Oday 22ft Yacht

StephenSails

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Hi,

I have a customer that has a "Oday" 22ft bilge keel yacht, I am hoping to make a new rudder for him but I canf find a website with any useful information on it, do you guys know anything about this boat, own one or know of a useful website?

Cheers

Stephen
 
Used to own one about 6 years ago. Despite concerted efforts whilst owning 'Xanthos' we never were able to track down much information on the class. There was a review a long time ago in PBO I believe, but this was little more than a half page "we sailed her and this is what we thought" type review. She was designed in America by Raymond Hunt in the early 1970's, who also designed the O'Day 26 amongst many others.

As I said sadly, there is little more to be found on this very well behaved 22 footer.

If I can be of any further help don't hesitate to pm me!
 
Not sure I can help very much, but I used to own an O'Day 22 which I bought new in 1978 from the UK builder John(?) Wilson. At that time he had closed the business and was, I seem to recall, emigrating to USA with his American wife. Mine was one of the last two left to sell.

O'Day Yachts were a well known American company and Wilson had licenced their design for manufacture in the UK but had had the keel configuration redesigned to twin keels from the original fin. Before building the O'Day he had sucessfully built an 18ft boat (the name escapes me, but there were quite a few around in the 70s).

As for your rudder problem - it is likely that the design was carried over from the US version, so enquiries posted on US sites might yield more information. Also I know O'Day still existed until at least a few years ago, and might still be in production so check out US web sites.

How much do you have to go on as far as the rudder design is concerned, i.e. is any of the old rudder still in existence? It is just possible that I might have a photgraph somewhere that shows enough of the rudder to get the general shape, but it would take some searching and I don't have a lot of time at the moment. But PM me if you're really stuck.

By the way, the O'Day 22 was a great little boat for her size and weight. The only issue I had was with the outboard arrangement which allowewd it to come out of the water in a heavy swell. We sailed ours from Conwy to the Isle of Man and all around Anglesey before deciding a slightly heavier boat (with an inboard) would be more comfortable - so we went to a Westerly Pageant (another underrated bilge keeler which I sailed from Hamble to Conwy when I bought her and to IOM and Ireland on a number of occasions).

John
 
This might be of passing interest.

I know there are large nuimbers of O'Day owners t'other side of the pond and various owners groups and you would be best tracking them down. Bet you'll get the info really easily that way.

Goodluck with it.
 
Just to say thank you to all of you, I think with the information you have provided I am heading along the right lines.

Cheers

Stephen
 
I think the rudder design on any small boat is a compromise of convenience (safe from damage) versus performance. I think that you would ask the customer what his priorities are re the rudder. I don't know if is an under hull rudder but suspect it is a transom mounted rudder. With a bilge keel boat you might expect it to sit on it's keels fairly often if not on every low tide. The rudder length (depth) would be dictated by either keeping it clear of the bottom when sitting on the keels or by having the rudder take some weight to balance the boat fore and aft. This latter depending on the weight distribution. So you might want to ake the rudder robust enough to take weight or short enough to stay out of danger.
As far as performance goes the deeper the rudder and higher aspect ratio the better performance. Give it an eliptical bottom to minimise eddy flow across the bottom. But all these are contradictory to the above priorities. You need an area and depth of rudder great enough to give power to resist weather helm when heeled so adequate area even with low aspect ratio is essential. On the other hand too much area will create friction drag at low speeds.
So I reckon you can very well design a new rudder based on owner's priorities. ol'will
 
Hi,

It is my boat, a bilge keel version of the former. They were built by Island Yachts on Canvey Island in the Thames estuary, UK with a rolling reef system and on the same design, licenced from C Raymond Hunt & Associates.
The rudder I had was unlikely the original and will need to be rebuilt. I have a few photos from when I restored the boat, but it would be easier to work off a blueprint.
 
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