1974 27 ODAY need input

[Smiths]

Hello All,

My family and I have a vision of restoring a sailboat and enjoying it for years to come. Kinda like John Candy in "Summer Rental"

We found a 1974 ODAY 27, Damaged by Hurricane Ike. Totalled by insurance, clear tiltle, in a salvage/parts yard for $1250.00.

Its a fixer upper. At least I hope it is. Its got a small 1"X6" hole in the bottom. The Sides also have holes right at the rub rail. it will need a bottom job, new gel coat, and a rail all the way around which was the only thing sold off of it by the salvage man. The interior is dirty and the wood needs refinishing but the overall boat appears in fair condition. Its mast is good. It uses on One sail so my wife and I figure this will be easier to learn to sail. The motor is probably original, the salvage guy said its cranks but won't turn over.

Really I don't know more than that other than I want it and wanted to know what you all think I'm getting myself into.

Thanks for your opinions!

[scottyt]

dont bother it will cost a lot to just get the toe rail. there are a lot of boats that size that you could buy tomorrow and sail the same day for the same price.

as for one sail, get a boat with both a main and a foresail, just use the main for your first trips.

[scottyt]

i just craiglist around where you live and for double the money you can get boats ready to go. dont be afraid to drive a few miles to go look, if you go a 100 miles you might find other boats that ike did not touch.

there is a 26 balboa in Kemah TX for 5 grand as it sits on a trailer. if you had a truck you could offer him 4 grand and probaly bring it home, then sail that day. it said it needs bottom paint but being on a trailer and you want to use it as a trailor sailor bottom pain is not really needed. but with a trailer painting it at worst a weekend job, best case a few hours. not worth the 1250 he wants to paint and deliver. he says even less if he keeps the trailer, but if you have storage for the trailer it makes it nice to work on the boat or for hurricanes

just so you know when i was looking for toe rail it was about a 100 bucks for 6 feet.

[ccollins0601]

I have a 1973 O'Day 27 that I bought as a project in 2007. The major problems were a fist-sized hole in the deck at the bow where the pulpit stanchion had been torn out and softness in the cabin sole. However it also had decent sails, a working engine (mine is the outboard model), hull spars and rigging in good to very good condition, and the interior was in very good shape. I paid $500 for the boat, $500 for the 12hp engine.

Do you have experience with fiberglass & epoxy? If not, sounds like you'll need to learn soon. I estimate it took me about 100 hours and $1000 to initially get it in sailing shape (granted that cosmetically it it still a work in progress, and I have made additional upgrades since then).

An O'Day 27 in good shape sells for between $4k and $10k. However, with all those problems you shouldn't be paying $1250, or perhaps anything. Get a survey done - even though the purchase price is low the time and money that a fixer upper needs can make it not worth it even for free. I did not have a survey done until after purchase but it produced no big surprises and I learned a lot about the boat. Overall I consider myself lucky with how things came out.

As far as the model, I have been very happy with her for the type of daysailing/weekend coastal cruising I do. I just returned from a singlehanded 3 day cruise to Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard. If you have any questions about the 27's sailing abilities or other characteristics let me know.