setting up a Daysailer for racing.

[captainseasick]

Hi,
I sold my 1994 Sabre 362 this spring, and was deciding on replacing it with a small one design. Around here, they race J-22's at Hyannis YC,
or Flying Scots at Stone Horse YC, or Daysailers at Stage harbor YC.
Just as i was deciding on what to buy, I was offered a free 1975 O'Day Daysailer 11. Someone had dropped it off at a local boat yard without a trailer, and it was pretty neglected, with some cracks in the cuddy, a missing boom, and filthy sails. I was able to pull it on to my trailer that I use for my Boston Whaler, and take it home. After three weeks of 8 hour days, the boat looks spectacular! I algriped the gold mast white, and replaced the missing boom with a new one finished in white. I fixed all the dings, scratches and cracks, and re gel-coated them. I replaced all the old rope/wire halyards with stay-set lines. I set up spinnaker hardware on the decks. I removed and faired the centerboard, and upgraded the up/down system to the latest design. I added a mid boom traveler with windward sheeting car, and stripped the bottom, I used VC17 bottom paint and burnished to a perfect finish with bronze wool. I am ordering a new racing jib main and chute (probably from Jotz, but North is also a consideration)
The original gel coat buffed out to like new sheen, and after useing perfect-it polish by 3M, with a special buffing wheel, and waxing the entire boat with McGuires wax, the boat appears to look as if it just came from the factory. I bought a new rub rail from Cape Cod Ship building and attached it with stainless pop rivits on 8" centers. We added red and blue accent stripes to the sheer line, and a custom vinyl lettering job to the transom of red white and blue with a "waving" flag, and the name Old Glory. I refinished the inside of the cuddy with easypoxy bikini blue, and it looks great. I replaced the old tube spreaders with the newer foils from Cape Cod Ship Building, and will pin them at the correct angle according to the Jotz tuneing guide.
The boat is not particularly stiff, as it doesn't take a great deal of force to depress the hull in some places, but it appears to be light which is in my opinion more important. If "oil canning" becomes a problem, and the boat is not competitive, i will either remove and replace the deck floor after adding stringers, or possibly simply fill the voids with pool noodles that might support some of the unsupported areas of the bottom.
I have not sailed this boat this season, and in fact have never sailed on a Daysailer, but have lots of J-24 racing experience and plan to use it to bring this "basket case" project back from the dead, and hopefully to the front of the fleet next season