The Japanese bought the design rights and produced a few of the O'Day models. I am not sure if the 322 was one of them but I think it might be. Try a search on the net to see. O'Day went through several owners in the 1980's, Bangor Punta owned them and Smith and Wesson at the same time for a while. They built something like 80,000 boats before going belly up. The Daysailor was a classic design. Here's some info from the archive:
ODay Japan information
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After reading Josh's recent posting, I requested information from ODay Japan. I got a lengthy reply from the owner (I think). Let me summarize the response. Mr. Akira Takayama (e-mail:
odayjapan@aol.com) indicated the following: He had been an exchange student working at the ODay plant in the Fall River plant in 1965. He bought the molds to the O'Day 322, 302 and 272 when ODay USA stopped production. The ODay Japan boats are not production boats. Rather, they are made to order. They are currently making the 302 and 322. They do not currently make the ODay 272 but will make one if there is an order. Some specifics: Comparing the ODay Japan boats with the ODay USA boats, Mr. Takayama indicated that the the ODay Japan boat is hand made. They use 5% more resin and roving cloth made of fiber-glass and three dimentional fiber-glass core in lieu of the balsa wood core on the deck. They do not use any core on the hull and they use solid lamination of the fiber-glass mat and roving cloth. They also use high tech material on the rudder post. They do not use simple plastic cover around the cabin window. They use solid teak wood and three times more screws, bolts and nuts. He notes that they spend considerable time in the production of each boat (3 months for the 302). He indicated that his goal was to make a better boat keeping the quality of the O'Day USA tradition and its heritage as family boats. The price of O'Day 302 would be US$85,000. The price of O'Day 272 would be $65,000. Shipping expenses were not included in the overall price. The e-mail didn't indicate what the expense of the 322 was. Please note that for the sake of brevity, I did not include all of the details that Mr. Takayama provided. In any case, if anyone is interested, they can contact ODay Japan directly at the e-mail address above. I hope this sheds a little light on this issue. Dave
