem all that heavy. And, I need to get telltales stuck on both sails as that's how I learned to trim way back when.

Thanks for all the advice. Keep it coming and have a great summer on the water.

Eric

GreenLake...

Wow, thanks for the detailed explanation and diagram. That will do it for sure. I'm really glad this DS came with all the spinnaker rigging. It could be a significant expense to add it down the road. I'm going to find all my rigging bits for this procedure and store them in a separate bag or tote and do a mock up on the vessel in the driveway just to reveal what may be missing (besides my competence ) and to locate attachment points etc. I'd rather do it on terra firma the first time than on the water.

Does the plastic tub you use or any of the spinnaker rigging that you have in a "state of readiness" get in the way of the jib when tacking?

Eric

The spinnaker pole is not rigged. Up and downhaul are stored on the mast and are out of the way. I keep the shackle to which both are tied clipped to the mast ring, where it's convenient to reach for attaching to the pole. Pole end goes on sheet (claw opening down, so sheet can fall out), next shackle goes onto middle of pole, finally the other end gets clipped into the mast ring. Just have to remember leaving slack in the down haul, so I can push the pole out.

Spinnaker halyard is lead from its block above the forestay to outside of jib sheet, then underneath the sheet back to the cockpit. Important to have enough slack in the halyard so that the jib is not restricted. I use very lightweight (but strong) rope for the halyard and it doesn't interfere.

Gelcoat repair: if the scratch did not go deep, you might be able to use a gel coat repair kit containing transparent gel coat (sometimes labeled "neutral"). It would restore the gloss and create a fair surface again, so the scratch shouldn't be visible in reflection, which it might if you were to simply attempt to buff it out. Do note whether the kit is formulated to cure when exposed to air (some are not, those would require cover or they would refuse to cure). If you can get a stiff, flat piece of shiny plastic (window on packaging for example), you could press that against the repair. It would solve any issues with exposure to air, but also create a level, smooth surface that would require only limited sanding/polishing to blend in with the existing gelcoat.