New O'Day Owner - Please Help

Joe11688 · Aug 31, 2009

Mad Dog said:
Hi All,

Greetings from the Connecticut shoreline. My wife and I just bought our first cabin boat, a 1978 O'Day 25. It's been kept in very good condition, but the previous owner had taken quite a few things apart to clean/replace, so I am now in the process of putting everything back together. Unfortunately, there are no O'Days nearby to use as a reference. I apologize for what's going to sound like really dumb questions, so please excuse my igorance. Right now I have two issues:

1. I am putting the deck handrails back, and I notice the machine bolts stick into the cabin about 1 inch. Is this normal? Should there just be enough thread to fit a washer and nut, and cover with the plastic caps?

2. The arm that holds the forward hatch open is not attached to the hatch underside. Does anyone know what fasteners are used here, and in what order? I assume bolt+washer on the topside, and a nut on the underside?

Thanks for your patience with my questions. I suspect I'll have a few more as we piece this baby back together!

They're not dumb questions. I don't have a 25 but I do have lifelines and stanchions on my 222. It's possible that the PO may have broken some of those bolts when he removed them and he replaced them with longer bolts. I'm not sure if my bolts protrude like that in my cabin, but it stands to reason that you don't want that can cause harm to anyone. I would cut them and cap them, myself.
I have a Grey Marine hatch on my boat that I rebuilt last year. I bought a used hatch just like it and made a good hatch out of the two. The arm, or adjuster on mine is held to the hatch flange with a Allen fitting type bolt. Yours may be different, I don't know. Here's some pics of mine. The first two pics show the back up plates and lock nuts for two of my stanchions. The bolts look to be even with the surface of the nuts. On my adjusters; the a pin is connected to the hatch cover at the top end of the adjuster, and an Allen bolt is used to connect the bottom part of the adjuster to the flange. I hope that I was able to be of some help to you. We have three O'Day 25's and one O'Day 26 in our club, but I rarely ever get to look inside them. I only sail on week days and when I happen to go to the club on weekends, I never see these people at the dock with their boats. Good Luck!
Joe

Al24305 · Aug 31, 2009

Yo Mad Dog,
I have a 1976 O'day 25' and the answer to your questions are:
1) Yes, the bolts should not protrude thru the inner liner and the openings should have plastic caps to cover them.
2) Bolt on the outside with a washer/acorn nut on the inside.

I would also suggest that you look up Rudy at D&R Marine over in Fall River, MA. He's going to be your new best friend to help you get your boat back on the water.

Shoaldrafter · Sep 1, 2009

Mad Dog 25

Mad Dog,

first, welcome! As you have already seen there are others on this forum with similar boats and good answers.

It helps in your question to identify your boat. Some readers only read about their boat therefore miss questions posted without such i.d.:cry:

Often O'Day boats of differing models used the same methods of constuction as Joe points to his boat, it is a first cousin of your boat and his answers should be right on.

Many bolts on O'Day boats started life longer and were trimmed to size during construction. A good bolt cutter or saw solves that issue. I also smooth end and run die down bolt to make it work easier.:cussing:

Again, welcome to the home of old boat owners...:2cool:

Ed K
26

Mad Dog said:
Hi All,

Greetings from the Connecticut shoreline. My wife and I just bought our first cabin boat, a 1978 O'Day 25. It's been kept in very good condition, but the previous owner had taken quite a few things apart to clean/replace, so I am now in the process of putting everything back together. Unfortunately, there are no O'Days nearby to use as a reference. I apologize for what's going to sound like really dumb questions, so please excuse my igorance. Right now I have two issues:

1. I am putting the deck handrails back, and I notice the machine bolts stick into the cabin about 1 inch. Is this normal? Should there just be enough thread to fit a washer and nut, and cover with the plastic caps?

2. The arm that holds the forward hatch open is not attached to the hatch underside. Does anyone know what fasteners are used here, and in what order? I assume bolt+washer on the topside, and a nut on the underside?

Thanks for your patience with my questions. I suspect I'll have a few more as we piece this baby back together!

Joe11688 · Sep 1, 2009

Ahoy Ed!
Thank you for those nice words that I asked you to say about me!

