Thinking of buying a 1978 O'Day 23

[kmansails]

Any suggestions on what I should look out for on this boat? Took a quick look at it on Saturday and it appears to be in pretty good shape for its age. All the sails were cleaned and inspected this past year and are in good condition. The headstay and backstay probably need to be replaced as well as the mainsheet line. Motor is old, but runs great. I didn't see an leaks, but didn't really check it out that closely. Hull needs a good cleaning and new paint. What else should I be concerned about? Here is the description. Thanks.

"1978 O'Day 23 foot sail boat- Ready to sail, easy to single hand and fits the whole family. Will sleep up to 5 people. Swing keel allows draft as little as 2.3'. Includes: 6hp Johnson Sea Horse (very reliable), portta potty, vhf radio, new stereo with CD and MP3 input. There are 3 sails: main a 110 jib and a 150 all in very good condition- just professionally cleaned and serviced. Self-bailing cockpit with lots of top-side storage including a cockpit cooler! Enjoy the best sailing days of the fall season."

 

[Jfelkins]

I love mine. Does it have any electronics?

 

[kmansails]

I have done some research and people seem to think this is a solid boat. the price is fair, but the boat needs some work. I guess when he got the motor serviced, they cut the wire that recharges the battery. I was thinking of adding a second battery. What kind of set-up do you have? Do you think I will need to rewire the boat?

 

[Joe11688]

I have done some research and people seem to think this is a solid boat. the price is fair, but the boat needs some work. I guess when he got the motor serviced, they cut the wire that recharges the battery. I was thinking of adding a second battery. What kind of set-up do you have? Do you think I will need to rewire the boat?

If the charging unit on your outboard is putting out, I would run a Marine duplex copper #10 wire red + and black - wire from the two contact screws on the side of the engine to a small terminal connector in your lazarett and have a separate duplex coming off the terminal to your marine battery. I installed crimp on eye connectors on the ends of the wires.
Depending on what kind of a load you are planning on having, a single 100 amp hour deep cycle battery should be enough for that boat. What I did was use the old eclectic receptacle on the inside transom of my boat for the wire to enter into the lazarett area. I took the plastic guts out of the receptacle and each spring when I mount my outboard to the stern bracket, I run the wire through the metal receptacle and add a bead of tape around the jacket so it doesn't pull out. Then I caulk around the wire to keep the water out. This task is pretty easy with an 8" Beckson Deck Plate in the center of the transom. I'm able to unscrew the cover and stick my hand in the opening to lead the wire around under the lazarett hatch. The two #10 copper conductors offer plenty of voltage and current carrying capacity for charging my battery. An electric Plug and receptacle has never been able to do that for me in the past. I use an electric autopilot most of the time and only use a VHF radio some of the time. My interior cabin lights are self contained triple A battery LEDs and I very seldom ever do any night sailing. That white wire in the picture is the duplex coming from the outboard charging unit. I mounted the terminal board on the bulkhead just inside the lazarett under the cover on the right side. I used a PC mouse pad to cover the electric connections. The other half of the duplex wire come into the cabin in that area to the battery under the cockpit behind that hose and pipe. The other outlet on the transom is for my Autohelm 1000 ST+ Autopilot.

 

[Indysailor]

On a related note...charging

First, thanks Joe for posting those pictures. It seems you can always be counted on for clear explanations and good images of your mods. Wish I had time to do some of that stuff.

Second, I have a 7watt solar charger and have not yet hooked it up to my battery. Having read conflicting info about whether I need to regulate the charger, I am wondering if others are trickle charging their boats and at what point they would recommend using a regulator to prevent overcharging.

We have one battery and just the minimal standard O'Day 23 circuits- steaming light, running lights, interior lights, with an auxiliary circuit that is not hooked up. We don't use the battery much, but we want to trickle charge it to maintain the battery and build the charge back up after we stay out over night.

I can't remember the exact amp hours of the battery, but I know it's under 100. Like maybe 80 or so. My gut tells me we won't have a problem with overcharging.
Thoughts?

 

[kmansails]

Thanks Joe!

 

[Joe11688]

First, thanks Joe for posting those pictures. It seems you can always be counted on for clear explanations and good images of your mods. Wish I had time to do some of that stuff.

Second, I have a 7watt solar charger and have not yet hooked it up to my battery. Having read conflicting info about whether I need to regulate the charger, I am wondering if others are trickle charging their boats and at what point they would recommend using a regulator to prevent overcharging.

We have one battery and just the minimal standard O'Day 23 circuits- steaming light, running lights, interior lights, with an auxiliary circuit that is not hooked up. We don't use the battery much, but we want to trickle charge it to maintain the battery and build the charge back up after we stay out over night.

I can't remember the exact amp hours of the battery, but I know it's under 100. Like maybe 80 or so. My gut tells me we won't have a problem with overcharging.
Thoughts?

I honestly don't know much about solar chargers, but I don't think that a 7 watt collector is going to overcharge the battery. My friend Wayne mounted a small collector just to the right of his companionway on the cabin of his Seaward 22. He has a small air space under it so that it doesn't get too hot from the cabin roof. I don't think he has any kind of voltage regulator and he claims that his battery is always up with plenty of power. His 9.9 Johnson has electric start with a charging unit.
Years ago, I had to charge my battery at the dock about mid season every summer. I think that it was due to the fact that I was using a cheap marine two prong polarized plug and receptacle from West Marine. Now that I've gone to a larger copper conductor with a termination board, I no longer need to do that. The charging unit on the engine seems to be keeping my battery up the whole season. I never used my interior lights years back and if I did, it was for checking out a chart. I did use my running lights for hours at a time as I did a lot of night sailing to Potter's Cove in Prudence Island near Bristol, arriving in the wee hours of the morning. I no longer do that since I've been retired. If you have an 80 Amp hour battery, it's safe to say that you can get by with it if you just run the necessities like your VHF, running lights at night, and your autopilot. Hopefully someone else can chime in about solar collectors and what is needed.

 

[Joe11688]

Thanks Joe!

It was my pleasure!

I think that I've done about 30 different mods on my boat through the years, but I did them one at a time each year. When I first bought my boat new, I started out trailer sailing every weekend and I wanted the set up and break down time to be as short as possible. So I used quick shackles on my Main sheet and a press button quick pin on my fore stay. The traveler and the Johnson Handy-Lock on the back stay came later, as did the stern rail mast crutch. Everything is so much more expensive today that you just have to do it a little at a time. Once you get started doing these mods, it becomes as enjoyable as sailing the boat. If you do the mods that you want to do just one at a time, they'll mount up after a while believe me. Good luck!
Joe