| I will leave the comments about O'Day to current and former owners.
A shallow draft is certainly an advantage in The Bay. Not sacrificing
windward performance is equally positive, if in fact the keel performs
as advertised. I would insist on a test sail to judge its
effectiveness myself before commiting to purchasing. That is what
I did (very skeptically I might add) before buying our Tartan 33
with Scheel keel. If you have experience on hi performance fin
boats and can sense leeway or sluggishness, you should be able to
tell by feel, whether this configuration works or not.
Some of the drawbacks might include the tendency to snag onto the ever
increasing number of lobster/crab pot marker-lines, and the anchor
line may require more tending or down rigging at slack tide to keep
from tangling about the keel. Also, I have found soft mud bottoms
are harder to extract oneself from (like pulling a plumbers helper
off a smooth floor) than with a traditional fin. And finally, the
old technique of increasing heel to float off a grounding might
prove damaging or impossible to execute with wings.
Walt
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|
Joe:
I am in the process of buying an O'Day 272 from Carl at F.L.Tripp &
Sons in Westport Point Ma. I did some shopping around and at the
boat shows and they seem to have the best price. They have included
commisioning, cradle, and bottom paint into to the base price for
the boat I am getting. I am not sure you would be able to get the
same price offer but, the other dealers prices for these extras
were all different. Plus don't forget freight, it's less expensive
from Fall River to Westport Point then any of the other dealers.
I have had the same concerns about the winged keel if I run aground
too. If you want a List of Dealers write to the address on the O'Day
bro.
Richard
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| A mooring mate of mine has a 272 and the other day he arrived at
his boat and found 2' of water in the cabin. He discovered a leaky
connection to a seacock. The bad thing about it is that it gave
no warning. It apparantly didn't leak one day and the next it leaked
rather profusely!?? I think I remember him saying it was forward,
probably the head. Anyway, he was VERY dismayed and upset. He has
had several "nits" in addition to the leakage.
He says the wing keel "crabs" a bit when pointing. I've never gone
out with him so I don't know to what degree this is true.
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