I am considering the purchase of an Oday 17 for use in the Bogue sound. Half the day, there is much water less than 2 ft. How does this boat behave with board half down? And when you begin to run into water that is too shallow. Thanks Harry
Thanks Brian, An interesting boat, that Duck Punt. The thing is... that some of the time I can put the board most of the way down, so I am looking for someone who operates an Oday 17 in water that wont permit the full board. So one has to adapt to hitting shallow spots and Im trying to determine how well I can expect to do this.Pretty much any centerboard boat will not sail well without some board down. I had a Harpoon 4.6 (15' daysailer) and I tried to sail in very skinny water with the rudder blade up, and the centerboard up. There was no CLR, so the boat just crabbed sideways (as I expected it to.) Made neat little vortices off of the rudder as it crabbed sideways, though.
If you are routinely sailing in very skinny water, you might consider building a Duck Punt. It's small, car toppable, and uses pretty much 1 oar and a hard chine for lateral resistance. Here's a great video of Dylan Winter sailing in 6" of flooded meadow in Oxford, England:
A spritsail rig like this Optimist rig could be built with hardwood dowling from a good lumberyard. Opti sails can be bought new for as low as $90 (http://www.intensitysails.com/saforop.html), or if you've got a club in your area with a youth sailing program, you can probably get a whole used rig on the cheap.
You won't go to weather well, but downwind will be OK. Ruddercraft makes a "kick-up rudder" for O'Day's (and others) but they aren't cheap. Won't help at all when trying to point, but would protect the rudder from grounding.I am considering the purchase of an Oday 17 for use in the Bogue sound. Half the day, there is much water less than 2 ft. How does this boat behave with board half down? And when you begin to run into water that is too shallow. Thanks Harry
In theory, yes. In practice, the blades get over tightened to the rudder head causing it to not kick up.Like all small O'DAYs the Day Sailer came with a kick-up rudder already.