322, my winter project

Sep 12, 2020
15
N/A n/a Casco Bay, Maine
Last week I picked up my 33 year old O'Day 322 in Buzzards Bay, MA and brought it home to Casco Bay, ME. I was going to stop in Gloucester, MA for an overnight, but the weather was perfect so I just sailed through the night and made it in about 28 hours total. The last 12 there was thick fog and no wind so the Garmin Radar and little Yanmar got a workout. I forgot how much I love these little diesels. About 14 hours of motoring at 2,800 rpms total for the whole trip and I used 1/4 tank of fuel. So about 1/3 GPH, love it! Once I got it to my friends mooring in Freeport I unstepped the mast and had the boat loaded on a hydraulic trailer to bring to my house. Having the boat in my driveway not only saved me quite a bit of storage money, but it also will be very convenient to have the boat at home and 8' from my garage full of tools. Once the hauler left I got to work making some a-frames for the mast to rest on, lifted it up off the deck, and then did a little budget shrink wrap job with a weed torch. I gave myself enough room with the mast to get to everything on the deck and it has enough height that the snow should shed off the shrink wrap pretty nicely.

This will actually be the second 1987 322 I'll own. Back when I lived in Maryland for a few years I had one on the Chesapeake bay and did a few years of bay cruising and one long trip to Martha's Vineyard (hitting all the stops along the way). The shoal draft wing keel and the well designed interior were big reasons I bought the last boat as well as this one... When I decided I wanted another sailboat a few months ago (had just sold my powerboat) I was looking for something in the 34-36' range but this 322 came along at a price I couldn't pass up and offered a similar interior layout to the 34' boats I was looking at with much less draft.

I plan to do some east coast cruising with this boat and possibly some time in the Bahamas over the next few years, this coming summer I'll be staying local in Maine to work out all the bugs and hopefully head south about this time next year. So I'll be doing some appropriate upgrades over the winter to make it more comfortable for my plans.

In addition to the radar, autopilot, and dodger/bimini that are all in good working order. This boat also had all new standing rigging and brand new roller fuller last year. Big $$ items that will be very nice to have considering my plans for the boat. Now, with any old boat acquired for a relatively low price, there are a long list of projects that need attention and of course another long list of upgrades and things that I'll be doing along the way to make myself feel better and to reduce the chance of problems when I don't want them.

Here's a preliminary list that will only grow:

Maintenance/ Repairs

Exterior
--drop, inspect, and re-bed keel: I have no reason to believe the keel was ever dropped on this boat, so I think it only makes sense to drop it and see what's going on in there. Although I believe this boat was built before the "keel sump issues" it will also make me feel better to know what I have and repair as needed. Since the boat is in my driveway this will be a relatively easy job using a series of bottle jacks and blocking to lower the keel from the boat.
--replace all thru-hull and seacocks: I'm sure all of these are original so for a few hundred $$ I'll sleep better at night knowing they are in good condition.
--strip bottom down to barrier and repaint
--replace stuffing box with dripless shaft seal
--rebed all questionable deck fittings
--remove, sand, and varnish exterior wood
--rebuild or replace winches
--re-caulk tinted windows
--replace solar vents above head and aft berth

Interior
--replace all original head hoses: most of these were done by the PO when he installed the new electric head a few years ago (that thing is NICE), but there are still a few original stinky's left
--replace water heater: still working but very rusty so it's only a matter of time
--replace water heater hoses to engine
--clean up surface rust on engine and mounts and paint
--freshen up interior wood: sand and teak oil a few coats
--tidy up wiring

Upgrades
--dingy davits
--refrigeration: probably a nor cold ice box conversion kit but I'm open to other things
--some sort of heating system: I'm thinking a webasto forced air diesel heater, but still researching!
--solar: on the davits
--AIS: most likely just receiving, but I may opt for a complete system with transponder.
--New VHF to work with the AIS
--replace vhf cable
-- battery monitor
--upgrade battery bank: going with 6 volt golf cart batteries, most likely just a 2 battery bank which should give me plenty of capacity with solar.
--all led interior lighting, anchor, and running lights: I think most are already LED, but have to confirm

I'll be updating with some pictures and progress from time to time as slowly chip away at it. I'll be focusing on the bigger exterior projects before the cold weather hits then I'll get a heating system installed and move on to interior projects/ upgrades.


A few pictures to prove it happened!
 

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Sep 12, 2020
15
N/A n/a Casco Bay, Maine
And here are a few interior pictures of the shrink wrap. Before heavy snow comes I plan to add some "crossmembers" going between each set of stanchions so there is no inward force on the posts from the snow. In the meantime it will be nice to be able to work on deck without anything in the way.
 

