1984 Oday 25 Restoration

[noreaster222]

Greetings SO. I'm new to sailing and I'm doing a restoration on my first sailboat. I have another thread going here with a lot of back story, if that is against etiquette here to link elsewhere let me know and I'll delete it. Someone over there mentioned this site would also be a good source of information on the Oday.

Right now I'm at a point where I have two areas of concern I need some info on before moving forward.

First, I've cut out my mast step to match the footprint of the mast hinge bracket. I can see that the plywood rot will extend out further than what I've cut. Should I cut maybe 2" square around what I've already cut until it feels fairly dry or should I get strait to cutting out as far as the furthest crack from what I've already cut? How big a deal is it that I am going to have to cut into the grip material and is there anything special I need to know in dealing with it?

Second, water had filled in the compression post hole in the cabin floor. is this normal? As you will see in the pictures it rotted out the bottom of the compression post causing all the issues.

 

[mm2347]

I can help w/ used parts, materials, or info. P.M. or email as it is not proper to do here.
Mike -- mmehne47@hotmail.com or P.M here.

 

[cb32863]

Well...... you picked quite the project. Use a hammer and tap around and find the edge of the rot. On the one I owned it was about 2 feet square. No it is not normal to have water where there is structural wood but, that is the nature of these boats. They leak. How are your bulkheads? Check each and every deck penetration there is and re-bed it properly with Butyl tape. Your toe rails probably leak too and there could be core rot there as well. I owned an O'Day 25, I replaced the bulkheads, re-bedded the toe rails, and re-cored the mast step. Still had lots of issues like the centerboard sticking even after it was replaced as the trunk was swollen.

You don't need to "restore" a boat to be a sailor, you need to sail. From my personal experience with O'Day and the looks of things on yours, it's going to be awhile before you sail.

Oh yeah, D & R Marine for everything O'Day part wise. Good luck and hopefully you are on the water soon and don't throw too much $$ at this "project".


PS: You mentioned in your Cruisers Forum thread you wanted something inexpensive...... This is not going to be... sorry.

 

[Hoosier Kevin]

I have dealt with the compression post. I have a '78 25.
Is it "normal"; no, it shouldn't be. In my case it started when I bought a trailer and started storing it over the winter. Before then it had been on the lake all year. I didn't pay attention to the moisture build up because the angle on the trailer wasn't right so the moisture built up as opposed to running off to the bilge. My fault! Didn't pay attention.
Anyway - there should be some good advice on this if you search the forums for - "compression post depression" - it was a couple of years ago and Ritdog had some really good advice!
I hope you have a 2X4 holding up your cabin - not having the compression post in place will damage the boat.
I replaced my post with "Black Locust" lumber. I have a cousin who is a fabulous woodworker who had the piece and cut it fit right. It is not a 2X4. The length was about 67-68 inches if I remember correctly.
Your picture of the bottom of the post hole brought back memories - it is not flat on the bottom of the hole! You need to allow for this. The other issue is that you will need to jack up the cabin when you replace the post. That is scary! The noises my boat made while I jacked it up were spine tingling!
The other thing I did was to glass the bottom of the post to prevent this from happening again.
I can't help you on the mast tabernacle - I can't get over the pictures - Thanks for posting - Hoosier Kevin