Some Answers
I'm including an email from Rod Johnson, a veritable resource for all O'Day models. This formulae will explain your serial #. As far as manuals, I would love to see them archived on this site, available for a small fee to download. I have discussed this with the website owner Phil, and its something that may be possible in the future. They may be available from Rudy at D&R marine. 508-644-3001, fax 508-644-3002 As a supplament to Pauls' mast raising method, on my OD25 I have now done it 3 ways. One using brute strength and the others using a lifting aid, such as a gin pole (boom), and the latest using the A-frame method, described under the Daysailor forum, by Ben Allen. The boom-as-the-gin-pole method is described at the Yahoo, O'Day site in their photo forum. I agree with Paul to attach your shrouds, but leave them a little loose.Take care. Don The Hull I.D. # should indicate what your boat's serial # is (or hull#) the serial# indicates the number of your boat in the entire production run of the 28. So if the # is say 356, yours would be the 356th 28 built since production began. format is: XDYxxxxxMYYY where XDY= O'Day, xxxxxx= Hull#, M=month of certification, Y=last digit of year of certification, YY=last 2 digits of year of Manufacture. the 5 digit # (xxxxx) may indicate model code + hull#, I don't know, my Day Sailer is hull # 10201, and so the "D" for Day Sailer was moved to the end of the HIN and set apart by a "-". "MY" might also be month and year of production, YY might be model year (different sources list different meanings for code. I suspect yours may be something like: XDYxxxxxMY86 the first production year for the O'Day 28 was 1979. Check out the "SHIP SHAPE TV" web site for a better description of HIN formats. www.shipshapetv.com Rod Johnson,"SUNBIRD"
