New DS II owner

[mistermoon]

Picked it up this morning in SC. 1980 model, solid, could use some cosmetic TLC. Paint is in the future....
She even has a spinnaker, but no rigging to fly it. Another project!

[algonquin]

Looks like its pretty sound and a good base to build upon. Are you missing any of the rigging ? Brad

[mistermoon]

Only rigging I'm missing is the spinnaker gear. It never had it in the first place, so to say it's missing really isn't accurate.

[talbot]

Sweet!
From the way the rain darkens the hull through the oxidation, it looks like a good buffing compound would come close to restoring the original color. I note that the decorative tape along the hull isn't even scratched. Mine (on an older DS II) was so dinged up that I scraped it off. I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell us what you paid?

[mistermoon]

Oh, I plan to paint eventually. The bottom has a few dings and scratches from being beached on rocks sometime in her past. Sandpaper and googe, not a buffer and wax is in her future.

I did ok on the deal, I think.

Still have not sailed her yet and it's killing me!

[mistermoon]

Here we are on our first sail today. Winds mostly in the 5-10 range with a few gusts higher. Best speed was 7.4 mph on the GPS.

Still learning the boat, though. I'm not really sure how far I can take it so we were pretty conservative. My daughter really loves it.

A couple of to-do items came up. First is she's leaking a bit around the centerboard bolt. There was more than a gallon in the bilge after a 2.5 hour sail.

The second is that the rudder needs a hold-down of some sort. Anything over 5 mph and the blade would come up a bit, increasing weather helm.

Finally, I need to figure out the rig tension. The leeward shrouds were visibly slack when close hauled. I'm sure they aren't supposed to be bar-tight, but I don't think they are supposed to be so loose either.

Over all we like the boat very much.

[Jett]

Cute sailors! I'll chime in on the centerboard bolt. Though I sail a Spindrift which is configured differently for the centerboard, I did have a Javelin with a setup similar I believe to the DSII. Assuming you can access the centerboard bolt (inspection ports on floor?), try tightening the bolt, carefully, with two wrenches or whatever. I did this and the centerboard stopped leaking (and it leaked more than yours does). This worked for me because the gaskets were still in pretty good shape. So, check those for visible rot, etc. Worth a try!

[Peterw11]

Smiling kids out sailing. What's better than that?

Is is their first time on a sailboat?

Mine's a DS1, and I've got a rudder blade stuck at 45 degrees to vertical, which probably explains my severe weather helm problem. The bolt is rusted and immovable at the moment, which I intend to address after I haul out in a few weeks. I beach mine, so I've got to keep a shallow draft, for the time being.

Have you tried tightening up the rudder bolt a bit, to increase the clamping pressure on the blade?

As to the shroud tension, search the site and you'll find plenty of info on how to address that. Mine are somewhat flexible, but just tight enough to keep the mast from moving. Test it with the sails down and adjust accordingly.

It's not scientific, but seems to work OK for me.

[FF26 Truck]

We had a problem with our rudder being slightly loose side to side on our DS1, it would bang back and forth in light air and became irritating to listen to. I obtained 2 nylon washers from CCSB (no local stores had anything large enough and in the proper thickness for this application.) and placed them on either side of the rudder. They filled up the empty space and tightened up the rudder blade in all directions which I was unable to accomplish just by tightening the through bolts. Just a suggestion as this was a quick fix to our problem and may work for you also.

[seandwyer]

Mine also is a DS1 - so this may not work - but worth a try. My rudder has a hole in the blade through which a small piece of soft dowel can be placed. It keeps the blade all the way down, but if you hit something the dowel will break allowing it to still safely kick up. It's an idea.

[jeadstx]

On my rudder there is a hole that I attached a piece of shock cord to. It comes up and goes along the underside of the tiller and is held in place by a small black plastic tube with a 'V' cut at the front. I know I'm not explaining this clearly, thought I had a picture, but can't find one. At any rate, the shock cord holds the blade down, but when I hit something, the cord streaches and allows the rudder to kick up.

When I got my DS2 I looked for this feature. My daa's O'Day Mariner (the boat I learned to sail on) bought new in 1969 had this feature from the factory. Works well. Next weekend I'll try to get pictures.

[jeadstx]

Here is a picture of my rudder with the shock cord attached to hold the blade down. The tiller is not attached in the picture since my mast support was in the way.