O'day 25 - Gonna Buy One

[Ritdog]

I've had a 25 for 4 years, which is the 2nd one- wife got the first one in the Bid D ...long story there...

I love it. It's easy to control, not a racer, and is roomy. 5'6" headroom. The first one was in good shape deck-wise, but I did need to replace the bulkheads and the transom and king plates. The latter job was a bitch and I swore I'd never do it again, but the transom was SOLID when I got done. Glad I did it.
#2 was on the hard for some years, and had about a foot of water in it for a while, so ALL the wood came out- I gutted the interior. It's great now. I went to 3.4 ply vs 1/2 inch, and that necessitated remeasuring everything, but it's solid. Ditto the transom plates - they were gone too. Again, a nasty job..takes about 10-14 hours; very tiring. Took me two summers, but it was "fun". Somewhere in here is the whole process, which I posted about 3 years ago. Made a new table to replace the day-glo orange one- mahogany and birds eye maple. People think the whole thing is brand new.
I find it very comfy for two. Have a portapotty, butane stoves, food, booze, ice, scuba gear, first aid, et.al on board. Parking off some remote island is great. Having had motor problems is the BIG problem. Have a 9.9 on the back, which two shops said was fixed - it wasn't. I actually fixed it this summer just in time for the dinghy to crap out...have new dinghy.
Learn how to work on it, do it well (you will be prepared when needed!) and have fun. You WILL spend some money.

 

[jamieFL]

@Ritdog
Thanks for the info. I'm glad someone likes their o'day. I still haven't been to see any of the boats listed in my first post. I'm up I'm Panama City / Mexico Beach with the releaf effort. I'll be back on the boat search as soon as I get home though

 

[Ritdog]

The hardest part of working on the transom plates is holding the grinder one handed between the cockpit interior and the transom interior- it's a one-handed job, and you are lying in about 3" of grind material made up of resin, glass, and wood. NOT fun. If you can lever off any layer of wood you are ahead of the game. The pieces of wood and mat are 30" square, with one edge rounded quite a bit to fit the profile. Use a 24-36 grit disk, the roughest you can get.
I redid it by using three layers of 3/8ths ply , drilling 1" holes where the motor mount bolts would go, taping one side, then filling the hole with epoxy, sanding smooth when hard..... drilled 3/16th holes here and there in the transom then wet out the inside, placed a sheet of mat, wood, mat, wood, ONE day, then mat, wood, mat the second day, wetting between layers with resin and screwing in from the outside to suck the wood/mat to the "sandwich" and transom. Some people like epoxy, but it gets expensive. You might want to make the epoxy-filled holes a little bigger than mine, so you can have a little more leeway in drilling the mounting holes for the engine mount and hardware. Those holes will be waterproof though!

 

[Quietfire]

2. None of the three have trailers. Any advice here? I can get a good dual axel powerboat trailer for $1800 to $2500. I could do the modifications myself if I had the specs. What are my alternatives. I don't want to spend more on the trailer than I do on the boat.

So I have had a free O'Day 25 fall in my lap recently. It's a heavy boat and it hurt. Seriously though a friend in TN had a friend who bought out his share on an O'Day 25. He used it for quite a while, but hasn't in a few years and just wants to get out from Marina fees. He tried donating it to a public radio station, but without a trailer they wouldn't take the donation. As luck would have it, my friend new from Facebook that I've been gearing up for a 25' sailboat.

The main issue is I would need a trailer to get the boat home. I know what you mean about the cost opf trailers, but I am managing a trailer for probably under $800 when all is said and done. Basically I found a 21.5' Four Winns on Ebay through the seller Itsdonated. The auction stated that the motor didn't turn over, which was fine with me. My only concern was the trailer, I was going to push the boat off at the local landfill and keep the trailer for the sailboat.

I won the auction for $239.05. Itsdonated doesn't charge a "document" fee like a couple of other donated boat groups do, so I made out. I did have to drive 12 hours to pick it up, but even factoring in the gas, it was considerably cheaper than just buying the trailer. But I got really lucky on this one. The trailer was in amazing shape with new tires, well 2 years old with zero sign of dry rot and beautiful tread.

I actually got too lucky. The boat itself was in really good shape. Actually such good shape that I felt guilty at the thought of scuttling her in a landfill. The morning after I got home I got the motor running with hardly any effort. I ended up selling it to a friend of mine for $175. While it was at my house I replaced the trim pump motor for him and changed the gear oil so I could inspect for water or metal shavings. It was in fine shape and I even took it out on Lake Glenville near Sylva, NC for a test ride before delivering it.

So my friend got an absolutely amazing bargain on working 21.5' Sundowner with no trailer. But the beauty of that deal is he has a shop with plenty of metal working tools and is a very good welder. So after the Thanksgiving holiday, he's going to be modifying the trailer for me. I just provided extra metal, 2" schedule 40 galvanized pipe. It has a thicker wall than 9 gauge steel and I was able to find 10' sticks for under $60 a piece.

So yes, as people have stated, the trailer is costing me more than the boat. But the boat was free, and the trailer was way cheaper this way than any other way i could figure out!