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dmax

.
Jul 29, 2018
971
O'Day 35 Buzzards Bay
Congrats - nice boat. I had a 1988 302 (should've held out for the 322 :)). When you drop the keel, measure the thickness of the keel stub glass - I was told the design called for 6 layers of glass but the (outsourced) builder only used 2. My keel broke off after a soft grounding with the receding tide - the keel stub was not strong enough to support the boat. I had the stub re-built and sailed the boat for many years. If yours appears thin, consider beefing it up.I have seen a few others that have been done through various methods.
 
Apr 4, 2013
115
O'day 240 NY, NY (City Island)
Congrats. With the list of upgrades you're planning it will definitely be in bristol condition and ready for cruising. Definitely share more photos of your progress!
 
Oct 22, 2014
20,995
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Welcome @acarter to the forum!
You have a big winter activity list, and from the sound of it not your first rodeo. The pictures and boat look great. A real find.

I look forward to hearing about your progress and seeing the boat reveal it’s beauty under your hands.
 
Feb 22, 2010
70
Oday 322 Delaware River
Welcome to the O'Day 322 group. ! You will find many useful posting/discussions here. And we all will be interested in your drop the keel project. Please feel free to take lots of pictures and document thoroughly.
You have probably already read the extensive postings on this topic, including mine where I drill/test and found 13/16th inch depth on my keel sump which I think was pretty good considering the discussion, and Tangarey's extensive discussion/research on the topic and his fix.

Since you have owned TWO 322's now, you know the boat, and that seems to me to be quite an endorsement of the design. I find the boat extremely comfortable for two or three, and it sails quite well for a cruising boat. That wacky keel that looks like a mistake actually performs very well. If you don't have the owners manual, Tally Ho just posted his 322 manual, read the two pages on the HydroKeel description. I find everything they say to be absolutely true. i.e The boat is not the least bit tender, the upwelling of water under the keel is prominently visible at the stern which they say reduces drag, the reduced leeward drift is true, the boat points well, the maneuverability of the boat in forward and reverse is insanely good.

The boat is generally well balanced. It has a very light feel on the wheel until it is overpowered at which time i take 1st reef of the main first, before the genoa, and then subsequently reduce genoa, then 2nd reef main.

Yes, I love my Yanmar 2GM20F. six knots all day long on smooth water at 1/2 gallon an hour, 5.5 knots with some chop.

I replaced my two solar vents with the Marinco 4" solar vents shortly after I bought the boat. They really improve the airflow and keep any odors at bay. They are ridiculously expensive for what they are, and they fail after two-three years, BUT I have found rebuild kits for the motors, which I swap in when they fail and then they are good for another two to three years.

Check out my YouTube video on Isotherm ice box conversion of O'Day 322. I am very happy with the Isotherm refrigeration.

I recommend you buy a VHF that has AIS built in (either receive or xmit/receive). That way you don't have to fuss with a cable splitter and/or a second AIS antenna, or a separate AIX box. My VHF posts the AIS target data to the NMEA2000 SeaTalkng network, so the AIS targets then appear on my RayMarine AXIOM chart MFD. Very nice.

Let us know how your winter projects go.

Best wishes.
 
Jan 2, 2017
765
O'Day & Islander 322 & 37 Scottsdale, AZ & Owls Head, ME
322s are terrific boats. Two minor adjustments you might consider if you haven’t done them already: move the fuel cutoff outside the cockpit locker and put a piano hinge on the icebox top. Good luck with your extensive plans.
 
Sep 12, 2020
15
N/A n/a Casco Bay, Maine
Thanks for the responses. I'll be doing my best to take lots of pictures and post my findings as I go! Dropping the keel will probably be one fo the first things I do when I get some time to start cracking at it in a week or two.


Congrats - nice boat. I had a 1988 302 (should've held out for the 322 :)). When you drop the keel, measure the thickness of the keel stub glass - I was told the design called for 6 layers of glass but the (outsourced) builder only used 2. My keel broke off after a soft grounding with the receding tide - the keel stub was not strong enough to support the boat. I had the stub re-built and sailed the boat for many years. If yours appears thin, consider beefing it up.I have seen a few others that have been done through various methods.
I'll definitely be paying close attention to the keel stub condition and thickness. I'm not really afraid to add some layers of glass if it looks anything but great. The P/O had some 1/4" stainless backing plates made and installed to spread the load out some, I'll definitely be re-using those when it all goes back together.



Welcome to the O'Day 322 group. ! You will find many useful posting/discussions here. And we all will be interested in your drop the keel project. Please feel free to take lots of pictures and document thoroughly.
You have probably already read the extensive postings on this topic, including mine where I drill/test and found 13/16th inch depth on my keel sump which I think was pretty good considering the discussion, and Tangarey's extensive discussion/research on the topic and his fix.

