I recently purchased a '73 Daysailer II that the original owner took incredible care of. However I would like to install a motor mount on the port side of the transom to support a regular length shaft 4hp motor. With the limited access to the transom from the cockpit area I am looking for advise on the best way to mount the bracket. What is the transom made out of? Should it be through bolted? Any advise would be helpful. This will be the first post of many as I intend to bring her back to as close to original condition as possilbe. As you can see I have some time before she is going on the water.
Daysailer II Transom
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Dave,
My late friend Walter had an Day sailer 3 years ago, and he had a small outboard on it. I can't remember if his outboard bracket was mounted on a stand-off block, or whether the stern had a small built in transom well for the outboard. Can you get at the nuts for the gudgeon bolts? Is there enough room to get inside and mount some stainless steel backup plates? I would imagine that the transom on your boat is 1/2" plywood, but I'm not sure. You're going to need some kind of a backup for the bolts that hold the motor bracket. Perhaps if you take a couple of pictures of the inside transom and post them for us, we can come up with some kind of a solution to this problem.
Joe
Dave,
This may be a solution for you. The is a picture of my friend Wayne's Seaward 22 inside transom. As you can see, there isn't very much room for attaching the motor bracket bolts and nuts. I think that he cut a hole in the inside transom and built up the area with something, and used Starboard for the cover. He explained how he did this, but I can't recall exactly what he did. Check it out.
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Check out this site for lots of good info on your boat, it's dedicated to the daysailer only. http://www.daysailer.org/forum/index.php
DAY SAILER II transom is plywood cored for full width of transom as far as I know, and my own DS II seems to confirm this. I'd skip the bracket and just clamp the outboard right to the transom as O'DAY designed it to be. Even using a short-shaft this will work, I had a 1992 2.3 HP Johnson on my boat originally and it worked fine, you may get a bit of ventilation if you hit a wave, but it will work! I attached a 3/8" thick piece of plywood to the outside of the transom to protect the gelcoat and make the outboard more secure. The only problem is that the transom on the DS II slopes the wrong way by a few degrees, a bracket won't really fix that anyway. The only thing that does is tocause the stern to be pushed a bit down and the bow up when you apply full power, My boat did have a fixed bracket when I bought her, if it had been offset to port instead of to starboard...maybe I would have kept it, but the other problem was that the previous owner had used 3 stainless-steel bolts and one galvinized steel lagscrew to attach it and the lagscrew was rusting and staining the hull. The holes weren't adequately sealed either and I had to dry out the plywood core in that area to prevent rot. I have since added a plywood mounting board to my transom to tip the outboard back so that it is more vertical than when clamped to the transom direct, however, I have a long-shaft (20") 4hp Johnson now so there was no proble raising the motor a few inches on that board. I should mention that I added an afterdeck onto my DS II, sort-of like the one on the DS I, but I'll post a few pictures of my outboard mounts. I can take a picture of the inside of the transom, showing the bolts, but won't be at my boat until Friday.
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My vessel is equipped with a traveler verses main sheet blocks. If I were to mount the motor directly to the transom will it interfere with the function of the traveler?
Dave,
If the engine does get in the way of the traveler, you could always use a main sheet tackle with a built in cam cleat very similar to what I use on my O'Day 222. Mounting your engine on the transom of your boat is a whole lot easier than installing a bracket for the outboard. Actually, this is a picture of my boom vang which is very similar to my Main Sheet.
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The mainsheet should be far enough forward of the transom to clear the tilted outboard. However, I forgot that your boat would have the older style mainsheet (changed for 1975 model). Has your boat been converted to a rope traveller, or is it the original mainsheet (Crosby mainsheet) that is rigged as a triangle (sheet starts at boom end, goes to a block on one side of the stern, back up to the boom, forward to mid-boom and down to a block and camcleat on aft end of CB trunk)? If you boat has been converted to a rope traveller, the outboard may clear the sheet, but you will have to watch it when you tack! If you still have the original mainsheet rig, again it SHOULD clear the motor...but you WILL have to watch it when you tack, I used to have a 1969 WIDGEON and the mainsheet was prone to getting caught on the outboard when I had it clamped to the transom. That may be less so on a DS II, but you do raise a good question! I've included a few pictures, showing the mainsheet rigs used on the DS II. Also a picture of someone's 1973 DS II showing a 2 HP outboard clamped to the transom, it appears that the mainsheet will just clear the motor....better then the same motor on my old WIDGEON, but......BOY, I like my mid-boom mainsheet!
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Dear Sunbird,
The more I research the more I need to learn about terminology. Yes, my boat’s traveler is of the older version where it’s mounted to the stern. I have also learned from another forum (and you just confirmed this) that a mid-boom mainsheet is a must have. This along with an accompanying mid-ship traveler would really enhance performance. Considering that this is going to be a work in progress it looks like several upgrades are in order. Taking cost into consideration I think my first will be the mid-boom mainsheet with the traveler coming next year. I have to replace the CB cables (because one is broken) however the instructions that come with them show a new style of rigging, one that appears to make its functioning much easier. By doing the mainsheet upgrade now I will have most of the hardware I’ll need for the CB upgrade. Thank you for the advise and the photos.
The more I research the more I need to learn about terminology. Yes, my boat’s traveler is of the older version where it’s mounted to the stern. I have also learned from another forum (and you just confirmed this) that a mid-boom mainsheet is a must have. This along with an accompanying mid-ship traveler would really enhance performance. Considering that this is going to be a work in progress it looks like several upgrades are in order. Taking cost into consideration I think my first will be the mid-boom mainsheet with the traveler coming next year. I have to replace the CB cables (because one is broken) however the instructions that come with them show a new style of rigging, one that appears to make its functioning much easier. By doing the mainsheet upgrade now I will have most of the hardware I’ll need for the CB upgrade. Thank you for the advise and the photos.
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