DS 20 performance - Page 3

arf145 · #21 10-14-2009

AllThumbs got that boat, I believe, and posted extensively on the work he did on it. You should be able to find it in a search.

AllThumbs · #22 10-14-2009

I didn't get this one. The seller scoffed at my rediculous offer, but I did buy another just like it for $750. It's a good boat. There is enough glass. The light you see thru the glass from the inside is normal. These boats come in shoal draft or centerboard (swing keel) The shoal draft is just the centerboard boat without the board. Some folks complain about the shoal draft version and it's ability to point. My boat was sailed all summer by me and it points just as well as any other non racer. Watch the keel as some get water in them and then bust when it freezes. Mine was alright. Yours looks a little better than mine inside. I am working on my interior this winter. Ask any question you like and I will try to answer. I would say yours is worth $800 as is. I paid $ 750 for mine.

Here is the thread of the refinish job I did. My Project Boat

AllThumbs · #23 10-14-2009

Oh, here is the DS 20 yahoo group. Pretty quiet group, we can always use another active member.

DS20-22-DillerSchwill20-22 : DS20&22 DillerSchwill20&22

AllThumbs · #24 10-14-2009

Here we are sailing ours this summer. I think she made a pretty sailboat.

UmbraeRichy · #25 10-14-2009

Hi,

Thanks for the quick response and all the information. She looks nice by the way.

The link could prove very useful it I finally buy the boat. I'm still debating this issue in my mind. I do have a question for you though. It doesn't seem like you had to do much structural repair on the boat, am I right? (I haven't got the time to read all of your project boat thread...) I'm asking this because I don't want to get involved in intense deck restoration. Take a look at this picture and you'll probably understand what I mean.

If you look at the top section of the picture, it shows the bottom of the deck. Unfortunately I didn't have a moisture meter with me when it did the inspection, but just from looking at it, I fear there will be deck replacement work to be done... Am I giong crazy over this... If you could confirm my "diagnostic" (as hard as this may be just from the picture and all my blabla...) How does this area look like on your boat, similar concerns? It's the area close to the stb nav light. It looks a bit better on the port side:

There are also the two bulkheads (glass coverd plywood) that are rotten where they meet the bilge...

Anyways, I'll offer him 800 and see what he says...

Cheers,

Alex

AllThumbs · #26 10-15-2009

I have done nothing structuraly to my deck. The boat uses plywood backing plates under the hardware, and this is what you are seeing in those pics. They seem to be glued in place and then the edges of the plywood camfered back to the underside of the deck using some sort of filler. I would not be too concerned about these bits of plywood. They are not the "core" of the laminate but rather glued to the outside of the laminate on the bottom. At least on my boat. This winter, I may try to peel some of these backing plates off and replace with aluminium. We will see.

The core on the early DS boats was regular 1/4" pegboard. I guess the thought was that since it has holes every few inches, it would allow the top and bottom layers of the laminate to be bonded together thru the holes. The pegboard was used on the cabin top and forward deck. I suppose it could get wet and rot, but mine seems to be pretty solid and the peg board doesn't seem to wick a lot of water the way balsa core does. If you look closely, you can see the pegboard holes as dimples in the laminate. See pic below. Look closely where the light reflects on the center part of the hatch.

My boat needs some smaller bulkheads below the cockpit replaced, altho I sailed it all summer as is. Mine are not rotten, but rather delaminated from the tabbing due to being wet for so long. The bilge on these boats is shallow and wide, so any water in the bilge covers a large area, and right up against a plywood bulkhead (the one that keeps bilge water out of the cabin). I plan on replacing these bulkheads with sheets of solid 1/4" fiberglass and then tabbing them in.

Eric

AllThumbs · #27 10-15-2009

Here is the state of my bilge area and the two bulkheads in question. These seem to have been replaced once before. These will be replaced with fiberglass sheets. Everything will be cleaned up and painted too.

Eric

AllThumbs · #28 10-15-2009

Looking at your pics again, I see the ply backing plate for what I think is the winch. The other bits of ply do not exist on my boat, and I don't see any hardware poking thru them, so I am not sure what the purpose of those are. Your boat, like mine, is glassed together at the deck-hull seam. That is a good thing.

It would be good to see some pics of the deck/cockpit. The deck shape changed after a few years, making room for longer jib car tracks, and the winches further aft in the cockpit. Then, there was a fire at the factory and the new mold was destroyed, so they went back to the old mold. That means that old and new boats had the old deck mold, and middle boats have the "new" deck mold. What year is the one you are looking at?

Eric

AllThumbs · #29 10-15-2009

Oh, and the stern rail was an option, so not all boats had it.

Eric

UmbraeRichy · #30 11-13-2009

Hello Eric,

Sorry I didn't reply earlier, I couldn't login for some reason. Anyway...

The guy declined my offer of 800 bucks for the boat

too bad.

Thanks for all your help tho, I learned a lot. It should be very useful if another DS comes around! I'll keep an eye out!

Cheers,

Alex