What was your longest passage?

[chrisbare]

I just bought a 1981 O'Day 34 shoal draft in May. I've been having fun day sailing (and upgrading/repairing) and am starting to plan some longer trips. Actually my first sail on it was my longest so far. I bought it in Freeport, Bahamas and sailed it back to Fort Lauderdale where I live. It only took 12 hours, but we had 5-7 foot following seas and probably 15 knots of wind.

Anyway, I'm just curious what other people have done with O'Day 34/35's as far as long and/or offshore passages. What weather did you encounter and how did she handle? Even with the shoal draft, mine handled well in the 7 footers.

--
Chris Bare

 

[BarryL]

Hello,

I haven't done any long passages with my O'day 35. However, last week I did sail from my home port of Mt. Sinai to Block Island. We made the trip in two days, and the weather was the worst I have ever sailed in.

The second day was particularly bad, with heavy rain and 30+ kts of wind for part of it. I admit that I was scared but the boat did great. We slammed into many waves, some so hard that entire boat shook but nothing bad happened and we make it to our destination safe and sound.

So, while the boat was perfectly fine in 30+ kts of wind, *I* am not fine in those conditions. It was good to know the boat can handle it, but that is not something I want to repeat.

In case you are interested, I have a complete vacation report here:
http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=222403

Barry

 

[DannyS]

We just got back from our longest passage to date on our O'day 35. We sailed from our normal cruising grounds in the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior to Grand Marais, Minnesota (about 60 miles). The last 45 miles are open water outside the islands where there is nothing but a horizon line to sail toward. It's as close to offshore sailing as we get up here in the north. This trip was wonderful from a sailing standpoint. We started off on a beam reach in 15 knots of wind from the WSW, clipping along at 7+ knots of boat speed. The wind speed dropped off through the morning so the asym. chute made it's appearance for the last 25 miles and pulled us along at 5 knots.
The trip home saw good wind and good boat speed on a beam reach. Very comfortable sailing all around.
Earlier this spring, we found the folding bikes you see in the photo at an estate sale so we had to bring them along. They fit perfectly in the space between the port settee and the table. Funny thing about this photo, we were just asked to take a picture of a group of Harley riders with their camera so in turn, we asked them to take a photo of us with our "rides".
Our first trip across the Lake to Grand Marais was on an O'day 27 and the trip home we saw 15 knots from the NE which exposed us to the full fetch of the lake. We saw wave heights up to six feet and I was very happy with the performance of the boat, however the performance of my crew was a bit suspect. My wife was hanging over the rail for most of the trip, 8 to 10 hours.

 

[CruiserDave]

We've owned our 35 for 12 years now. We Left Annapolis, Md last dec 2nd for the Bahamas and returned mid June. We are planning to leave Annapolis this Oct and do it again. We had a little of everthing thrown at us. We also have the shoal draft. While traveling with heavier boats in rough seas we watched them crash through while we floated over the waves. Not as roomy on the interior as many of the other boats but she handles well in all that has been thrown at us.