I'm now the proud owner of a 1970 DS 1 and I've taken her for a couple shake-down runs on pretty low-wind days... Had a lovely time of it and am now working my way through the few issues that have revealed themselves before bringing her into any real wind.
The current one that has me scratching my head is the gooseneck (I'll see if I can add some photos here). I was surprised to find that it isn't firmly attached to the boom... which means that the boom isn't firmly attached to the mast. Is this normal?
There's a pin/rod protruding from the mast-slide part which starts as a square and then tapers to round closer to the tip. This fits in a square shaped hole in the end of the boom. Reading the old DS 1 manual it appears that the gooseneck was designed to allow one to reef the main by pulling the boom out a bit (to the round part) and then furling the main sail around the boom. Do people do this? Also, when I look at the goosnecks sold by D&R for the DS 1 they appear to have spring internal to the boom... I'm wondering if mine isn't just incomplete.
I'll stop there for now... but as the topic header implies I also have questions about boom-vang, down-haul, and/or cunninghams... none of which are present on my boat and I'm wondering if I need (any of) them. I'm guessing the boom-vang at least would help keep my boom snugged up to the mast?
Cheers!
Jon