This is an alarming situation. I came across this on another forum and wanted to share it here to prevent any more potentially life threatening situations.
The following is a direct quote from John/US27inKS, the guy who posted this. He is allowing me to use these photos in an attempt help prevent this from happening again, at least for forum readers who own these boats.
If you take a close look at the bilge pump photo you'll get a good idea of the cross section/thickness of the keel stub. You can see the inside where the pump was screwed to and the keel stub fairing filler (gray colored) wrapping round the bottom/outside of the lamination giving you the entire thickness. If anyone has a Rule 800 bilge pump it would be good to know how wide those blue plastic inlet pieces are to compare and understand the thickness of this keel stub.
I would say that anyone with an O'Day 302 would seriously want to examine the keel stub for any signs of stress cracking and take appropriate measures to re-laminate the stub and make it stronger. You may want to consult with a N/A on how best to deal with this.
I saw a Pearson 34 during a keel re-set last year, due to crevice corrosion, and the keel stub was nearly 1" thick, this one appears to be perhaps a 1/4" thick.
Please, if you own a late 80's O'Day do not ignore this it could potentially kill someone.
The following is a direct quote from John/US27inKS, the guy who posted this. He is allowing me to use these photos in an attempt help prevent this from happening again, at least for forum readers who own these boats.
This is not the first O'Day keel loss I have read about but the first one where I have seen photos of the keel stub after it broke away. While we don't have the keel, it's on the lake bottom, this does not seem to be a situation of rotted wood in a keel stub or even rotted keel bolts but rather a very, very thin layup at least IMHO when compared to many other boats I have seen. The other O'Day I read about was on the Great Lakes and had a similar experience. I tried searching archives but I honestly can't remember which of the sailing forums I read it on but it was about two years ago.One of our club members lost his boat this weekend. Fortunately it happened right in front of the club, and someone saw the boat go over. Myself and two others raced out in one of our pontoon boats and pulled 4 people out of the water. No one was hurt.
Here's what happened as far as I know.
A father and his 3 adult sons went out for a sail on a beautiful Saturday. Winds were 10-15 mph. They were sailing about 100 yards off the east shore, across from our club, about a mile across the lake, and it was just before dusk. The boat started taking on water. The water ingress was slow at first, and the crew assumed that they had lost a hose for the head. One of the crew went below, threw the 3 life jackets that were already laying out up into the cockpit, and started bailing with a bucket. The engine was started and the crew turned into the wind to drop the sails. The water started coming faster, and the situation was looking bad. Then the boat shuddered a bit, and the water started coming in like a geyser. The sails were still up, and the boat was knocked over almost immediately. The crew who was below swam out of the companionway and grabbed a floating life jacket. One of the crew grabbed the horseshoe. I had just pulled my dinner off the grill when someone yelled that a keelboat just went over. I saw the entire bottom of the boat, but it took a bit for me to react. I guess I wasn't really sure I was seeing what I was seeing. The engine started smoking badly, which was my first clue that this was a really bad situation. Someone called 911, someone else got on the vhf to the coast guard, and 3 of us headed for the docks. When we arrived on the scene 5-10 minutes after the boat went over, most of the boat was underwater. The mast is in the mud, and there is a small amount of air trapped in the hull keeping it afloat just breaking the surface of the water.
This morning one of our club members tied a couple of white plastic barrels to the wreck. There was a lot of traffic on the lake today, there was no sense in having to do another rescue.
If you take a close look at the bilge pump photo you'll get a good idea of the cross section/thickness of the keel stub. You can see the inside where the pump was screwed to and the keel stub fairing filler (gray colored) wrapping round the bottom/outside of the lamination giving you the entire thickness. If anyone has a Rule 800 bilge pump it would be good to know how wide those blue plastic inlet pieces are to compare and understand the thickness of this keel stub.
I would say that anyone with an O'Day 302 would seriously want to examine the keel stub for any signs of stress cracking and take appropriate measures to re-laminate the stub and make it stronger. You may want to consult with a N/A on how best to deal with this.
I saw a Pearson 34 during a keel re-set last year, due to crevice corrosion, and the keel stub was nearly 1" thick, this one appears to be perhaps a 1/4" thick.
Please, if you own a late 80's O'Day do not ignore this it could potentially kill someone.