New to the daysailer, New to the forum.

[Quiggers73]

Hi All,

Just got lucky today on an excellent condition 1971.

I have browsed the forum incognito and got great information prior to going to see the boat.

I hope to be an active member, although probably not able to contribute much, at least for a while lol.

But what a great resource and community.

Cheers.

[RaleighRancher]

Welcome to the forum! I'm two years into DS2 ownership. This is a lonely forum sometimes, but indeed, a ton of great information here. Thanks in to greenlake for soldiering on and pointing us newbs in the right direction so often.

[GreenLake]

A hearty welcome from me as well. The usage statistics tell us that we have our share of incognito visitors, so people seem to be coming back for useful info. A forum comes alive when good questions meet good answers, and sometimes also when it's a place to air a variety of opinions on the "best" way.

We are looking forward to your contributions, whether in the form of questions, or on impressions about the DaySailer or sailing. By and by you'll figure out your own solutions, tricks and hacks and we encourage you to share them here.

You probably already found out that there is a rather diverse set of sections in the forum, and other than a few, most of them apply equally well to any age or model of DaySailer. Feel free to share even seemingly unspectacular things. For example, everybody does their little day sails, but local conditions are so different that even sharing the mundane details of your boat ramp, dock or lake becomes interesting.

Just in case you haven't already found and explored this thread (or for the benefit of any other newbs reading this incognito), let me highlight this "Basic Concepts and Techniques".

[Quiggers73]

Thank you for the welcome.

I am taking the time to get to know my boat by practicing rigging in my yard before I think about putting it in the water.

I have many many questions, and I have emailed Roger for a copy of his book to save asking the obvious. At least to begin with.

But, I do have two questions.

As I cleaned my boat, I have noticed getting white residue on hands and clothes once dry.

I used a good (Jay Leno) wash and wax. Same as I use on my truck.

What can I do to stop the white residue building up ?

Second, fun question.

The boat does not appear to have a name and my kids have some suggestions.

I have seen some fun videos on renaming a boat involving Zuess and alcohol lol.

What steps/traditions should I follow in naming a boat to ensure safe passage?

Thanks in advance.

[GreenLake]

Old gelcoat will be chalky. I don't know/remember what the collective wisdom considers the best approach, but you could use a slightly more abrasive scrub or rubbing compound followed by buffing with 3M Finesse It to get back a shine. Or you could leave it as is. Or you could sand it and paint it whatever color you want.

My boat came painted. That paint job has proven so durable, that I haven't bothered to renew the deck and seats. However, the floor I finally sanded and added a layer of (air curing) gelcoat. But I have a DS1 and the floor of these is just the inside of the hull and not very smooth (they come with wooden slats which I took out one year to refinish and never put back).

[GreenLake]

Roger's book is supposedly the go to for DSII people. But you can find many questions answered by looking over the old posts here. When I started out, that's what I did: read every single post here (nowadays that's a bit harder to do, but even if you only go back a few years, there will be lots of detailed discussions that you'll be able to relate to what you have on your boat).

And yes, a bit of practice goes a long way. And it's less stressful than at the launch.

[GreenLake]

I'm not a good person to ask about ceremony. My naming ceremony consisted of putting the plastic letters on the boat. Finding a good name for a boat can be a challenge. You'll find that most "cute" boat names are much more common than you think, and can get annoying. And people will inevitably read something into your boat's name that you weren't thinking of

However, kids sometimes think totally out of the box and that can lead to some interesting names.

If you are looking for good karma, invite people to go sailing with you.

[Quiggers73]

Yes, the dad joke part of me wants to double entendre lol..

I have been reigned in by my better half lol....

[Alan]

I suggest the renaming ceremony, and the detailed explanation of its background, from John Vigor's The Practical Encyclopedia of Boating. You can find copies online. It's fairly long and pretty funny, and I won't spoil the fun of it by quoting the whole thing, but here's the core of it:

"The last part of the ceremony, the libation, should be performed at the bow. Use good champagne and spray all of it on the bow--do not presume to save some for yourself. The gods despise cheapskates; buy another bottle for your own consumption."

And then when you're done, you can spend hours and hours enjoying the rest of the book. It's a classic, for good reason.

[GreenLake]

Vigor can write.

[Quiggers73]

Been out on my new daysailer a bunch. Was out in 10mph today. Was sporty. At least for me lol.

There was a lot of prep and making sure, or at least trying to make sure everything was right. But sometimes you just have to go.

I am trying to build my confidence with winds and how much heel is getting to a limit.

Does anyone have a good guage ?

Also, I dont know how to reef....is there another technique to reduce the power as when I let the main out its pushing up against the shrouds ?



Thanks.