Since you have owned TWO 322's now, you know the boat, and that seems to me to be quite an endorsement of the design. I find the boat extremely comfortable for two or three, and it sails quite well for a cruising boat. That wacky keel that looks like a mistake actually performs very well. If you don't have the owners manual, Tally Ho just posted his 322 manual, read the two pages on the HydroKeel description. I find everything they say to be absolutely true. i.e The boat is not the least bit tender, the upwelling of water under the keel is prominently visible at the stern which they say reduces drag, the reduced leeward drift is true, the boat points well, the maneuverability of the boat in forward and reverse is insanely good.

The boat is generally well balanced. It has a very light feel on the wheel until it is overpowered at which time i take 1st reef of the main first, before the genoa, and then subsequently reduce genoa, then 2nd reef main.

Yes, I love my Yanmar 2GM20F. six knots all day long on smooth water at 1/2 gallon an hour, 5.5 knots with some chop.

I replaced my two solar vents with the Marinco 4" solar vents shortly after I bought the boat. They really improve the airflow and keep any odors at bay. They are ridiculously expensive for what they are, and they fail after two-three years, BUT I have found rebuild kits for the motors, which I swap in when they fail and then they are good for another two to three years.

Check out my YouTube video on Isotherm ice box conversion of O'Day 322. I am very happy with the Isotherm refrigeration.

I recommend you buy a VHF that has AIS built in (either receive or xmit/receive). That way you don't have to fuss with a cable splitter and/or a second AIS antenna, or a separate AIX box. My VHF posts the AIS target data to the NMEA2000 SeaTalkng network, so the AIS targets then appear on my RayMarine AXIOM chart MFD. Very nice.

Let us know how your winter projects go.

Best wishes.
I agree with everything you said, a very well rounded boat for the size and draft, definitely ahead of it's time! My understanding with the Transceiver VHF/ AIS setups is that they still have two VHF antennas (two ports on the back of the radio). I'm talking about the transmitting setups, not the receive only. It seems there are only a few options out there for transmitter/reciever VHFs and they are quite expensive. Most people seem to go with a black box and separate AIS capable VHF then hook up NMEA 2k to the chartpolotter to view received targets.

If I decide to go the receive only route I'll do as you suggested and just get a new AIS capable VHF and tie that into the plotter via NMEA2k. Pretty simply and affordable setup with only one VHF antenna as mentioned. Transmitting adds quite a bit to the equation though and I'm not sure I want to get that involved.




322s are terrific boats. Two minor adjustments you might consider if you haven’t done them already: move the fuel cutoff outside the cockpit locker and put a piano hinge on the icebox top. Good luck with your extensive plans.
I always thought the location of the fuel cutoff was dumb, it's especially frustrating when you have a cockpit full of people and you have to ask someone to move so you can shut the engine down. I may have to add that to my list while I'm in there working on some other things. As far as the icebox lid, will definitely be adding a hinge!
 
Jan 7, 2011
4,727
Oday 322 East Chicago, IN
My fuel cut-off is mounted on the engine control panel. Pretty convenient to kill the engine, the turn the key off to silence the buzzer.

Greg
 
Sep 12, 2020
15
N/A n/a Casco Bay, Maine
I had a pretty productive week, got the keel project finished, and got a few thru-hulls replaced as well as some deck fittings re-bedded.

Let's talk about the keel first:

This is what I started with, the P.O. had installed this 1/2" thick backing plate under the 3 aft bolts, which I saw no reason not to re-use when I put it all back together.

IMG_20201007_193130292.jpg

Nuts off, ready to drop the keel.

IMG_20201008_130104764.jpg


This was the fun part! Having a nice wide wing keel made lowering it with three bottle jacks a pretty painless process. I always kept the blocks within an inch of the keel, that way if something happened it didn't have far to go. I used one bottle jack at first (pretty much centered) and when the studs got close to coming out of the hull I switched over to 3 jacks, one on either side forward and a single jack centered in the back. This allowed me to lower it in a controlled fashion.

IMG_20201008_133743846_HDR.jpg

Studs are in good shape!

IMG_20201008_135442059.jpg

So, this is pretty interesting, if you look closely you can see that the bed of 5200 is lighter colored on the inside and darker on the outside. The darker colored stuff on the outside wasn't doing anything, no adhesion or sealing left. When I jacked the boat up off the blocks and let the jack down the keel did not want to release, it took quite a bit of motivation, wiggling, and a sawzaw blade to get it to separate, that 2" wide by 3' long bed of 5200 in the center was happily holding the 3500 lb keel and took a lot of work to get it to release. That's why I love 5200!

