Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.
A neighbor at the boatyard bought a salvage ODay 28 from a yard about 3 years ago. It's from the early 80s and he's been bringing it up to par since then. It's got an inboard 8.5 diesel, a wheel and an integral rudder (not sternmount).
He said he looked down inside the hull to check out the keel bolts and he told me he hasn't got any! Not a bolt to be found.
Now the keel looks like its either lead or cast iron, somehow attached to the bottom of the hull. It hasn't fallen off yet . . .
Are there any O'Day alumni who may be able to answer this question.
Another problem he has is in the fall, he cannot remove his rudder from the boat, since he does not have enough clearance between the boat's rudder and the ground. Last winter he watched the soaked core pop a hole in the skin of the rudder as the water froze. This spring he has to repair the hole with epoxy and fibreglass.
I mentioned that a fellow nearby dug a hole to remove, prep and replace his rudder over the winter. He dug a 2 foot deep hole which allowed him sufficient clearance for the job.
Bruce Ross Passage ~ SR-FK ~ C25 #5032 Port Captain — Milford, CT
It's called an "encapsulated keel". Its my understanding in the earlier years Oday put the encapsulated keel in a few models. The Compac 27 I put an offer on last year had one as well. I'm pretty sure that Odays had a iron encapsulated keel and the Compac has concrete encapsulated keel. One benefit, is he wont have to worry about re-bedding his keel joint or the keel bolts going bad. My 1984 O28 keel is bolted on.
Tom, so you're saying that the fibreglass molds are made to create a fin as an integral part of the hull's bottom that can be filled with iron, lead or concrete? Must be pretty hefty fibreglass holding 1500-2000# of stuff to the bottom.
Paul this article is great. Problem is that the gentleman I met with the neighboring ODay probably has an encapsulated keel, so he really has no choice in the matter. If he grounds his boat, it will likely suffer some or most of the problems listed in the article. If I see him this week, I will advise him to read the article.
Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ. The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.