[midlifesailor]

Apparently, there is a design weakness with the 3 digit series of O'days, at least the larger boats like the 302 and 322. This in not the first one to have lost its keel, and where there is smoke there is fire. There are lots of boats with a very similar design in the same age range and their keels are not comming off, so its not just an age related thing. I owned an O'day 322 and if I still had it, I think I'd be considering dropping the keel to at least inspect and likely to replace the bolts and having a backing plate designed to fit in the bilge to spread the load over a wider area. I am a bay sailor, but the bay is nearly 25 miles wide where I sail and loosing your keel in the middle of a crossing would be a very dangerous situation, especially if you weren't buddy boating with someone.