[tomodda]

Read: https://forum.daysailer.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=6280

[Quiggers73]

Thanks for that link. I kinda need a more fisherprice guide lol.

Something specific to the daysailer II. Pictures. If anyone has a pic of a reefed DSII it would go a long way.

[tomodda]

Apologies for giving you such a rapid response up above, it was "one of those days...".

Regrading how to reef, it all depends on how your boat is set up. The original DS setup si with "Roller Reefing," where you literally roll the mainsail around the boom. Let's just say it's a "not ideal" way of reefing, that way we can avoid cursing or ranting about how Roller Reefing is the worst abomination foisted upon the sailing public since.... oops! there I go! Anyway, you'll know if you have roller reefing if you don't have reef points (row of re-enforced holes) on your mainsail and if you have a reef claw. The reef claw is a claw-like device that goes over the rolled-up sail to hold your mainsheet block. Let us know if you have those (No points, yes claw) and we can send you our condolences and suggestions. Otherwise, if you do have reef points, and hopefully reef eyes at the leach and luff, then you can do slab-reefing, which ideally should look like so:

https://stingysailor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/dscn1110.jpg?w=1600&h=768&crop=1

FWIW, here's a reefed "copycat DS2 (ignore the "gallows" aft, that's for folks who don't like to rig an uphaul): https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb2694755-d38c-41a8-9c9e-e976f49953ca_844x774.png

The nice part of slab (also called jiffy) reefing is that all you do is pull on one or most wo lines and you're reefed! You don't even have to tied off the reef points, you can leave the loose sail in a bundle alongside the boom, you'll be fine:

https://www.sailmagazine.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_700/MTgzMDU2ODQ1ODczNjIwMzg3/01-lead-img_3676-ig.webp

The hard part is rigging it up in the first place. This is a good guide (IMHO) on single, line reefing:

https://stingysailor.com/2023/01/14/single-line-jiffy-reefing-2/

Two line reefing is the same thing, except the forward reef eye has it's own line. And we have lots of info on this forum about rigging a reefing system and how to us it. Rig it up, practice on land, practice on the water before you need it, then go for it when you DO need it. A word to the wise - reef when you BEGIN to think "maybe I should reef?", not after. When in doubt, reef! A note - In my other post to you, I emphasized balance. When you reef, the Center of Effort will move forward a bit. So you'll have more weather helm, which is good up to a point. I'll leave the rest "as an exercise to the reader," but here's another link, good video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cRG_Z3jkf0

Fair Winds!

[GreenLake]

My brief take (rereading this as I finished the post, these are famous last words P:) )

However, please bear with me even if things seem a bit roundabout. (I don't have a clear idea where you are at with sailing, so some stuff may sound basic, but some stuff that did sound basic to me when I started, is stuff I only now begin to understand...)

My first take on this would be that 10 knots should not be anywhere near where you'd want to reef. When I started out, I used a hand held wind meter from SKYMATE, to get a handle on understanding exactly how much wind was actually on the water (compared to forecasts, which are never comparable to the moment-to-moment wind on the water).

The color and roughness of the water and the size and shape of wavelets or waves will tell you most accurately how much wind there is, and you can even see it coming, as when dark patch of water shows you an approaching gust.

I used that anemometer to gauge my own estimates, but now I don't need it any more.

If your figure of 10 knots is actual conditions (not forecast, or nearby land-based stations) then you should simply have fun with full sails. Gusts up to 15 knots you deal with by some of the techniques in the Basic Concepts thread. A boom vang really helps, because with one, as you let out some main, the rig depowers; without one, it can actually power up as the slack in the main will let both sails take on a fuller shape.

With the vang that effect is gone and I've noticed how that improved control. Likewise, if you have older sails (I forgot whether you mentioned that already) upgrading to new sails will allow your sails to be trimmed flatter, also depowering your rig and increasing your range.

I've never bothered with a gauge for the angle of heel. It's quite simple. If there's little wind and the boat is barely sailing, I let it heel to leeward. Around 3-4 knots, I'll try to sail it as flat as possible, and above that, I'll sail with just enough heel so that I can feel if the boat is loaded up.

If a gust hits, the boat can heel further, but I generally try to limit the heel by sitting out further or hiking harder. I don't have a precise target angle, or a set period to bring it back to level. I often luff up a bit to gain some height, but if I'm by myself or don't want to work that hard, I just spill the wind by letting out the main (mine is practically never cleated).

But there's an effective limit: once the boat heels so much that water gets onto the side decks, I'll definitely depower the rig, but letting the main out or luffing up or both.

I don't know where you are sailing and how critical it would be to able to reef, but I wanted to give you some feedback on the conditions you claimed you experienced first.

I'll put some thoughts on setup in the next post.