New-to-us ‘01 43DS

[sailingsvsloth]

Hello! We come from Hunters *ducks* (an ‘89 26.5, and a ‘98 310). We are a family of 5 that bought an 2001 43DS late last year. She had been terribly neglected so we have a lot of projects on our list along with getting to know her quirks and squeeze out some fun. We hope to circumnavigate in the next few years, probably starting by heading down the Mississippi once we finish our refit.

[katk]

Hi there- we have a 2006 43DS we have owned for a year now. You can see lots of our "boat projects" at sv_renaissance on Instagram and DM us there. 

Ours was in pretty good condition and had some great extras but we have added/upgraded the following for our cruising on the West Coast of the Americas. We have done over 1100NM on her in 9 months and shes performed excellent in light winds and messy 30kts/7ft confused seas. 

• LiPO 700Ah (Renergy)
• 960W solar (Renergy)
• Solar controler & shunt (Victron)
• New full enclosure
• Spade anchor & 300' chain
• Spectra Catalina Watermaker

Enjoy your vessel!!

[rxc]

Welcome to the Jeanneau community. The 43 DS is a very nice boat to cruise in. You should have plenty of room for your family and all the stuff they will require. Don't hesitate to ask questions here.

Fair Winds and Following Seas!

[andreshs1]

HI there

Welcome to the family

we also got a neglected 2002 43 DS 4 years back, and have been progressively upgrading/fixing it.
Yesterday I bought the BMS and LiFePO4 batteries (blame Vasko, who keeps bragging about how happy he is with the setup...). And working through the list of must-haves for cutting the lines in 3 years

Looking forward to see your posts and share information. 

Cheers
Andres

[saltymetals]

SailingSloth,

I have owned a 2004 ver for the last 6 yrs. Very happy with the boat and since then  have done about 8,000nm in her. Bought the boat on S coast of UK and sailed her across Biscay (F5-7) , down coast of Portugal (F7-8) and eventually across to the Adriatic where i am now.  Handled surprisingly well in enormous seas

What to look for? a few main ideas:

• Rigging: if you are going to do any serious sailing check when the standing rigging was last changed. Some insurance cos insist every 10 years, particularly if she has been raced. Others do not seem to care unless more than 20 yrs.  
• Mast Support post: prior to 2004 there was a problem with settling of the block under the mast support post. It is a known repair but the mast must be taken off to do it. If this has happened it will be difficult to tension the standing rigging correctly and you may be getting leaks in the saloon windows, all because the deck has been moving downwards as the support block at the bottom gets progressively crushed.
• Holding Tank(s): The stainless steel holding tanks do not have a v good reputation and will eventually get pin-hole corrosion along the welded joints. Many of us have had to replace ours and best solution is 10mm thick HDPE. Nothing less. Be careful that the replacement has EXACTLY the same location for each of the connections and same diameter.

I then changed a lot of other things like up-grading my anchor to one of the modern designs (i chose a Spade 20Kg), new sails ( vertical battens for the furling main) , feathering prop, new dink, SS transom arch, new Raymarine Quantum radar and Raymarine Axiom plotter and 100 sq m gennaker on a bowsprit w a top-down Karver furler., i sold the Harken 44 port haylard winch on eBay and bout a Harken 46 electric winch. Any lines that arrive on starboard can be passed arounf the starboard manual winch across to the electric winch on port.   So now i hv no new massive expenditures apart from the new holding tank which i am sourcing from Tek Tanks UK but i am sure there are capable guys in the US who could do the same. With Andres and a couple of others we thought about putting in a bulk order to get a better discount but we are spread across so many parts of the world that delivery costs would have been too much for some.

My engine is the 4JHG3-TE 75hp and i think is a superb piece of v reliable machinery. V few prblms as long as you look after regular changing of the fuel and oil filters and the impeller. Mine has now done 2,000 hrs.

I  also put together with a designer a complete machining program to make the wooden panels that create the separation in the aft cabin for those owners do have a model without the panels.

Best of luck and i am sure you will enjoy the 43ds. If you have any questions pls put them on this special 43ds section of this website and i am sure one of us is likely to have struggled with the exact same problem before and might be able to help.
Andrew
"Genial Bee"