New DS questions

[calden]

Greetings all:

I just purchased a DSI (mid-70s) and have some questions. Nice boat - white hull, with that beautiful sea-foam turquoise top. A bit of buffing and waxing and it'll look great.

1. It came with an EZ load trailer. This probably does make for easy loading, but it appears to me that there is more stress on the hull where the rollers are in contact with it. There's a very slight indentation that may only be there when the boat's on the trailer. Should I retrofit some 2"x6" carpeted boards?

2. When driving it home I was wondering if the weight of the small 5 hp Nissan OB was stressing the hull by being a bit bouncy. Should this come off for trailering, or is it standard procedure to leave it on all the time?

3. The mast has some scratches and normal wear rubbing. Is there anything I can do to prevent corrosion? Put some varnish or something on the worn spots? I take it I shouldn't try and start sanding anything. I'm not looking for a cosmetic fix, but rather appropriate maintenance.

4. The hull number, according to the registration from the previous owner, is a 6-digit number: 265818. I can't yet find any number on the boat anywhere, and can't find info on this hull number on the internet. Any other means of identifying this particular boat?

5. Does anyone have a good referral source for the teak coaming? The previous owner refinished the floorboards and coaming, but only the floor stayed nice. The teak up top is starting to split. It'd be nice to find somewhere with wood blanks precut to thickness and all I would need to do would be jigsaw the outlined shape, sand, and finish.

I'll probably have more questions coming up. Thanks in advance,

Carlos Alden

[swiftsail]

Hi Carlos,
Yes it would be a great for the boat to put 2x6's instead of rollers and if the trailer design will accomodate it, extend them all the way past the end of the transom.

Steve

[Peter McMinn]

I also have an EZ Roller trailer for which I traded an old hulk I could barely move. The old hulk did have excellent hull suport with two 10' 2x8s from the transom forward on both sides and one along the keel. The lighter tailer I have now has the rollers, which I don't like for the same reasons above. Thinking of replacing with retrofitted planks, or what most of the Thistle sailers at our club have done:

fashion FB cradles fore and aft with the following process:

flip the boat
decide on the best places for support
cover those areas with layers ofnews paper wider than the intended cradle
cover the newspaper with wax paper
apply 4 to 8 layers of fiberglass matting cut to the intended dimensions
when all is hardened, remove from the hull and trim the edges
build box frames to conform to the fb and glass the two together
mount the cradle frames onto the desired spot on the trailer frame
adhere desired hull protection
go sailing

The result is a very sturdy and hull-friendly cradle system that the boat easily floats onto and rests upon. Daysailers would also need something across the CB slot, I would think.

All that said, I think I'll stick with the planks.

Peter

[calden]

Thanks, Peter and Steve for the suggestion to refit the trailer with planks instead of rollers. That seems to make sense. That's what the folks at our local West Marine suggested, too. Funny people there - I told them I just bought a used sailboat and needed some items, and she laughed and said "we'll see you here a lot - welcome to the fraternity."

If you recall my name, Peter, you'll remember that I'm the guy from Spokane who talked to you on the phone about checking the Daysailer out for me. Rich was able to do it, and I drove down Monday and picked the boat up Tuesday. It's in fine basic condition but needed a bit more work than I ideally wanted to do (like this trailer thing) and I was thus able to cut the price a bit more.

Hopefully I'll be out on Lake Coeur d'Alene sailing Saturday and see if I can put that mast up.

Any more suggestions on any of my original questions are most welcome.

Carlos

[PromptCritical]

The mast should be aluminum which is pretty resistant to corrosion. If you're not to concerned with how it looks, I wouldn't worry about it. You could probably get it anodized in any color you wish.

[Roger]

You might be interested in the maintenance book for sale under the DS II section of this forum.