Is it open at the top for bottom of the winch access?
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A few quick notes for Johney regarding bringing her YSE/YSM-8 back up and running on her Dawson.
Key points:
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The front side is your engine oil. The yellow circle, shows the dipstick/engine fill. To change the oil, you just use a siphon pump down the dipstick hole to suck the old oil out and then put new oil in till you hit the full level on the dipstick. On the YS series, your oil pretty much instantly looks black and icky so don't be surprised. Just change it at a reasonable interval and you'll be fine. I run Rotella 10W30 in mine, it has the right additives for a diesel and is not as prone to attack seals as synthetic oils.
The red circle shows the very basic oil filter. Basically just rotate the little knob a few turns prior to each run.
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On the backside reached from behind the aft cabin steps is the transmission oil dipstick. Same as the other side, pump out the old, fill with the new. I used the same oil here as the engine. Note that this oil stays pretty clean by comparison.
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Under the head, you will find this little drain ****, it allows you to drain the water jacket. In practice, this part of the water jacket collects a lot of debris and sediment so it's a good idea to drain this periodically regardless. If you open it and nothing comes out, back flush it with a little hose to get stuff broken up and flowing.
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This is the decompression lever. All it does is open the exhaust valve and prevent the engine from compressing which makes it spin quite easily. This is handy when you need to spin the engine over and bleed the fuel system or get the engine spinning when you have a low battery.
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This is the sacrificial zinc on the YSE. It's mounted on the side of the water jacket and is pretty easy to switch out.
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The YSB and YSM have their zincs mounted here. Either way, I would suggest replacing the zinc if you have not seen it just yet.
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This is the primary fuel filter/separator on on Johney's boat. Most any of the Dawsons will have a similarly mounted canister filter here. Pull it apart, clean it, replace the filter.
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This is the secondary filter again on Johney's boat. Unscrew the retaining ring and tap the bowl off. Replace the filter as well as the Oring.
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Once you are done, you need to bleed the fuel system. As long as your electric fuel pump still runs, this is simply matter of removing this cap screw and letting the fuel pump run till fuel runs smoothly out of this port with no more bubbles. Generally the YS series will start fine from there but worst case, you need to loosen the fuel line to the injector and crank it over a bit with the throttle all the way up and the compression release activated till again , you see consistent little spurts of fuel coming out of the loosened line.
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Your water pump sits here on the YSM. Not as convenient a spot as on the YSB and YSE but still not too hard to get to. Reach down there and remove it then replace the bearings, the impeller, the seals and if it's scored up at all, the back plate. Restored as such it will be quite trouble free.
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Somewhere around here on the Dawson you'll find a strainer which filters the cooling water for the engine. Obviously, clean the strainer. Aside from that, if you want to run the engine on the hard, you can open the top of this and keep water in the bowl while the engine is running.
From there, it will pretty much kerfoom itself to life and run like a swiss watch.
Key points:
The front side is your engine oil. The yellow circle, shows the dipstick/engine fill. To change the oil, you just use a siphon pump down the dipstick hole to suck the old oil out and then put new oil in till you hit the full level on the dipstick. On the YS series, your oil pretty much instantly looks black and icky so don't be surprised. Just change it at a reasonable interval and you'll be fine. I run Rotella 10W30 in mine, it has the right additives for a diesel and is not as prone to attack seals as synthetic oils.
The red circle shows the very basic oil filter. Basically just rotate the little knob a few turns prior to each run.
On the backside reached from behind the aft cabin steps is the transmission oil dipstick. Same as the other side, pump out the old, fill with the new. I used the same oil here as the engine. Note that this oil stays pretty clean by comparison.
Under the head, you will find this little drain ****, it allows you to drain the water jacket. In practice, this part of the water jacket collects a lot of debris and sediment so it's a good idea to drain this periodically regardless. If you open it and nothing comes out, back flush it with a little hose to get stuff broken up and flowing.
This is the decompression lever. All it does is open the exhaust valve and prevent the engine from compressing which makes it spin quite easily. This is handy when you need to spin the engine over and bleed the fuel system or get the engine spinning when you have a low battery.
This is the sacrificial zinc on the YSE. It's mounted on the side of the water jacket and is pretty easy to switch out.
The YSB and YSM have their zincs mounted here. Either way, I would suggest replacing the zinc if you have not seen it just yet.
This is the primary fuel filter/separator on on Johney's boat. Most any of the Dawsons will have a similarly mounted canister filter here. Pull it apart, clean it, replace the filter.
This is the secondary filter again on Johney's boat. Unscrew the retaining ring and tap the bowl off. Replace the filter as well as the Oring.
Once you are done, you need to bleed the fuel system. As long as your electric fuel pump still runs, this is simply matter of removing this cap screw and letting the fuel pump run till fuel runs smoothly out of this port with no more bubbles. Generally the YS series will start fine from there but worst case, you need to loosen the fuel line to the injector and crank it over a bit with the throttle all the way up and the compression release activated till again , you see consistent little spurts of fuel coming out of the loosened line.
Your water pump sits here on the YSM. Not as convenient a spot as on the YSB and YSE but still not too hard to get to. Reach down there and remove it then replace the bearings, the impeller, the seals and if it's scored up at all, the back plate. Restored as such it will be quite trouble free.
Somewhere around here on the Dawson you'll find a strainer which filters the cooling water for the engine. Obviously, clean the strainer. Aside from that, if you want to run the engine on the hard, you can open the top of this and keep water in the bowl while the engine is running.
From there, it will pretty much kerfoom itself to life and run like a swiss watch.
Thanks for offering your trailer. That was very thoughtful! I'll keep that in mind as an option should I find it difficult to get one for the boat. My challenge is timing when the keel work will complete. Maine generally operates on it's own clock 
Patience is a virtue there. The Maine coast is an amazing place to sail. Just keep an eye out for lobster pots and ledge. I'm in a little harbor north of Bar Harbor. Mostly lobster boats.
Patience is a virtue there. The Maine coast is an amazing place to sail. Just keep an eye out for lobster pots and ledge. I'm in a little harbor north of Bar Harbor. Mostly lobster boats.
Yes, the keel sticks down a good bit. I will be at my boat probably next weekend and can give you a good measurement then.
Likewise on the prop and strut.
One thing to keep in mind is that trailers on these guys don't tend to be terribly long since the more stuff you have coming past the area that needs supporting the more ways you have to end up with your trailer getting into trouble on a short ramp. One of the as designed advantages of the Dawson is the ability to launch and recover off of fairly "normal" ramps which can be handy.
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If you look at this picture here you get something of an idea what I am talking about although in this exact pic, the boat is actually about 6 inches further back than usual since we just had the boat out for a bit to pull the engine and do some service work. Either way, keep in mind that most of the weight on the Dawson is pretty well centered
Likewise on the prop and strut.
One thing to keep in mind is that trailers on these guys don't tend to be terribly long since the more stuff you have coming past the area that needs supporting the more ways you have to end up with your trailer getting into trouble on a short ramp. One of the as designed advantages of the Dawson is the ability to launch and recover off of fairly "normal" ramps which can be handy.
If you look at this picture here you get something of an idea what I am talking about although in this exact pic, the boat is actually about 6 inches further back than usual since we just had the boat out for a bit to pull the engine and do some service work. Either way, keep in mind that most of the weight on the Dawson is pretty well centered
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