O’Day 322 HIN / Keel ?

[Kickin Bears]

Hey all ... about to travel this coming wknd for another round of boat exploration for possible purchase.

Skip to the bottom bold points for those that either already know / don’t care about our situation and goals

Quick recap for our near term goals, is we are looking for a sailor / bay cruiser trainer to use for the next 5-6yrs. We are lifelong boaters / houseboaters, used to staying on the water for 3+ weeks at a time, but motorboat exclusively. My wife and I plan on upgrading to a blue water capable boat (e.g. Island Packet) for a 6-12mo cruise through the Caribbean when the kids move out.

I do plan on taking my family across wide sections of the bay, and plan on dealing with weather on and off the hook (checking the weather of course to avoid sailing into known dangerous situations). This will not be a boat that stays in a marina as some sort of quasi-getaway-aprtment, nor will it be a boat that we take out on the bay for a couple of hours and return to the slip every time

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Questions:

We’re checking out a round of Sabres, and there’s an O’Day 322, well maintained, with HIN of STRSG060A787 nearby that we want to check out to gain more hands-on understanding of various boat models

1) I’m looking for a sanity check that this is hull 60 of the 322 production line. I am well aware of the production issues of boats post 100-ish and the keel bolts / layup issue

The owner has not done anything with the keel bolts / setup (i.e. no torque test, keel hasn’t been dropped, no test holes to confirm no water in keel, no SS plates to distribute the keel bolt load)

2) How critical is it to add a SS backing plate for the keel bolts? Any recommendations on “must take” steps to check quality of keel / keel bolts before considering this model?

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[Kickin Bears]

Well .. I see a lot of views so figured I’d report back after viewing Sat.

Interior looked great, as expected. But ...

- bilge was full of dark brown water that smelled lime holding tank discharge
- could not see the keel bolts, nor the “fix” the current owner had done (which he could neither articulate what was done nor produce a receipt / sow for work completed)
- I did find deck delamin a number of places. Lots of obvious bedding issues with deck hardware that has been ignored ...
- broker wouldn’t start the engine b/c “a survey mentioned delamination, which canceled a sea trial for a buyer before us”. *** huh; I don’t get the association(???)

My wife and I couldn’t walk away fast enough. Lots more feedback on the bad vibes I can provide but I just don’t feel like tapping out any more letters on the topic.

At least my wife and I learned more about the O’Day line, brokers, and Chesapeake Bay owners...

Anyway, hope this helps someone.