I Just bought my first daysailer

[SUNBIRD]

1978 Day Sailer II brochure page 2

1978_daysailers_09_DaySailerII1978-small-1.jpg (121.8 KiB) Viewed 6967 times

That was the standard color scheme (gel coat) for the 1978 DS II.
You are fortunate, like me to live close enough to Assonet, MA to visit D&R Marine In person (saves shipping costs <grin!>) and meet Rudy, he is a great source for parts and info. He helped me a lot in developing my Expanded DS II Owners Manual, showing me several pictures and drawings. He does depend on those of us that own O'Days to let him know about some of the production changes made over the years they were In production, we discovered that the centerboard rigging was changed twice (at least) during the 1971-85 production run, Rudy knew about the early version (1971-73/4) and we both knew about how my 1979 was rigged, but another owner showed me that his 1976 was different and that led to my finding that the 1974-early '77 models were different from mine (Rudy now has the sketches of all 3 setups).

[talbot]

Thanks! Never saw this brochure before. Earlier and later brochures (i.e., DS III) emphasized the "easy," "family," "simple" aspects of the DS. This is the only one I've seen that featured lots of spinnakers and foam.

I would be interested to know the decision-making behind the DS III. It seems to be something of a tragedy. From my standpoint as a dinghy cruiser, it was a good idea, both the increased freeboard and the sealing hatch. But when it wasn't approved as DS one-design, that probably put the lid on sales.
Not that O'Day wouldn't have folded anyway. Lots of boat builders were going out of business, and lots of other O'Day's that I admire had short life spans (e.g., the pocket cruiser 222, with only 130 made).

I don't know how manufacturers stay in business. If you want a traditional sloop-rigged monohull of any size, all the boats you might want to look at have already been built and are just waiting to show up on craigslist or sailboatlistings.com at >10% of a new boat price. I suppose builders depend on (a) racing fanatics (carbon fiber foiling multihulls); (b) niche buyers (epoxy-coated reinventions of classic anachronisms); and one-percenters (who also trade in the Mercedes for a new one every other year because they can).

[SUNBIRD]

Glad you liked that brochure scan, I have the brochures for most years of the DS II (except 1971, 80, 84) and some of the DS I years (I have 1964, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70) And 1886 and 87 for the DS III.
The Day Sailer III was basically the same as the Day Sailer II, but with more freeboard in the stern, an updated style to the cockpit (seats seem a bit deeper, that is wider from side to side) the molded-in ice box was eliminated, and the jib sheet tracks were moved up on top of the now lower coamings. The cuddy does not seal any batter than on the DS II, and the teak hatches are the same as for the DS II. From a "daysailing" point of view, the DS III was a better design than the DS II. The rudder had been changed on the DS II in 1983, using a non-class spec shape to the blade (why O'Day did that is unknown, because it strained an already bad relationship with the DSA) Again, from the standpoint of a daysailing owner like me, the deeper rudder might be a good thing, but it was wrong given that it did not match the clearly specified DSA Class measurements. That rudder was OK on the Non-class-legal DS III.
The increased freeboard in the stern was clearly an alteration of the hull, and thus obviously resulted in the DS III not being "one-design" with the DS I and DS II. I understand somewhat why O'DAY created the DS III, from a small boat marketing angle, the design was close to 30 years old and the new management at O'DAY probably wanted to "refresh" the design. However, if they had introduced this as a "new" 17' design, maybe called her the "O'DAY 17-II" (there was a previous O'DAY 17 in the 1960's that was basically a DS I without the cuddy, think of a larger JAVELIN) instead of the DS III, it might have worked as long as the DS II was still built, or if they worked with the DSA to find a new builder for the DS II, but since O'DAY had "burned" the DSA back In 1971 when they introduced the DS II without consulting the DSA...... they were not going to get away with it again! I think the fact that the DS III was not class-legal may have affected sales, but O'DAY was also on "shaky ground" financially by that time, after Bangor Punta sold the company to Lear-Siegler in around 1985, and then LS sold the company to a group of investers in about 1987 (financed by future sales?)..... By that time, O'DAY was no longer building the boats that built the company (daysailers under 20', except for the DS III) and the new designed were more Euro-style than the traditional O'DAYs before. O'DAY was "dying". It is too bad that some form of the DS III could not have been re-introduced without using the Day Sailer class name, as I say, maybe call her the O'DAY 17? But, at the time of the DS III production, the price was around $4,000 and there were other similar-size boats offering more features for the same price range (Capri 16 for one). When Pearson Yachts bought most of O'DAY at auction after the 1989 bankruptcy, the DS III was stil lin the line-up, but I don't think many if any were built. At the same time, Pearson (who was also on shaky $$$ ground) also bought the remnants of AMF Alcort and formed the PEARSON SMALL BOATS Division to build the Sunfish and other Alcort boats along with the LASER, the DS III temporarily moved the that division, but when Pearson Small Boats was sold off and became SUNFISH-LASER in 1991, the DS III faded away (I think that PSB tried to get the DSA to accept the boat as class-legal, but without major changes it could never be class-legal as a DAY SAILER (a fact I certainly do not dispute!). That was when SLI (Sunfish-Laser Inc) developed, with DSA help, the Day Sailer IV (aka current Day Sailer). that boat is what the DS II could have, and maybe should have been. The cuddy can be sealed tight to trap air for flotation ,and the cockpit is sealed to allow self-rescue if you capsize. This is the boat now built (since 1995) by Cape Cod Shipbuilding in Wareham, MA (my homeport!).
Still, for my use, I'd rather have my DS II or a DS III instead of the new DS IV...... but that doesn't mean that I do not thoroughly admire those new boats! I like all of the Day Sailer versions, but like the prices a lot better on the older used boats, rather than the $17K+ for a new recreational DS or $22K+ for the racing one! Right there is one BIG reason that small sailboats like the Day Sailer are rare on the new boat market. Builders can not compete against their ow nused boats, fiberglass doesn't rot away like wood did.
So, long story short (too LATE!) that is the basic history of the DS III from what I've heard. (Did you know that O'DAY was thus related to LEAR JET for a while?)