IMG_20201008_135450411.jpg

Lowered far enough to work and blocked well for a few days!

IMG_20201008_142120062_HDR.jpg

Now it was time to get to work inside. Under the 1/2" plate, the P.O. had put a nice thick bed of epoxy so that the plate was evenly distributing it's pressure. While this was a good idea, (I did the same thing upon re-installation) it was quite a pain to get all that stuff out of there.

IMG_20201008_151510437.jpg

So, the big question! How thick was my keel sump? Just under 3/4". I think it's safe to say that this wasn't a "bad one", but for $100 worth of materials I decided it was worth adding a few layers of glass inside. My theory was that it was easy and cheap enough, so why not. In case anyone is wondering this boat is hull #100

IMG_20201008_175850706.jpg

Prepped for the glass.

IMG_20201008_161455631.jpg

Keel cleaned up.

IMG_20201008_170840088.jpg
 
Sep 12, 2020
15
N/A n/a Casco Bay, Maine
I did 4 layers of glass total. The first layer was the full width of the sump and I progressively made them smaller until the 4th layer which was about half the width. Not my prettiest glass work (didn't spend much time on trimming the glass), but it's a bilge... I didn't get any good pictures, but I also did the same thing for the forward bolt, in front of the crossmember.

IMG_20201009_181501797.jpg

I took about 10 minutes of extra time to dremel a little grove near the outside of the keel seam. I figured that this would give a good place for the 5200 to form a gasket with a little more stretch. If it doesn't work then it certainly didn't do much damage.

IMG_0014.jpg

Going back up.

IMG_0019.jpg

A whole tube of 5200 seemed like the perfect amount.

IMG_0021.jpg

Bolts torqued to spec and a little grey paint to make things look somewhat presentable. The mess of wires will be dealt with later :)

IMG_0042.jpg
 
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Sep 12, 2020
15
N/A n/a Casco Bay, Maine
A few other projects I got done. Rebedded the bow pulpit, anchor locker hinges, and the bow roller housing.


Talk about some serious corrosion! I'm not sure if this was a sub-par grade of aluminum or just a poor job sealing it but it was pretty bad. A little work with a needle scaler and it cleaned up pretty good. Seemed like there was still plenty of material left to be fine, it's also not really a structural item so I'm not too concerned.
IMG_0003.jpg

Good as new! Well, maybe not, but it will work...

IMG_0010.jpgIMG_0011.jpg

And back on. I also rebedded the chainplate while I was there with some new bolts. I'm glad I won't be doing this again any time soon (or ever) as these were some seriously difficult to reach bolts on the inside.

IMG_0031.jpg

I also got all of my below-the-water thru-hulls replaced and did most of the above-the-water ones. Still have the 3x 5/8" to do because my supplier was out of stock. Groco bronze thru-hull and valves below the water and marlon above the waterline. I have no reason to believe any of these weren't original. All 4 of the below waterline bronze thru-hull were in perfect condition and probably would have lasted another 30+ years without issues. However the plastic thru-hulls above the water, especially the ones that get a lot of sun were in pretty bad shape and took very little effort to break off.

The scariest one was the bilge pump, which if your familiar with the 322, is mounted on the transom and gets the most sun. When I stuck the drill on the hose clamp to remove it, the thru hull just busted off from the inside. The sun had completely deteriorated the outer flange of the thru hull and the sealant was the only thing holding it in. So probably less than 1LB of force broke it off. Pretty scary considering it was for the bilge pump and pretty close to the waterline... Look at the second picture below to see what I'm talking about.


IMG_0039.jpgIMG_0040.jpgIMG_0045.jpg
 

dmax

.
Jul 29, 2018
971
O'Day 35 Buzzards Bay
That was a productive week! Nice work on the keel - 3/4" thickness is not one of the bad ones but always good to add more.
 
Feb 22, 2010
70
Oday 322 Delaware River
Mr Carter,
Thank you so much for your extensive photos on your project. What an excellent job !
It is clear you are a fearless and accomplished DIY'er !

Look at those keel bolts, like brand new! Excellent. That must make you feel good. Obviously that 5200 caulking kept the sea at bay for 32 years. Nice fiberglass enhancement job also. Good for another 32 years.

Yes, my stern bilge through-hull was the same, falling apart from sun damage. only the lifecaulk was holding the tube in place on the hull. Scary. I replaced it with a new plastic one , Good for another 10 years. But - I which i had replaced with a bronze one. Next time.

All my bronze through hulls are also working well after 32 years, but I do lube them annually.