Joe

emergpa1 · Sep 1, 2009

Hi mad dog,
congrats on the boat. I am in the process of rebuilding my 1984 oday 26, which is alot like your 25. You can see some of the pictures by going to my profile page and looking at my photo album.
I was curious as to your experience level with repairing sailboats. I was just wondering if you were checking the core around the items you were reattaching. Mine was rotted out and had to be repaired. I was also wondering what type of sealent are you planning to use?
The bolts on my oday that attach the handrails are flat head machine screws size #10 24 X 3"
I had to do a lot of reading and looking before i could understand all the fasteners i needed for my boat. (heck i also had to do a lot of reading about working with epoxy, different types of sealents, different types of finish, and lots of other things ) I consider my self pretty handy, but i learned alot about fasteners, alloys, and proper use of same. The supplier i ended up using was Jamestown distributors.
best of luck
keith

Joe11688 · Sep 1, 2009

Re: Thanks guys!

My pleasure Matt. For metal deck hardware, you want to use a good brand of Polysulfide caulking. Silicone acts more like a rubber gasket and is only good for plastic hardware. In fact, Dow Corning 795 is recommended for plastic hatches and Acrylic port lights because it has the adhesion qualities of Polysulfide along with a plastic friendly chemical composition of silicone. The chemicals in Polysulfide will cause plastic and Acrylic to dry out and crack. Silicone is friendlier, but it doesn't stick well. Check out any of Don Casey's books like "This Old Boat" and "Sailboat Hull & Deck Repair." You can find them in your local public library. Here's Don's site:http://www.boatus.com/howto/howto_lib.htm
Good Luck!
Joe

emergpa1 · Sep 1, 2009

Matt, try to buy the book "this old boat". it was just updated and Great. Boats are fun to work on, most of the time.

You will do just fine.
keith

Shoaldrafter · Sep 2, 2009

Mad Dog and epoxy of edges...

Mad Dog,

I am not following where you are talking about. How about posting pictures?

regarding epoxy as a sealer, there are more than one kind of epoxy. Think thin or penetrating epoxy as first layer of sealing and ordinary or sheathing epoxy as second layer. On these old boats, more epoxy is often better than less.

there are many post in the archives about repairs on the 25 & 26 with good web sites for additional information.

Are you familiar with these web sites:

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/boat-repair/

http://www.epoxyworks.com/

http://www.epoxyproducts.com/marine.html

http://www.cncphotoalbum.com/doityourself/rotrepair/rotrepair.htm

And Keith has many more, he is our latest Guru...

Ed K
26
Sailing on Keith's waters:

Mad Dog said:
Hey guys - following Joe and Keith's advice, I am now a Don Casey disciple. Keith suggested checking the core around all the deck hardware before I re-attach them. Everything checks out solid, BUT a close inspection from inside the cabin looking up reveals that the core was never sealed with epoxy as Casey advises.

So here's my question - can I take a shortcut? Instead of fill and drill, can I just "paint" the exposed core edges with epoxy? This is for the deck handrails, and the holes on the cabin side are about an inch diameter, so I could get a brush in there. I recall BMCS Wilkinson's words during boot camp, "Work smarter, not harder." Is this smarter or really dumber?

emergpa1 · Sep 3, 2009

Mad Dog said:
Hey guys - following Joe and Keith's advice, I am now a Don Casey disciple. Keith suggested checking the core around all the deck hardware before I re-attach them. Everything checks out solid, BUT a close inspection from inside the cabin looking up reveals that the core was never sealed with epoxy as Casey advises.

So here's my question - can I take a shortcut? Instead of fill and drill, can I just "paint" the exposed core edges with epoxy? This is for the deck handrails, and the holes on the cabin side are about an inch diameter, so I could get a brush in there. I recall BMCS Wilkinson's words during boot camp, "Work smarter, not harder." Is this smarter or really dumber?

