Trying to Identify the Year on My 17 Daysailer

[arswann77]

I've been looking around to try to indentify the correct year of my 17' Oday Daysailer. The guy who gave me the boat thought it was a mid-70s DS II, but wasn't sure.

From looking at pictures online of other 17s - it looks like a 78 or 79??

On the inside rear of the boat there is a plate that lists the Hull # as 26515 (though the 2 looks like it was stamped later than the other numbers) and the Class # is listed as 5011.

Any info would be greatly appreciated

 

[Sunbird22358]

If she has the metal plate that you show, and does not have a 12-digit HIN molded into the outside of the transom, then your DS II would be a 1971 or 1972 model. Prior to the USCG required HIN that started with the 1973 model year (01NOV 1972), O'DAY gave every boat 2 numbers, a HULL# and A CLASS#. The HULL# refers to how many total boats O'DAY had built and the CLASS# refers to how many of that model (Day Sailer in your case).
So, in theory, you have the 26515th O'DAY sailboat built and the 5011th Day Sailer (All Day Sailers were numbered as one class, since DS I and DS II are both class-legal. DS III was still numbered as a continuation of the DS class, even though not class-legal).
If your boat does have a 12-digit HIN molded into the outside of the transom, the last 2 numeric digits will be the last 2 digits in the model year. However, I'd say you have a 1972 based on the Class# of 5011.

There are other ways to narrow down the model year, but most would apply to 1974 and newer models.

Do you need an owners manual? Let me know.