[FONT="]Hi all,
I don't know if others have seen the Brazilian web site devoted to the Oday 23 (http://www.popa.com.br/docs/oday23/historia/historico.htm) , but I have always been curious about it. A good friend of mine is from Brazil and she agreed to translate this particular page from Portugese to English for me and I've posted it below.
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I don't know if others have seen the Brazilian web site devoted to the Oday 23 (http://www.popa.com.br/docs/oday23/historia/historico.htm) , but I have always been curious about it. A good friend of mine is from Brazil and she agreed to translate this particular page from Portugese to English for me and I've posted it below.
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[FONT="]Brief history of the O’Day 23 from Mariner[/FONT]
[FONT="]The project created by C. Raymond Hunt Associates was altered over time (fixed, pop and convertible top). More than 60 molds were produced by George O’Day (*1923 +1987), from the Day Sailer (13000 units from 1959) to boats measuring up to 40’ in the 90s. O’Day closed in the US in 1991. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Brazilian Connection[/FONT]
[FONT="]In Brazil, the manufacture of O’Days 23 started in 1978 by Mariner Construções Náuticas Ltda. The closing of Mariner made more difficult the recovery of the history today in 2003 but I was lucky to meet the journalist Aldo Tedesco. Born in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, 55 years of age, Aldo has sailed since 1968. Also a graduate in Business Administration, the “gringo” as he is called by Christina Silveiro, the ForesTina, was a consultant for Mariner. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Aldo was kind in preparing the following text telling “popa.com.br” a little bit about the history of the O’Day23 in Brazil. Much more than this, Aldo presented us with many documents which today are the O’Day 23’s heirloom. This heirloom is available on this site. Here there is a little bit of the knowledge of a protagonist and witness of the history of the Brazilian Nautical Industry.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The first O’Day 23 assembled in Brazil, sails in the waters of the Guaíba Bay and the Ducks Lagoon.[/FONT]
[FONT="]by Aldo Tedesco[/FONT]
[/FONT][FONT="]It was the year of 1977[/FONT][FONT="]
[/FONT][FONT="]Everything started in 1977. a file printed by O’Day in the US was the only thing that Francisco José Calero de Freitas, who was at the time the controller for the Forjas Tauros S/A, partner of the Mariner and one of the responsible parties in the creation of the Brazilian Shipyard, needed to convince Paulo Pernau Fassel to buy the first O’Day that would sail in Brazilian waters.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The molds came from the US[/FONT][FONT="]
The Hull, the deck, the counter-molds and the majority of the hardware came with the molds from the American O’Day. In little time the mechanical engineer Sérgio Trachtenberger and the General Manager Adolfo “Careca”Paradeda from Mariner, assembled the boat 001. Six workers in a building of 400 square meters located in the neighborhood of the Navegantes, assembled, in time, 3 units of Day Sailer per month at the point.[/FONT]
[FONT="]In July, 1978, on a cold night during a cocktail party prepared for the introduction of the boat “Veleiros do Sul”, they started to write down the names of people on the waiting list for the next 23’ to come out of the assembled line.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The Lesko-Lesko[/FONT]
[FONT="]In honor of his first grandson Christian, Paulo baptized the sailboat with the name Lesko-Lesko. The excitement/anticipation of putting the boat in the water was great. As was the list of guests. On a sunny Saturday, with all the family and Adolfo Paradeda on board, we sailed the boat for the first time. Indescribable and unforgettable, like so many other times! [/FONT]
