Day Sailer on Mooring and Other Questions

[Guest]

I have recently purchased my first Day Sailer, an early 1980's Spindrift DS1. The boat is in decent shape, wonderful shape considering the purchase price. I do however have a couple of newbie questions for the group.

1. I plan to put this boat on a salt water mooring. Do I need to take any special bottom precautions to do this without injury? I read the threads on bottom painting, and a few posts that advised against putting a boat with blisters in the water for long periods of time, but what about an intact, unpainted hull? I used to sail a laser, and for them mooring is a bad idea. I have seen plenty of Daysailers on moorings in Casco Bay, but I cannot check to see if they are painted or not. Thoughts?

2. The bow of this boat suffered some separation where the deck meets the hull. The separation ran from the bow about 9 inches on each side. I cleaned the joint out and 5200'd them back together per standard Laser practice. I also put eyes on the the machine screws off the chain plate and off the bow eye, and connected them with a piece of spectra line, run several loops for additional purchase. The theory is to take the stress from the forestay out of the hull/deck joint. Do you think this repair is strong enough to trust?

Thanks for any insight.

Justin Andrus (jandrus-at-mail.maine.rr.com)

[Guest]

I have had a DS I at a salt water mooring for the last two summers. At the start of the summr I have had the hull painted with anti-fouling paint. (High copper content.) Without the paint, all kind of marine life grows on the hull and does dammage. It also slows down the boat by causing friction. Even with the paint the hull needs to be scrubbed when it come out of the water.

Steve Max (75264.153-at-compuserve.com)

[Guest]

Justin,Any boat kept in saltwater will have to painted with an anti-fouling bottom paint.Otherwise over time,marine growth will form and cleaning the hull will then be a task.

capt. Bob (captsaf-at-a.o.l.com)

[Guest]

Your repair sounds strong. Let us all know how it does over the year(s). There are chainplates for bows that are upside-down "L"s (a bit more acute). Blue Jay's have them and I think they may be of the right size. These put most of the load around "the corner" of the bow and on to the stem. If you attach directly tro the deck as some boats do there should be a keelplate or knee filler of some type to close the triangle. Is that the case with your boat now?

MAKurtis (Emak41-at-excite.com)