How an O'Day Loses Its Sole

I finally started the process of repairing the cabin sole. This is necessary because the balsa core was rotten due to an unsealed cut in the floor. In order to cut the top skin of laminate off I was going to require access to the entire floor area, which meant I had to remove the galley, bulkheads and compression post. The first step was to disassemble the galley. This was an exercise in contortion.
With the galley fully removed it was time to get the bulkheads and compression post out. This required the cabin roof to be jacked up slightly. I rigged a satisfactory device from a 2x4, 2x8, some towels and my truck jack.
It worked really well, and I was able to free the compression post with less than 1/2" of lifting. After removing the post I was surprised to see very little compression of the floor or roof. I would later find out that the core underneath the post was only saturated and not completely rotten. The bulkheads were removed by unbolting the chainplates and unscrewing the settees.

It was then time to prepare the sole for removing the top skin. I purchased a circular saw blade with the most teeth could find (155 finish blade). To prevent splintering and reduce the amount of fiberglass dust I taped the area to be cut with duct tape. I set the blade depth to about 1/2" and crossed my fingers. The circular saw did fine, but couldn't get the corners because of obstructions. I used a hand saw to deeply score the corners and then lifted the top skin off. To my happy surprise the scored corners snapped perfectly with no splintering. Now the rotten core was exposed:As you can see, much of the floor was rotten. I used a 4" putty knife to scrape the rotten core out. The only plus side of the wood being this rotten is the ease with which it comes out. Some of the core was not rotten, but all of it was completely saturated. In fact, water was splashing in my face when I hit it with the knife. It became clear that I needed to cut even more skin off, so I cut all the way forward to the vee berth and pulled this skin off. The core under this area was not rotten but soaked. It didn't come out very easy (I took this as a good sign) but I managed to pry all of it out.I was pleased to find that I had managed to get all of the wooden core out of the sole. The sole is solid fiberglass a couple of inches inward of the berths (the fiberglass can be seen in the top right portion of the above photograph). Also, it seems there is solid plywood underneath the footing for the table leg. Strange that this area (very little compressive force) would be reinforced with a solid material when underneath the compression post was not.

So, now the rotten wood is out and I am allowing the area to dry out while I track down a suitable replacement material. The original material was scored 3/8" end-grain balsa with a thin fabric backing. This material is available from a number of suppliers and it's price is comparable with the same area of 3/8" marine grade ply. I can get the plwood in town but must order the balsa core. I am also investigating the possibility of foam coring such as Divinycell. Anyway, I will post again when I have the materials and it is warm enough here in NC to cure epoxy.

Pirate Hunting with Mikey

Sailing twice in two days! Mikey and I took the boat out to Jordan Lake again today. The conditions were a bit better than yesterday. This means that we had 3-4 knot winds for about two hours. We were able to travel under sail for about an hour and a half until everything became completely calm. Even though we didn't keep our sails full for very long we were still able to travel further on the lake than I had ever gone.
Mikey thought he saw a large Pirate ship in the distance so we went to investigate. Luckily (for them) it was a false alarm. Mikey was itching to fire our cannon. Turned out to be a large party barge (think MTV spring break). Another would be pirate ship turned out to be a loon. After the winds died down we decided to explore the lake using the iron jib. We motored out around an island and into a few coves. I scoped some nice places for Courtney and I to anchor and spend the night.


Courtney called me while we were on the lake and said that she and her friend, Katie, were on the dock waiting for us. We picked them up and went for a short ride before it got dark. The boat wasn't crowded at all with four of us in the cockpit, I was pleasantly surprised. Katie took the helm and piloted us for a while before we let the autohelm take us into the dock (well, almost all the way in). Breaking the boat down with four people is great! Everything went much quicker with four sets of hands. All in all, a great two days on the lake. Courtney and I might get to take her out once before we head to Morehead City for Cassidy's first salt water trials.

Yachting with John

Today John and I went to Jordan Lake. I was expecting the wind to be fairly calm, but hoped for at least a constant 5mph. It was a beautiful day, about 57 degrees and partly cloudy. There were lots of fisherman out taking advantage of the weather.


John and I stepped the mast and rigged her up in record time. She was floating in no time. Of course, as soon as we were ready to motor out, about five fishing boats lined up right behind us. No problem, just made it a bit tighter there. I think the fishing boats expect my boat to be as nimble as theirs... it is not. Anyway, we launched without managing to ram or tick off the other boaters and we were off. Motored out a bit and raised the sails. We got in the slot and were cruising at a good clip in 5-6 mph wind for about thirty or forty minutes. Then the wind completely died and the lake surface turned to glass. We decided to make the best of the situation by dropping the sails and motoring about for a while.

I thought it might be a good time to try out the autohelm. It worked like a charm! I don't know what I expected but this thing is a dream! We pointed her at the dock from about half a mile out and both stood on the bow as she cruised for about twenty minutes. The picture shows what a simple setup it is. The mainsheet system is also visible in this shot, it really makes for an open, uncluttered cockpit.