[FONT="]The first night on board was on Chico Manoel Island, in a festive meeting of the Sailors of the South associates. The wonderful O’Day 23 accomodated Paulo, his daughter Flora, his son in-law Aldo Tedesco and his grandson Christian “Lesko-Lesko”, then less than 2 years old. For those who sailed in the Lagosta, a 23-foot Guanabara, coming to sail with the O’Day 23 was a dream that never ended, and the boat remained with the family a long 15 years.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The Last Wish[/FONT]
[FONT="]Paulo loved the O’Day 23 and our waters so much that he made a wish to his family: that his ashes be released into Ducks Lagoon. He died on September 20, 2002. An O’Day 23 – the Forest – accompanied him on his last sailing to the Lighthouse of Itapuã in Ducks Lagoon, documented by Danilo Chagas Ribeiro from [/FONT][FONT="]www.popa.com.br[/FONT][FONT="].[/FONT]
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[/FONT][FONT="]Another photo of the occasion in "Navegadores 7"[/FONT]
[FONT="]O'Day 23' becomes stamp in Brazil[/FONT][FONT="]
The artist from Ceará, Maria Lúcia Teixeira Ramos, used the outline of Sugar Loaf, symbol of the Brasiliana 79, to identify Rio de Janeiro, where the exposition was held. To complete the image, she presented four different types of sporting craft that made and continue to make their presence known in Brazilian waters: the O’Day 23, the Snipe, the Penguin and the Hobbie Cat.[/FONT]
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While the vibrant colors emphasize the image of each individual stamp, they also provide a sense of unity to the series. The Brazilian Post and Telegraph Company took advantage of the two expressive, philatelic exhibitions – the 3rd Thematic Philately World Exposition and the First Interamerican Classic Philately Exposition – for the issue of these stamps during these events that took place on the 15th and 23rd of September in Rio.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]See the other stamps and facts about the creation of the series here: [/FONT][FONT="]aqui[/FONT][FONT="].[/FONT]
[FONT="]Evolution[/FONT]
[FONT="]In 1979, in a new, 1,500 square meter building, with 30 employees and much prestige, the Mariner reached a production of 6 Day Sailers and 5 O’Days 23 per month. Later, in 1986, the Mariner had more than 300 employees in a new 4,000 square meter factory in the southern zone of Porto Alegre.[/FONT]
[FONT="]During that time, besides the 23-footers, the Mariner produced 17 other ship models like the Slick, O’day12, O’day15, Day Sailer, Olympic Class 470, Microtonner 19, Ranger 22, Martinique 25, Ranger 26, Aruba 28, the Cals 9.2 and 9.2R, Main 34 and Main 35, Trinidad 37, Bahamas 40 and the Tripp 33, this one being the property of Paulo Paradeda. [/FONT]
[FONT="]In 1986, the American worker Steven Galle left the Brazilian Factory, Mariner, because the local management group took control through a buy-out operation.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The Decline[/FONT]
[FONT="]The Collor Plan came in 1990. The dollar, the currency in which the Mariner boats were priced, suffered a drastic readjustment. As a result of the difference in currency many orders in progress and/or being already started, suffered a big price reduction. The company went bankrupt in December of 1995.[/FONT]
[FONT="]More than 200 O’Day 23’s were built. Even today, the O’Days are still popular not only in Brazil, but in the U.S., too. Today, some ex-employees of Mariner work individually in Porto Alegre in the production of nautical accessories.[/FONT]
[FONT="]www.popa.com.br@2003[/FONT][FONT="]
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The [/FONT][FONT="]O'Day Sailboats Unofficial Web Site[/FONT][FONT="]presents much information. Yahoo has a group called [/FONT][FONT="]odayowners[/FONT][FONT="]. There is also the site [/FONT][FONT="]www.odayowners.com[/FONT][FONT="]and others, specifically for people who sail O'Days, with the objective of exchanging information, at times interesting: I helped Kent, from Seattle, for example, to take out and fix one of the supports that attachs the life line to the deck. He sent a photo of the broken part asking for information on how to remove the support. While I take 15 minutes from the door of my house to the boat house, he needs to make a coast-to-coast: Kent’s O’Day 23 is in the marina near his mother-in-law’s house in Florida.[/FONT]
[FONT="]-o-[/FONT]
