my sailboat has a flat bottom and no keel :(

SUMB44

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Jun 19, 2018
51
O'day 20 Port Tobacco
so, the first weekend she was out we lost the engine at the ramp and got pushed around by a fickle breeze and suffered soft groundings in the shallows (water 12" or less), mostly knocking the rudder off its pintels. Tried to take the boat out yesterday amidst the usual swarm of power boats and jet skis but found the swing keel would not deploy. instead we bobbed like a cork on the water between all the intersecting power boat wakes... some quite violent.

so, for the keel... i can only see two answers... pulling the boat out of the water, or sending a diver down into the murk to dislodge whatever is gumming up the system. is that about it?
 
Jun 2, 2004
1,923
Oday Day Sailer Wareham, MA
Your boat's bottom is pretty flat, but does certainly have a KEEL.
The CENTERBOARD, housed inside your boat's KEEL may have jammed up due to mud or other stuff getting wedged in te slot along with the centerboard, or if you were able to get the centerboard down during your initial trip (or a previous owners did?), it is possible that when you went aground, the CB may have been pushed up into the keel slot and the rope pendant used to pull it up may have become jammed between the CB and the sides of the CB housing in the Keel, or it happened as you pulled the boat back onto the trailer. Your CB weighs around 25-30# (just enough to let it drop easily) so a little jiggling from below (either after lifting the boat out of the water by crane or Travel-Lift, or by diving under the boat in the water, I've had to do it on my DS II by diving underneath) may free up the CB and let it drop. Always pull on the CB pendant to raise the CB as the water gets shallow or pull it in as the CB gets pushed up by the water getting shallower, to avoid the line getting stuck again.

Lesson for the masses, not trying to single out anyone, but correcting a minor, yet, far too common error in terms: A "Swing-Keel" is a HEAVILY ballasted (like 300#+) version of a centerboard and usually contains the entire ballast weight of the boat. A winch (often like a trailer winch) is needed to raise and lower the swing-keel. while sailing it actually should be locked In the down position to prevent it from retracting in the event of an unlikely (but still possible!) capsize.

O'DAY never built any "swing-keel" boats.

O'Day trailerable cruisers (192, 20, 222, 23-1, 23-2, 25 ,26, and the 1979-83 version of the 22) all had KEEL/CENTERBOARDS, where a lightly ballasted (as I say, about 20-40#) Centerboard was housed inside a shallow fixed-keel. The Keel contained all of the ballast that gave the boat stability, CB weight contributed very little if any stabilizing force, only helped CB to easily lower out of the keel. The Centerboard on these boats could be easily controlled by a light (1/4"-5/16") line that even a child could probably use to raise/lower the CB, no winch needed.

Now, some may consider the 19' MARINER to have been a swing-keel boat, but (and a former VP of O'DAY once strongly posted this) the Mariner was still a CENTERBOARD boat, perhaps better referred to as a "Ballasted Centerboard Boat". because even though her cast-iron CB weighed 165#, there was 200# of lead in the bilge serving as primary ballast, The CB weight on that boat surely contributed to the stability of the boat when lowered, but she was still correctly a CB boat, not a swing-keel. The newer, STUART MARINE built MARINER now has 250# of lead in the bilge and a mere 75# in the now fiberglass CB. OK, lesson over!
Oh, I get a kick out of the way that O'DAY did such a great job promoting the advantages (and as someone who used to own a boat with a retractable keel, I think they are pretty spot on) of their K/CB designs, yet leaves out the potentially important fact that their K/CB designs need deeper water to get on or off a trailer than the swing-keel boats......... I think the trade-off is mostly worth it!
 

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Jul 17, 2018
1
Oday 15 Beaver Lake Sail Club
I have an O'Day 15. Any help here? It is not a weighted centerboard. It only moves about 15degrees then gets stuck I rolled the boat over and manually moved it, but it seems bound somewhere.

Thanks in advance
 

SUMB44

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Jun 19, 2018
51
O'day 20 Port Tobacco
So prolonged sailing with the keel stuck in the up position is not a safety issue? I got a guy who's going to help me out, but gotta take my boat down to his place down the river a piece...
 
Jun 2, 2004
1,923
Oday Day Sailer Wareham, MA
So prolonged sailing with the keel stuck in the up position is not a safety issue? I got a guy who's going to help me out, but gotta take my boat down to his place down the river a piece...
Well, first....your KEEL is not stuck, it doesn't move, but having the CENTERBORD stuck in the up position is not going to affect the stability of the boat as far as resistance to heeling. It will however, drastically affect the directional stability of the boat, in other words, the boat will steer a lot easier with the CB in the lowered (at least partially) position and your ability to sail to windward will be greatly hampered by the CB being stuck inside the keel, due to less resistance to leeway (boat moves sideways instead of forward) The shallow keel of the O'DAY 20 will offer some directional stability and SOME resistance to leeway, but having the centerboard operational will result in much better handling.
So, in one sense, having the centerboard stuck in the up position is not a "dire" safety issue (boat is no more likely to heel than with CB down), but it will theoretically make the boat harder to steer and difficult to sail to windward. If you are sailing downwind (same direction as wind with sail let all the way out) the CB being stuck up is less of a problem (and is often partially retracted at those times by experienced sailors to reduce drag anyway). I have never tried sailing or maneuvering a Keel/Centerboard boat with the CB fully retracted, my only similar experience is with standard centerboard boats, but I have found that on my DS II, I really need the CB partway down even when under power to maintain easy steering and keeping the boat going where I point her. I would think the 20 would get enough grip on the water with just the keel to enable OK steering under power, but I wouldn't want to try to sail in confined waters or typical boating traffic without the centerboard down at least partway.
 
Jun 2, 2004
1,923
Oday Day Sailer Wareham, MA
I have an O'Day 15. Any help here? It is not a weighted centerboard. It only moves about 15degrees then gets stuck I rolled the boat over and manually moved it, but it seems bound somewhere.

Thanks in advance
I wish I was more familiar with the setup of the old (early 1970's) O'DAY 15 centerboard, but based on my knowledge of the similar-vintage Day Sailer II and Widgeon, I wonder if one of the CB control lines is wedged between the CB and the side of the CB trunk? I note that the 1971 Rigging Information that I have describes CB operation on the 15 as the same as the DS II and Widgeon, so my guess about your problem is that the cable that pulls the CB down has slipped off the top edge of the CB and is wedged alongside the CB in the trunk. I know this was a common problem on the DS II at that time. I'll post a few diagrams of the DS II Centerboard rigging from that vintage, though not exactly the same as your 15, it may be close enough to help.
 

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SUMB44

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Jun 19, 2018
51
O'day 20 Port Tobacco
I've 'sailed' the 20 with the centerboard fully up under mainsail only in slight winds... for a variety of circumstances.
Tacking was near impossible, leeway was pronounced... fought an unfavorable breeze for four hours to cover a quarter mile in extremely shallow water to get back to my slip.
 
Nov 8, 2010
11,386
Beneteau First 36.7 & 260 Minneapolis MN & Bayfield WI
Your centerboard has probably split and is now swollen with water. Pulling it up into the keel trunk wedges it there and usually requires a diver to pull it out, usually with the help of tools. The long term fix its to replace or rebuild the centerboard. Its a very common issue with this vintage and style of o'day.

While your CB has some weight to it, it is close to buoyancy-neutral and will not fall down if even slightly jammed.