Konstantin asked method of hull construction of O'Day sailboats

[Shoaldrafter]

Konstantin asked method of hull construction of O'Day sailboats.

I have a 26' O'Day made in 1985. The hull is glass matt under the gel coat. I say this from examination of exposed hull from inside observations. That is from my being able to see hull from inside from various locations in boat. It looks like resin soaked glass cloth to me. I have some experience in working with frp, although not professional boat builder.

Built in pieces, such as seats, bulkheads etc., appear to have been prefabricated (a usual method of boat building) in molds then tabbed or glassed in place. You would have to ask Rudy at D&R how your particular boat was made, but usually boat builders made all models using similar methods.

Ed K
26

 

[Shoaldrafter]

Konstantin,

Let me clarify what I see on my boat. I have access to area under cockpit that allows me to see under gunnells, back of transom, other corners. The main areas of the hull that I can see are clearly fiber impregnated with resin. That is there are many places inside the hull which were not painted or coated and you can see weave patterns. That would not be gun sprayed.

I cannot make same judgement as to transom since there is coating/paint coverning it.

Also there are places inside the boat that allow access to bolts. With flashlight you can see wall of hull. My opinion it is glass cloth of a heavy weave pattern impregnated with resin.

Maybe someone with a 31, 34, or other big boat will comment, but I think that at least the layer exposed was impregnated cloth. I suspect that you may be right about the thicken areas near the keel. To get to several inches they usually filled a void with a gun. Also, after ballast placed in keel, I would expect the voids to be filled by gun.

Ed K
26

 

[Joe11688]

Konstantin asked method of hull construction of O'Day sailboats.

I have a 26' O'Day made in 1985. The hull is glass matt under the gel coat. I say this from examination of exposed hull from inside observations. That is from my being able to see hull from inside from various locations in boat. It looks like resin soaked glass cloth to me. I have some experience in working with frp, although not professional boat builder.

Built in pieces, such as seats, bulkheads etc., appear to have been prefabricated (a usual method of boat building) in molds then tabbed or glassed in place. You would have to ask Rudy at D&R how your particular boat was made, but usually boat builders made all models using similar methods.

Ed K
26

Ed,
When I toured the O'Day plant back in 1986, they were building some 222s and other larger sailboat hulls. The plant Foreman Chuck Resnevic, took me into the molding area and explained how the hulls and decks were constructed. I know that they used the roving gun to spray inside the hulls, as I saw it being used. The one very important thing that I found out later about the 222s is that they were built using epoxy resin and not Polyester. This really made sense to me later on when I tried to fix a couple of gouges on my bow with a Polyester filler that I bought in a local store. The patch kept falling out and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong until I talked to Rudy. He said," Joe, the reason why the patch isn't holding up is because your boat was made with epoxy resins, and Polyester fillers and resins won't stick to epoxy." "Epoxy will stick to Polyester or Epoxy." "So if you want the patch to stick, get an epoxy filler." So I went out and did what he said, and the patch has held up all these years.
Joe