I am a 57 year old man and I am 5 ft. 9 in. tall, 260 lbs. needless to say I am not the most nimble or graceful person around.Three weeks ago on a wim I bought a 33 year old O'Day 20. I say on a wim, although I have owned a daysailor in the past, it was a 14 ft. Holder Vagabond, I don't have very much sailing experience.I live in Colorado where there is very little water and the sailing is restricted to small to medium size lakes. This does not mean it isn't challenging to sail with our tricky winds and very changeable weather. I now know that I was very lucky in the boat purchase and in spite of my ignorance and inexperience I got a fair deal. That said , there are several issues with the boat and motor that need to be adressed before I can enjoy myself on the water. The first thing to look at of course is always the standing rigging and in my case just figuring out where everything goes. The person I bought the boat from lives about two hours away and at three dollars a gallon is not realy available to help out with the first mast raising. After some head scratching and pondering, the mast is up and the boom is set and I am ready to launch. Now is the time to try out the 5 hp Volvo Penta that came with the boat. Guess what? The motor runs but there are several gas leaks to deal with. Now I don't know about most people but I hate the smell and feel of raw gasoline, and the first thing that happens is the primer bulp splits and I get a handful of gas. After a very lame attempt at a repair I go in search of a new primer bulb; enter the world of the metric system; after a week of searching I finaly give up and start to put together a bunch of brass connectors to fit together a new fuel line by going up and down in the size of the line to accomdate a 5/16 in bulb into a 3/16 th fuel line.Have you ever seen how much preasure can build up in a closed container of gas on a realy hot afternoon? Boy did I ever get a bath when I had to cut into the gas line to make a splice. This brings me to the second attempt to lanch the boat, playing it safe I chose to use only the main sail and the motor to get away from the dock. This works out pretty good for awhile although it is very slow going. Everything goes as planned until time to aproach the dock to load the boat on the trailer. At this time an offshore wind comes up and I tack into the wind and start the motor or at least try to and once again the motor fails to start and I drift into trouble waters. Thankfuly there are no other boats around to bang into and there is only one real close call with a submerged rock before I am able to finaly start the motor and make a somewhat tamer approach to dock. to make the day complete, after the boat is trailered and parked on the hard, the gear stowed and sail covered I attempt to climb out of the boat and miss a step to the trailer wheel fender and fall out of my boaton to the ground. Unfortunently no one saw me and I won't have to live down this paticular episode of gracefulness. Don Chesley