Got a free day sailer II but need help dating it

[Daysailernoob]

Hey everyone. I picked up this boat and am real excited to take it out. Needs a bit of work but free is free ha. Problem was there was no title so I'm in the process of doing the paper work. I need to know the approximate year of it. I can't find any serial number on the back. Only a plate saying hull no. 3247, class 6217. Also came with (original?) sails with 11010 and DS in blue. I checked your list of numbers and it basically says it's a day sailer 1 but its a day sailer 2. unless I'm reading it wrong.... ???? Please help. Thanks

[GreenLake]

Hey everyone. I picked up this boat and am real excited to take it out. Needs a bit of work but free is free ha. Problem was there was no title so I'm in the process of doing the paper work. I need to know the approximate year of it. I can't find any serial number on the back. Only a plate saying hull no. 3247, class 6217. Also came with (original?) sails with 11010 and DS in blue. I checked your list of numbers and it basically says it's a day sailer 1 but its a day sailer 2. unless I'm reading it wrong.... ???? Please help. Thanks

Well, if the sails had been original, they would have 6217 on them, not 11010.

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1972 O'Day         DS II #5700 "The Daysteeler"          cavofficer6     N. Central KY
O'Day              DS II #5702  "Anhinga"                boone           South Carolina
1973 O'Day         DS II #6301  "Breezy"                 RussH           Beaufort, SC

From the data above, taken from the "unofficial hull number index" in the history section of this forum, it would appear most likely that your boat is a 1973 (since the closest number is 6301 and the 1972 boats have much lower numbers).

(The "class" number is the one you need to pay attention to for dating, the other one is not relevant).

However, November 1, 1972 is supposedly the cutoff date where the new HIN (hull identification number) was introduced, which did away with separate "hull" and "class" numbers. Looks like your boat just squeaked under the wire there. So, you could have a boat that was manufactured just before the cutoff date in 1972.

[navahoIII]

This is interesting. Your "hull no" is "3247", yet it is newer than our DSI, with hull number 6555, sail no 1001, built in 1961.
Did they start over on hull numbers for the DSIIs?

[GreenLake]

"Hull numbers", pre 1972 are not sequential within a boat model - they may be sequential across all types of boats in a given facility. That's what I keep reading. Anyway, for our purposes, only the "class" or "sail" numbers matter.

[navahoIII]

Thanks GreenLake.

[Daysailernoob]

Thanks you so much! That's great but I'm sure the dmv will give me a hassle about it. One step closer to getting this old girl back on the water

[jeadstx]

Could the early hull number on a DS2 maybe be a DS1 hull that had been stored for a long time (maybe forgotten for a time) that O'Day put a DS2 top part on to finish the boat?

John

[Daysailernoob]

UPDATE. I got the dmv paperwork search back and the boat is really dated to 1964. Pretty interesting

[GreenLake]

I got the dmv paperwork search back and the boat is really dated to 1964. Pretty interesting

I would confidently state that the DMV database is almost definitely in error, or the search unearthed a different boat than the one you have.

In August 1963 O'Day celebrated the 1500th Daysailer. So there's no way the class number can have been in the 6000s in 1964. Also, the first year a DSII was built, was in 1971. Those two factors alone make a 1964 date a practical impossibility.

How can DMV records be in error, you ask. Easily.

I have dated my own boat to 1963, yet the DMV database entry for mine says 1971. (My boat has design features that are common to boats built before that date, which made it more than probable that the "hull number" in the DMV database was in fact the class number in my case, which dates the boat to 1963). For those reasons, I would be very careful in taking DMV records prior to the adoption of the HIN at face value.

Because "hull" numbers weren't unique (they apparently were relative to all the hulls built at a specific facility, not the model of the boat), it is entirely likely that your search unearthed some other boat from some other O'Day facility that happens to have the same "hull" number - or, possibly, a boat for which the "class" number was put into the registration as "hull" number. As you can see, the system was pretty messed up -- no wonder the HIN had to be invented.

(Why did my boat say "1971"? One will never know, but I suspect that 1972 being the introduction of the HIN, the setting 1971 was a default they used for boats for which the plaque didn't carry any reliable date information. In other words, it might have been a shorthand for "1971 or older". Now each state handled this differently, of course, and also, don't forget, those years were probably the time around which some of these databases were put on computer for the first time....with all that implies.)

[Daysailernoob]

Man, what a mess. I can understand how the HID numbers really helped. Like you say, much less confusion. I'll keep putting 1964 on the paperwork since I don't want any problems with them. But your absolutely right, it's impossible to be that old. haha

[GreenLake]

Glad we cleared that one up. For DMV paperwork, your approach might be the sensible one, but for purposes of, say, entries in the hull number index on this site, or in your signature you might want to stick to the best available "guess". (And if you ever sell it, you might point the buyer here. I'm not as knowledgeable about the DSII as I've become about my own generation DS1, but there may be a few design features were knowing the proper age might be of interest. Luckily, it's nearly immaterial at this point from the point of depreciation ).

Now, are you going to sport the sail number on your sails?

[Daysailernoob]

Well it'll be a while till it's on the water. couple months maybe. but I may put the number in it. It came with 2 sails, along with the jib. one had a number, the other just ds. Ha whatever works. Need to learn to sail first. hoping for calm winds and warm weather.. and a friend who knows the ropes

[GreenLake]

It's common for sails to have the wrong numbers, because people who don't race often buy lightly used sails from folks who do, and then they don't bother to change the number. Or they or the seller take off the number and leave the sail with a bare DS logo. I've certainly sailed that way myself for a while.

Sounds like you got your priorities straight in how to get started with this boat. Best of luck.

[Daysailernoob]

Thanks for the help! I'm glad this site exists and their are kind people to help with these issues. I'll be posting in the future ha happy sailing