The Day Sailer - Fall 1980 - by Al Donley
In September of 1976 we bought our first sailboat, a red DS
II which we named
Bodacious. Although we wee vaguely aware of the existence
of DS I's, we assumed the
DS I was an obsolete version of the II. Only after reading
several issues of the Day Sailer quarterly and after joining DS Fleet #7
did we realize that two very different boats
occupied the same class. (There is a third type of DS which
we see every year at the
Pymatuning Independence Day Regatta and is sailed by the skippers
out of Brockport and Lake Arthur. It's even faster than the I's and
II's we sail at Pymatuning.)
AN 18 YEAR OLD DS I
I became interested in the I, but not because of its touted
greater speed. I'm over
6'-5" and would usually have stiff and sore knees after a few hours
in Bodacious. The
extra leg room in the DS I looked comforting. We looked at
the Rebel I at last winter's
boat show and although impressed, the extra cost didn't seem
worth the gain in comfort.
However, when one of our fleet members decided to sell his DS I,
we looked at it, liked it
and bought it. (An aside. We bought and sold our boats
- at fair prices - through
friendships developed through our membership in the DS Association.
Newspaper
advertising was ineffective in our case.) We don't regret
our decision, but there was a
family full of long faces after we turned Bodacious over to her
new owners.
DS hull #1200 was built in July 1962, and we were a bit apprehensive
about its
relative age. That was a needless worry. The boat is
obviously used, but it's dry, seem
stiff, and is generally as sound as new. There are many differences
not attributable to age, however. While some differences are insubstantial,
others are major enough to become deciding points in judging relative value.
Before comparing our two boats, I should point out that they
are both virtually
standard. The only extra equipment - hiking straps, tiller
extension, and compass -
happened to be common to both. Neither has a special mast,
nor any other "go fasts".
Bodacious kept its Hong Kong sails, but #1200 did have a new set
of locally made sails.
#1200's original-equipment jumper struts had been removed by a previous
owner.
DS II FEATURES
Despite the prevailing sentiment, the DS II does have some
improvements over the
DS I. O'Day clearly wanted to save money by making the II
cheaper to build, but some of the economies are a step backward.
For instance, the pendant-operated centerboard on the DS II simply doesn't
offer the same control as does the lever-controlled board on the I.
On the other hand, the DS II is both cleaner looking and easier to keep
clean. The II's molded inner hull is self-bailing and maintenance-free.
We kept both boats on trailers and, because of minor differences in details,
the II was slightly easier to rig. The big advantage to the DS II
is that you can hike extensively and still be able to sit down later in
the
day. Also, for some reason, we have not yet learned to tack the I
in strong wind as easily as we could the II. All in all, the DS II
is cleaner, neater, simpler, drier, less painful to hike, and maybe slightly
easier to sail than the DS I.
DS I FEATURES
The DS I's biggest advantage to me may be of little consequence
to others. The
boat definitely has more room. And the room it has is more
useful. When crewing, I can
stick my legs in the cuddy, and I can generally more around more
easily. The DS I has
nooks and crannie that were lost to the molded fiberglass of the
DS II. We keep a whisker pole, boat hook, tools, anchor, fenders,
and so forth all handy but still out of the way in our DS I. The
cuddy in the I is accessible by full-size people which really isn't the
case in the II. The floor boards, though usually removed for racing,
are welcome at other times. They keep your feet dry and the boat
cooler. The rig and sails can be adjusted in more ways on the I and
the centerboard can be precisely and quickly adjusted on the DS I.
Our DS I has cam cleats for the halyards, and the halyards themselves are
entirely dacron. The cleats simplify tension adjustments, but I can't
tell which type of halyard is better. The wooden coaming on our I
has not been cut do9wn, so hiking is a pain - literally. Adjustable
fair-leads along with cam cleats for the jib sheets were added by the previous
owner. These are much easier to release in strong wind than those
supplied on our DS II. The floor-boards and coaming of the DS I have
a beauty that only wood can impart, and this more than offsets the rough
appearance of the unfinished interior fiberglass. All in all, I think
the DS I is not only roomier that the DS II, but it has slightly more utility
as well.
WHICH IS BETTER?
Which boat sails better? While we simultaneously owned
both boats, we competed
together just once. The wind was 25+ and Bodacious won the
race under the skippership
of my 19 year old son and his 14 year old brother. We were
second in our DS I until our
forestay detached. The DS I had better speed (I think because
we were heavier and could hold it down better). Our earlier mentioned
tacking problems slowed us down
considerably in the DS I. In subsequent events, both racing
and cruising, the performance of our I is close to other DS IIs.
I think the DS I is a little bit faster off the wind, but we don't seem
to be able to point appreciably higher in the DS I, and maybe not as high.
If a DS I is superior to the DS II as a racing boat, it is my opinion that
it takes a superior sailor to realize the difference. For the majority
of us who race, then, the choice is a matter of taste or personal preference
rather than due to inherent superiority.
Not for cruising though. The DS I is roomier. Crew
can sit facing forward with
their legs in the cuddy. There is room for all the various
things that you want to take along by using the shelves and other spaces,
with nothing under foot. This is next to impossible in the DS II.
Finally, the DS I seems more stable than the DS I. I think this is
probably more illusion than fact because of the feeling of largeness due
to the different interior of the DS I.
Do we regret replacing a four year old boat with one 18 years
old? Not really. The
DS I is roomier, and that was the reason for buying it. In
the back of our minds, of course, was the thought of greater speed.
We are not expert enough, however, to utilize whatever advantage the DS
I may have (and we are not convinced the I is inherently faster.)
The DS I is a prettier boat in a nautical sort of way. The DS II
is sleek and trim, but I guess I prefer the wood accents, the heavy but
useful floorboards, and the general concessions to utility built into the
DS I. Never-the-less, our first boat was that sleek and trim red
DS II. Nothing, I suppose, really replaces your first boat, and we
still look back with fondness and nostalgia at our first Bodacious sailer.