DS II in Westport CT

[ctenidae]

Took a sailing lesson at Longshore Sailing School in Westport, CT this weekend, Saturday around 11 am, and saw a DSII, sail number 44## heading out into the Sound. Anyone know who it was? Be good to have another DS to sail with.

[jdoorly]

I put in on the state ramp under RT95 bridge in the Saugatuck River Saturday morning, and after going under the 13' RR bridge raised the mast and the sails. Unfortuneatly sailing in the channel past Saugatuck and Cedar Point Yacht clubs was the best air we had that day. It took 1 1/2 hours to get to the end of the channel where the wind just quit.

We turned around and headed for home but kept loosing ground to the outgoing tide, so we wrangled the trolling motor back in the water and dropped and stored the sails. We then noticed our speed was much less than when we used the motor before. My latest GPS just went on the fritz so I can't tell exact speed, but I determined that we were moving about the same as when I paddle my kayaks- about 4.5mph. I had checked the battery's usage after we stopped using the motor on the way out and it said 2/3's remained. We hadn't used it and even detached the alligator clips, but now it said zero remained! We actually were moving using the trolling motor, but very slowly, so we decided to save whatever charge was left in the battery for after we had to take the mast down to go under the RR bridge.

I then remembered something I had read when I bought the boat and found I would be relying on a trolling motor. Batteries can discharge for many reasons but most people have never heard of them. I have a DS2 and since I haven't yet decided on the best place for the battery I leave it in the worst place- all the way aft jammed in above the self-bailer. In this position, with too much weight aft, the battery, although in a plastic battery box, is sitting in water. I can't remember the physics involved, maybe an inductive field is created by the battery through the water, but it definatly discharged the battery in about 1 hour. The article I read also said not to store batteries on concrete floors, for the same reason.

We put up the sails again and since it was high tide we left the channel and cut across the shallows in an effort to minimize distance in the light and variable airs. It took a long time to get back upriver, moving slowly against the tide. In fact upriver we began loosing ground to the tide again so we tried the trolling motor on med-low and it turned out to be sufficient. Though we missed the first half of US vs ENG because we had to drive back to Bethel.

When we began to go under the RR bridge the bridge operator came out to talk, he was very nice and said he would be glad to open the bridge for us in the future if we just called him with 2 hours warning. He threw us a wad of paper containing a telephone number, which I put in a safe place and haven't seen since.

When we launched we had difficulty with the lack of slope of the ramp, even though it was 2 hours before high tide. We had no problems getting the boat on the trailer 2 hours after high tide.

So, ctenidae you may have seen my son and I Saturday, we were there in DS2 #4980. In the future I plan to launch at Veterans Park ramp in Norwalk, but currently I am sailing at the convenience of people with trailer-hitches as I have not yet installed one on my car.

[ctenidae]

Awesome- glad to know there's another DS in the area. The wind Saturday was, at best, light and variable, to be sure. You guys looked to be making pretty good time on the way out, at least. Saturday and Sunday look to be great this weekend.