4 give my typing, i had to get a piece of fiberglass cut outa my left index fiinger. its still numb and bandaged

if the wood is not rotted, i would definagtely just do gthe soak becuz the "using a bent nail to dig out the core" doesn'gt work if the wood is solid. it just bends or breaks the nail, allen wrench, and whatevr else you end up trying. just brush the hole evry day for three days and it should do fine, in my opinion. the wood soaks up the epoxy well, and should be a good compromise and bettefr than creating the hours of work. thr epoxy will drip into the inside of gthe cabing so put a little tape onver the inside hole.
another thing that did not work for me was drying the deck by drilling a bunch of holes. so if you are tempted to do that, let me know so i can at least tell you the problems i ran into before you launch into it.
and i would also like to say don't be tempted to paint! if you are not happy with your finish, check out the threads "sailors helping sailors" , and "buff magic"......i nevcer new what wonderfully tuff and forgiveng stuff gelcoat is. and i never imagined how finicky and weak that the boat paints are until i worked with both.
above all, ...have fun, don't take the baot too serious.
keith

emergpa1 · Sep 3, 2009

Shoaldrafter said:
Mad Dog,

I am not following where you are talking about. How about posting pictures?

regarding epoxy as a sealer, there are more than one kind of epoxy. Think thin or penetrating epoxy as first layer of sealing and ordinary or sheathing epoxy as second layer. On these old boats, more epoxy is often better than less.

there are many post in the archives about repairs on the 25 & 26 with good web sites for additional information.

Are you familiar with these web sites:

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/boat-repair/

http://www.epoxyworks.com/

http://www.epoxyproducts.com/marine.html

http://www.cncphotoalbum.com/doityourself/rotrepair/rotrepair.htm

And Keith has many more, he is our latest Guru...

Ed K
26
Sailing on Keith's waters:

ed where'd you get that pic of randy hard aground....he has a special plaque in the clubhouse commemorating the event!
that was our commadore showing off...ha. he is a good sailor, but it just wasn't his day, here is another pic of his beautiful boat after getting pulled off, same day just an hour later. that is our sail club in the bacground.
ed, you aree just a natural born instigator....

keith

emergpa1 · Sep 3, 2009

slight change

Mad Dog said:
Here's a couple of pictures. The first view is from the deck looking down. Second is the same penetration, looking up from the cabin. With the bigger cutout below, I think I could tool the epoxy around the raw wood edges to seal it. Thoughts?

matt, i think what i would do(this ended up working best for me) is plug the bottom of the hole with a small piece of terry clotth soaked in unthinkened epoxy. let that dry overnight, then use a syringe to instill un-thickend epoxy into the hole.keep some acetone and a few rags handy to quiclky wipe up the drops you will spill and smear. and watch out, it wil get on your gloves and soles, and you will get it everywhere...so check areound your deck and wipe up the spots! also quicly run inside to be sure youre plug is not leaking allowing epoxy to get everywhere in your cabin. come back in a few houres, and fill the hole up again. be sure it is not leaking out, and that it is the wood (balsa core) that is soaking it up. do this two or three time. let dry 24 hours then drill out the hole.
the biggest problem i had with coring everythng out and redrilling, which i did, is that the new holes jsut will not line up with the old holes on the inside. you cant drill at the exact angle you need, to find the interior holes, which opens up a hole new set of problems if you are bolting through to the interior.. but if you get into that problem let me know.
you have to make the plug pretty small. i tried severl things before finding that just a tiney bit ofd cloth works best.
(damned fingfer>.....):neutral:

Shoaldrafter · Sep 3, 2009

Keith, from ...

Keith,

I got both the pictures from you... imagine that?

Ed K

emergpa1 said:
ed where'd you get that pic of randy hard aground....he has a special plaque in the clubhouse commemorating the event!
that was our commadore showing off...ha. he is a good sailor, but it just wasn't his day, here is another pic of his beautiful boat after getting pulled off, same day just an hour later. that is our sail club in the bacground.
ed, you aree just a natural born instigator....
keith

emergpa1 · Sep 8, 2009

Re: Keith, from ...

matt,

what's up with the boat...what did you end up doing with the holes?
keep us posted.
also, 3m 42oo is the right choice (among others you could also use) for things other than port or plexiglass type plastic. I used butyl tape for my port and hatch and so far no leaks.
Sealents and such are a heavily debated topic among boaters......

good luck
keith

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