O'day 22

[chuntybunt]

Has anyone had experience of owning an O'day 22? are they any good? I've searched the web but can't find any useful comparisons, I know not many were built in the UK but there's on for sale at what looks like a good price In Hayling I'm looking for a first boat after sailing a mirror dingy on the solent as a kid with my dad. I'm based down in Kent and only have access to a drying mooring so I need a bilge or lifting keel. I want to explore the Kent and Essex creeks but I also want something that will take me further afield when I get more experience. I will be sailing single handed as the other half is hydrophobic. Obviously the budget is tight, the other options are a bilge keel Pandora or possibly a lifting Anderson 22. Any experiences would be welcome.

 

[rjp]

I owned one back in 1978, bought new from the builder John Wilson some time after they went out of production. It was my first boat and we had a lot of fun with it circumnavigating Anglesey in our first season and sailing from Conwy to the Isle of Man and back the following year. We survived some pretty boisterous conditions at times and found it fun to sail. It served us well but with a 6HP outboard on the transom it could be a bit of a handful under power in any swell (as would any comparable boat with this setup) with the outboard tending to lift out of he water. Having strong tides around North Wales we moved on to an inboard powered Westerly Pageant after a couple of years. Not such a pretty boat but in a different league altogether.

I had a friend at the time who sailed a Jaguar 22 and I thought the O'Day was just a little bit better finished. Mine was the bilge keel version. As you probably know the O'Day was an American design and many hundreds were built there. The bilge keel design however was a modification done specifically for the UK. As I only kept her a couple of years I can't comment on longevity, but during the time I owned her I had no real complaints.

 

[ianat182]

Ref your query. Answered a previous thread on here for an earlier query on these yachts 2-3 weeks ago, however, if you Google 'O'Day 22' you'll see several threads regarding ownership modifications and general information; there was also an O'Day 229 which was a different yacht altogether.

A search on this ybw website doesn't work well at all.

ianat182