O'Day 22 Mainsail

So I've had my new mainsail from FX Sails for a few months now have have yet to take it out of the box. Opened it up at work to give it a once over and the quality exceeded my expectations. They did a great job and Bill James was a pleasure to deal with, I will definitely be ordering my headsails from him. I used my iphone so picture quality isn't that great but you get the idea. Four partial battens, one reef...

I ordered it with black sail numbers and insignia to match the new color scheme I've got planned for the boat. Black bottom paint, red boot stripe and light grey for the non skid areas.

I also went with a loose foot on Bill's recommendation.

Next time you see it I hope it's serving it's intended purpose and not laying on the floor...

O'Day Hull Number Reference Guide

Here's a handy little chart explaining O'Day hull identification numbers. I was curious what year and sail number my boat was and ran across this on the internet.

Morning Light

This movie was "On Demand" in HD and looked stunning. What a great story and a neat inside look at racing the Transpac!

O'Day 22 Mast and Rigging Measurements

My mast has been repaired and the standing rigging is in poor shape after inspection so the shopping list grows. I thought I'd share my measurements and what options are out there in case anyone is in the same situation. These specs should be applicable to boats manufactured 1971 through 1978 with masthead rig and one piece back stay. If anyone knows of a good used mast for sale please let me know!

My mast was made by Dwyer Aluminum Mast Company and they can be found online at http://www.dwyermast.com/ . The drawing includes measurements from my mast and the Dwyer part numbers for the attaching hardware. Everything is still available and if your willing to assemble it yourself it's a decent savings over other suppliers such as D & R Marine.

The best price I found for the standing rigging was with http://www.riggingandhardware.com/ . They were considerably cheaper than anyone else and word on the street is that they make a quality product.

I haven't found any of this information on the internet so hopefully someone finds this useful. I took my time and double checked everything to ensure accuracy but I have no way of knowing if O'Day used the same hardware on every boat. Cheers!

Someday...

Well a lot has happened since my last post, unfortunately none of it is progress on the boat. I guess that's not entirely true, I'll explain...

In May I got a job offer I just couldn't refuse, especially in this economy. So we spent the month packing up the house and took a family vacation we had already planned earlier in the year and then relocated to sunny southern California. No regrets, I was really burned out on the weather in the Pacific Northwest!

I had contemplated trying to sell this project and just buy another boat later on when we got settled but just couldn't seem to bring myself to do it. I had already invested a lot of time and money in this boat and had a custom main sail on order. Besides, the company I was going to work for was paying all my moving expenses. So I rented a 14' U-Haul solely for the purpose of towing the boat to CA, movers took care of the rest of the stuff.

So the following work had to be done to accomplish the move:

1. new trailer bearings with bearing buddies
   
2. new tires, including a spare tire with mount


3. installed a tongue jack


4. all new wiring and lights
   

So mainly just trailer work was done, a new trailer coupler and safety chains is still left on the to-do list. I cut out all the interior settee pieces so I didn't have to haul whole sheets of plywood and finished staining all the teak. Next step is to finish stripping the deck and start prepping for paint.

Can't wait to get started again! Weather is no longer an issue, just time.

Teak On Hold

Well the weather doesn't seem to want to cooperate. I was hoping to seal the teak this weekend with Cetol Marine but it recommends an ambient temperature of 50 - 95f and we're stuck in the forties. I'm basically at a stalemate until the weather warms up since all my immediate projects require painting of some sort.

On Thursday however I decided to do my part to stimulate the economy and ordered a new main sail. I have been poking around the internet for months now looking looking at different sail lofts and finally decided to go with FX Sails. For $520 shipped I got a loose foot main with partial battens, sail number, insignia and the following specs:

Standard Features:
3-Year Warranty
Premium Stitching
Aluminum Headboard
Cunningham
Draft Stripes
Leech Line with Clamcleat
Webbed on Leech Telltales
Premium Fiberglass Battens
Sail Ties & Sail Bag
Cloth: Challenge 5.53 oz. Premium High Modulus Dacron

From the reviews I read they seem to build a quality sail, we'll just have to wait five weeks to see. The headsails seem to be in decent shape so I'll probably send them to SailCare to be inspected and cleaned.

Something Resembling Progress...

A lot of time has passed since my last post and not much work has been done. The weather has been nice here which gives a false sense of spring and renewed urgency to get this project back on track. I've started cutting the bunk areas out of 1/2" pressure treated plywood which will be painted with an exterior alkyd enamel. The bulkheads will be made from 1/2" marine ply as soon as I can find a reasonable source, the local lumberyard wants $80.00 a sheet which I think is ridiculous.


I stripped all the teak off the boat this weekend to see if any of it is worth saving. Surprisingly with a lot of sanding and some gorilla glue I think everything except the hatch boards can be salvaged. Which is good news because this stuff is crazy expensive. Hopefully by next weekend I have some photos of some freshly sealed teak!


Another pleasant surprise is the Suzuki outboard that came with the boat, it runs like a sewing machine. Turns out it's a 1985 DT8 two stroke and is a perfect match for the boat. The previous owner bought it at a garage sale and never had it running before he decided to sell. I'm going to replace the fuel line, water pump and paint the lower unit and call it good.