Wish we had better wind, but it was fun anyway. My friend Mikey is in town so we are going to go again tomorrow. Hopefully we will have more favorable conditions. Also, Courtney and I are taking the boat to saltwater on Dec. 8th. We intend to cruise the Outer Banks near Hatteras Lighthouse for a day, but more on that later. This will likely be Cassidy's last sail for the winter. I am busy planning my winter boat projects and am anxious to start.

First Sail on the New Boat!

The couple who sold us the boat were nice enough to take us out on a 'training run' today. Courtney and I met them at Ebenezer Point at Jordan Lake near Wilsonville NC. It was an absolutely beautiful day for a sail, a bit chilly but not shivering cold. They walked us through the rigging process in the parking lot and then we dropped her in the drink. She floated, so the first test was passed. The motor cranked right up and we piloted her out into the wind. The wind was mild and a bit inconsistent, but I think this was probably perfect for our first time out. Bob helmed her for a tack or two and then I took control of the tiller. I got the hang of it pretty quick, but like I said, it was pretty easy going out there. We tooled around with a few tacks and a jibe and then brought her in to drop off Bob and Poem. They were great and we really appreciate them taking us out. It must be odd to drive off with your old boat in the background, but they are racing J24's now so they are still active in the sport. I think that racing fast boats appeals more to Bob who is an engineer and is thus very in tune with the physics of the boat. I hope that I understand it as well one day. So then Courtney and I got our first one on one time with the boat. It went a bit better than I expected, and way better than Courtney expected. This boat is very forgiving and comfortable. We got through six to eight tacks and got better every time. It was a bit harder going downwind, especially because the wind kept dying and changing directions. Anyway, we got her back to the dock and up on the trailer without a hitch. It took us a while to derig her, but I think that we will get much faster once we both understand what we need to do. In conclusion, a wonderful day out on the lake! My face hurts from grinning so much, and Courtney liked it a lot more than she thought she would. We can't wait to take her out again (maybe tomorrow!).

Scrubbed and Stepped

I have been pretty busy the past week and haven't gotten to spend too much time on the boat. I did spend a couple of hours scrubbing the deck and inside the cabin. She looks great now:

I went over every last inch of the deck with a sponge and several brushes. Not only does the boat look much better, but it allowed me to get acquainted with every little chip, crack or pit in the gelcoat. All in all, very good condition.

Invited John and Brian over to take a peek and step the mast:


The mast went up very easily, I don't think that Courtney and I will have any trouble getting it up by ourselves.

Tried out the running rigging, everything looks pretty good. This O'Day has the A-Frame style mainsheet system. Many 22's have a triangular plate on the backstay to which the mainsheet system is attached. This is good for a few reasons and bad for many others. I think I will be pretty happy with the current setup, but I may investigate the options for a traveler. Also considering running the halyards aft, should make singlehanding easier.

The sails look terrific, there are some on my flickr. Have a main and a 150 jenny. A normal jib would be nice to have at some point.

Anyway, don't have much time for a proper update. We are going sailing on Saturday with the boats last owners. I can't wait to helm her for the first time!

Welcome to the Carrboro Yacht Club!

We bought this 1973 O'Day 22 on October 26, 2006:


Her name is/was "Y Knot", but we will most likely rename her "Cassidy"



This is our first boat of any type. Courtney and I have helmed only Hobies and Sunfish before, and only a limited number of times. We are looking forward to learning how to sail on this boat. We plan on documenting our experience on this blog.

We paid $3500 for the boat and trailer. After doing my homework, I came to the conlusion that this was a pretty good deal because of the condition of the boat and all the extras. The sails (main and genoa) are bright and very crisp, they are custom cut by Rolly Tasker and are less than one year old. The trailer is galvanized with good lights. The boat has a VHF radio, furling system, couple of year old 3.5HP Tohatsu, and both the standing and running rigging is in great condition. Everything looks very structurally sound.

We have owned her for less than 24 hours and I already am starting "to do" and wish lists. Aside from giving her a thorough inside and out scrubbing, I hope to be able to:

1) Paint topside: the original gelcoat is in good condition. There is no crazing on the hull, but the boat has lost its shine. We are considering color schemes, I vote for all white but Courtney favors a red or blue boat. I think Carolina blue would look great (go to hell Dook). We would also like to redo the no-skid portions of the deck.

2) Replace rubrail: it is a bit stained and old, if the rest of the boat is shiny it is going to stand out and look pretty bad

3) Replace wood on engine mount: the block is a bit swollen, no big deal and should be pretty cheap. Maybe I cand find a plastic one.

4) Paint the name: I have some ideas for a design. I will draw them up in Illustrator and post them soon. A sign shop could do a good job painting it on, or maybe I could get some sort of decal. I understand that changing the name is considered sacrilege by many sailors, but I plan on performing an elaborate renaming ceremony that I hope will level our debt to Neptune.

5) Replace forward hatch: this hatch install was DIY and has seen better days. It looks like this could be very pricey, probably won't happen for a while.

6) Reinforce cabin floor: a bit squishy in a few places, there are cracks in the gelcoat and it has oil-canned a bit. I have no idea what scale project this is, or how to go about it. I am looking forward to getting the Don Casey's Illustrated Sailboat Maintenance book.

I could probably go on, but I will stop here. This will be a good start, and I am sure that I will find many more things as we move forward.