The *** above should be *******ed and *******.

Not sure what happened.

-jr

Josh,  Welcome to the group.  You will learn to love the boat.  I purchased hull 270 the past summer and had a great adventure in the San Juan Island with my Grandson.

Hull 270 is a Dawson 27 built in North Las Vegas.  Sometime later the operation moved to Florida and later became Parker Dawson in New England.  Is your boat a DAWSON ?  Name plate seems visible in your photo of the front cabin, but just as a bright rectangle on the overhead.

I had my boat hauled to San Francisco from north of Seattle, about 1,000 miles with no problems.  Truck was a 3/4 ton Dodge Ram.  What did you use?  These boats are not light !!

Your steering would benefit from good support.  Many folks on other boats have used plywood or metal backing to improve the strength of the base.  

Take a look at your steering.  Mine has the initials  DA on the hub nut and a few other spots on the assembly.  I've found that this was the Don Allen Company, which went out of business the same year our boats were built.  I haven' found a source of spare parts yet.  Edson system would be the ideal, but their parts do not interchage with the DA design.  Parker Dawson all had EDSON. What do you have?

The rear hatch is heavy glass, but not super tight on dimension, so could be made from wood or glass molded without much fuss.  An opportunity might exist to make the hatch a slider.  Not possible up front, due to the mast position, but worth a look for the aft cabin.

My wife and I slept in the aft cabin for more than a week.  A little narrow, but we did OK.  

You will see many comments from the group about the keel.  Really important to make sure that the support/pivot pin that holds the keel is really in good shape.  That would require removal of the whole keel box system.  Check the atchives for comments on this process.  Not trivial, but critical.  One boat lost a keel last year.The previous owner of our boat showed me the one that he took our and it really scared me.  Could/should have failed with any slight load.

Have at it and keep us posted.

Steve  Hull 270

Josh,  Sounds like you are off to a good start.  Do a ,"Search," under Keel to get as much info a possible before having the yard start.  I've not done mine, but recall you need to be able to locate all the bolts that hold the box in place.

Keep in mind that there are a group of 3 pins involved.  The most important seems to be the Pivot Pin.  It is a 6 inch by 1 inch stainless pin with cotter pin hols near each end.   Easy to make at any machine shop.  This one is the most likely problem area and could cause the loss of the keel if not maintained.

The second is the pin that the keel cable attaches to.  

The third is the keel locking pin which screws into the case from above and enters a hole in the top of the keel when the keel is down.  The PD system may be the only one that uses this type of pin.

There is a photo of this pin on one web page.  I'll try to get a clearer pin up on the web page soon.

Fairwind has suggested checking the pulley between the winch and keel. If it is worn, you could expect to have the cable get jammed, then life become unpleasant.

Go for it, you have a long winter ahead.

Steve

Thanks for the advice.

I will forward that information to the marina when the keel assembly is checked.  I will post the costs when this is done.  Likely early summer.  

Regarding costs: the keel check in addition to acquiring a mooring, and other needs (cockpit sole recore) will likely push the launch date out a year from spring.  This is okay -- I want to ensure the boat has had its critical systems checked and am sure the extra effort will give the boat a more reliable future.

Bob, I can not thank you enough for the hatch.  Good to see MN and WI folks can get along even though they have opposing football teams  I will email you offline to arrange something.

Thanks again.

Josh

Hi Josh
The upstream server has gone down....So here are measurments.
Out side width    39 1/2
Out side lenght   24 1/4
Camber or chord highth 1 3/4 @ CL
Drart at sides is an inclured angle of 28 degrees
Front side 28 degrees
hinge side 12 degrees
The flange width at the sides is 1 3/4, on the hinge side  1 1/2 on the front side 2
Lay-up thickness is 3/16 at edge and appears to have a 3/8 or 1/2 core
If you establish the camber and the sides everything else should fall into place

If you go right to female mold you can make filets using kids modeling clay and drag a piece or 3/4 PVC to get a nice radius.
and Johnsons past wax makes a very good release
Email or call if I can help.

Herb Owner of Hull # 237
In Astor Florida
Sail fast live slow

Herb,

With the given chord height, is the total height at the centerline 3.75" at the front?  If so, does the following image make sense:

Thanks a lot,

Josh

Download Attachment: rhatch_schematic.jpg
33.49 KB

Yes, that is what it looks like.  I am not sure what you are supposed to do if you bend or break the pin as was intended.  I think I am going to drill a hole in mine and put a bolt through it into the keel.

Any better ideas??

Bob