ODay 22 flotation

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Clay Wright

I just purchased a 1976 O'Day 22 and am hoping some of you can shed some light on a couple of questions I have. On a Catalina 22 and many other comparable boats, the area underneath the V-berth is entirely accessible for storage. On the O'Day 22 this area is sealed off. I pried the plywood up enough to poke a flashlight in and was surprised to see the factory had dumped in a load of styrofoam scraps. My question is, did O'Day really expect that a few cubic feet of styrofoam under the berths would maintain the bouyancy of a flooded fiberglass boat with 600# of ballast? In my humble opinion she'd be a goner! Unless someone can convince me otherwise, that junk is coming out of the hole and my spare sails are going in! Question 2: Is this hull composed of a single lay up of fiberglass, or is the hull "cored"? If so, what is the core material? And finally, is the ballast in the shoal keel lead or cast iron? Thanks for the feedback!
 
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Don Evans

Some Answers...

The 22 was billed as positive floatation, unsinkable. Foam was placed in the V berth as you found, under the cockpit floor and in and around the transom/cockpit. And yes, hard as it seems, it will support the boat. By removing it you will forgo this ability. It's your call. Very tempting, though I'm sure, to gain more locker space. The hulls on all smaller model O'Days were glass, no core. Deck of course was a laminate, that included balsa and ply, depending on location and need. The ballast, on encapsulated models were lead ingots, essentially bound in resin, within the core of the stump keel. This statement I say with some reservation, though, as I'm not sure about all models/all years. Nothing is written in stone with this company (O'Day), as I keep getting surprised by oddballs. Don
 
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Clay Wright

thanks, Don

That's quite a bit of information. Did it come from O'day ads, or some other source? Anyway, I appreciate the info. I'm not sure now whether to tear out the foam or not. Clay
 
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