[talbot]

It was also related to Smith & Wesson and Piper Aircraft, I believe, while it was under Bangor Punta. Not to mention Ranger and Cal Yachts.

I think you described it perfectly: The DS III should have been called the 17, and treated as a new boat. Positioned as more seaworthy than the Capri 16, and easier to trailer and manage than the Rhodes 19.

In fact, O'Day in its last years did a whole series of upgrades to its models 19, 22, and 23, which I think you are calling the "Euro" versions. All carried the "-2" designation (e.g., 192, 222, 23-2) and were designed by C.R. Hunt Associates. What I like about them, is that the cabins strike what I think is optimum balance in space below. Earlier styles treated the small yacht like a floating travel trailer, with dinette, galley, and head completely filling the cabin. Current designs make the cabin look like the interior of a transport plane or modern art gallery, a long tube with naked benches narrowing into a claustrophobic forepeak, manifesting existential confinement and dispair.

If I can find an old 222 or 23-2 at the same time I find an extra few thousand dollars, I could see owning a second boat.

Why didn't O'Day just do a 172? Maybe existential dispair. After all, they went out of business anyway.

[SUNBIRD]

O'DAY did offer cushions for the DS II Cuddy! Gives new meaning to the phrase "crawling into bed"! Better than a Pup" tent..... but not much!

[seabisquit]

Sunbird - thats great history - always interesting to hear the facts - I love the pics too - my 1978 is as orange as can be - with a redstripe accent added by us to match the new sails with red numbers -

Hard having an Orange boat down in Texas when you are an A&M family, but we'll live

Sail On

Adios!

[SUNBIRD]

Well, then be glad she isn't a year newer.... the original standard color scheme for 1979 was exactly the reverse of your 1978, orange hull with an off-white (light tan?) sheer stripe and deck. Later they added the choice of either orange or yellow as the hull color. Mine is one of the yellow ones, and I think that overall, O'DAY seems to have built pretty close to 50/50 on those colors since I've seen a lot of yellow 1979s.

[TIM WEBB]

TRW ('79) was that orange originally, but got painted red at some point. You can see the orange under the red in places ...