O'Day 39's and 40's?

[jackchad]

We purchased a 1984 O Day 39 at the end of March 2006. We were looking for an affordable spacious boat that could be handled by 1 or 2 people and would be suitable for the late afternoon sail, a weekend away or long term cruising.

After reading many books on choosing the "right" boat we were impressed by a book by John Kretchmer where the Beneateau First 38 appeared in his list of top 10 boats for cruising inspite of being an atypical cruiser.

After also reading books by Lisa Copeland who cruised for 18 years on a the Beneateau First 38, we started learning about and looking for a the Beneateau First 38. After exhausting local the Beneateau First 38's available for sail in our area. We started looking at similar boats and stumbled accross the Oday 39.

We actually found that apart from interior woodwork not as good as the the Beneateau First 38, the O Day was better in many respects, especially in layout and space.

In our brief experience of having the boat for a summer, I am very happy with the boat. It sails beautifully, a real delight. The helm is light and the boat is fast and easy to handle.

The boat is well constucted. It has a solid hull with cored deck. (The ODAY 40 has a cored hull)

We essentially renovated a lot of the systems and had no concerns about ODAY not being around because these boats use components from a variety of companies. The design is the Jeaneau Sun Fizz. We have a placque stating that the boat was built under license from Jeaneau.

As an engineer I not only surveyed the boat myself but also hired a top surveyor. (The report was 21 pages).

We have fixed the typical minor things that wear after 20 years and made apoint of replacing the original standing rigging. (A wise thing to do on any old boat) The rig is from ISOMAT and parts are available.

Space, a pleasure to work on and own and extremely good value for money.

I could keep on raving. If you want more information send me an email.

Jack

[scottmgtf]

I know your post is from 4 years ago but I hope you still enjoy the Oday 39.
I've sailed the Oday many times in So Cal waters and love the boat. It out points the Beneteau and is much easier to handle in heavy wx.
I chartered them from marina sailing years ago and now want to find one of my own.

[blt2ski]

Scott,

There is an ODAY web site, Iheartodays.com, or go to Jeanneau-owners.com for the Jeanneau version. There are owners listed on the jeanneau site, you could email some of them, or check yachtworld's for sale listings, boat.com IIRC also has listings for sale boats.

Marty