Day Sailers in 2015 Everglades Challenge

[TIM WEBB]

Thanks for the comment Talbot (last name is Alesch, not Albrecht in case anyone is looking for my articles). Tim Webb has a lot of good info as well from the Florida 120 and the coastal cruising with the WCTSS on the west coast of Florida. I believe he is developing a rudder head that is an improvement over mine for dealing with shallow waters. I know Tim has posted his cockpit tent.

I was hoping we would get some comment from the DS that capsized on the 2015 EC.

On the Tx200 this year there are currently two DS IIs registered and there might be a third. Their insights into distance sailing the Day Sailer should provide some good input as well.

John

I *think* I've got the new rudder head pretty much where I want it, and will post pics next time I get a chance to get out. Have a housefull of relatives at the moment, and as much as I'd like to take them out sailing, Mother Nature is not cooperating ...

[Alan]

"Interested to see what other mods come out of Lake Tahoe."

Just spotted this, Talbot. You mean my humble self? Depends on whether there's enough water for any launch ramps to open, as nearly as I can tell. The lake is already so low that no water is draining from the lake into the Truckee River, and there's very little snowpack to add more. Our usual marina, Meeks Bay on the west shore, got permission to dredge their entrance channel and completed the job last September.

The problem the dredging doesn't solve is that the lake level outside the entrance channel is so low that a lot of boats, especially keelboats, may not be able to get in.

That, in turn, raises the question of whether the marina will open at all. There's no way to find that out except by calling around Memorial Day. (They're pretty laid back; sometimes it's charming, sometimes it isn't.)

Anyway, the stock DSII rudder will work in the pivoted-up position if we can get into the marina. All I need to remember is to push it back down once we get out onto the lake (I have no idea why I should be concerned about this, honest).

The motor is a different story. Last year the Torqeedo, shallow though its draft be, got stuck in the mud a time or two as we backed out of the slip. A Torqeedo with a mildly-jammed propeller goes into HAL mode and you have to shut it off, disconnect the battery cable, then restart it, just when it would be really inconvenient to do that, say, when you're drifting up against a boat in a slip on the opposite side of the channel.

[talbot]

That's tough. A good year to own a Day Sailer. I should let you know that I actually cause the western droughts. Every time my wife and I start looking seriously at keel boats, the rain stops, the snow never comes, and I put the Day Sailer into our local lake a week before anyone else because it's the only boat that floats.

Whenever we decide that a larger boat is beyond our means, the skiing is great and the Army Corps of Engineers has to open the flood gates. So I apologize for all our queries this winter about San Juans, Lancers, Santanas, and O'Day 23's, and assure you that after taxes we will barely have enough to keep ourselves in sun screen. So hang in there. Next season should be great.

[Alan]

Well, that's a relief. I've been thinking the sudden disappearance of rain must have been my fault, somehow.