I'm considering the purchase of an Oday 22. It will be a project boat. I plan to refurbish her. My concern is that there are several spots where the deck is very soft. I believe it's because the composite deck material under the fiberglass has completely rotted. The boat now has a customized interior liner so I can not inspect it. I have several questions: Is the composite material easily removed and replaced with glass? and what difficulties will I have rebonding the deck hull joint? I believe that a leak in this joint may be the root cause of the rotting. How is the teak toe rail attached? I appreciate any help or comments
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Todd, I'm strongly urging you to pass this one up. O'Day made a lot these boats and they were nice boats with great lines, but their later boats like the 222 with keel/centerboards were far more superior and faster sailers. The only problem was that O'Day didn't make too many of them. They only made about 300 in my area before they went out of business, and I think the West Coast O'Day factory built about that many also. The O'Day 23 built after 1974 is great boat too. There was an issue with the earlier 23s that had to do with their cast iron keel until they started using lead, but the 23s are a great boat for their size. The 222s weren't without issues. They had issues with their rudders. I know because I went through two of them myself on my 222. Actually, the O'Day 23 is better suited for single handing than the 222 because the Gennie winches are on the combing where they are easily reached by the helmsmen. Also, the 23 has a very handsome stern rail, where the 222s don't. My 222 came with a full stern rail only because I requested it, and I understand that they installed them in 19 other 222s. Also, I had to install my Gennie winches along with the tracks w/cars, on my combing myself. O'Day agreed to leave my winches and tracks off the cabin for me. So if you're looking for an O'Day in the 22 foot range, I'd check out these two boats that I just mentioned. They're worth fixing up if you find one in the same condition as this one. Good luck! Joe
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