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I second that comment. We owned a 322 for about 12 years and it did VERY well in high wind because it is so stiff. It also has an inordinately short rig. That helps, and we liked it.
Heavy sea motion is another matter. When the relatively flat bottom of the 322 hits the water it pounds the water. The result is very uncomfortable.
In my opinion, sea boats should be shaped like this: A Cape dory 25D
All things considered, though, the 322 is a fine boat.
The 322 has a draft of 4 foot 2 inches. The numbers for this boat are pretty good. I plan on beefing up the rigging on mine for a Bermuda run. There are some things to upgrade to get it up to limited bluewater trips such as a manual pump for water, latches for the bildge cover boards, latch for anchor locker, emergency shutters/covers for the beckson ports, securing the batteries incsase of a roll, replacing the 3/8" lexan galley windows with 1/2" to name a few. The biggest worry for my perticular trip is the spade rudder. I will probably have a custom one done with a solid aluminum post. I worry about how the stock rudder would handle the sargasso weed, or should I say dragging 300 feet of weed behind it in some rough seas, and not being damaged.
Just scared of the rudder, and dont feel like carrying a spare rudder I can hang off the back. I dont want the boat so big I cant put electric drive so I am limited to around 12000 displacement. was thinking the 322 might work but have concerns about the rudder not having any protection. but i come from a hobie background where we sailed right up on the beach at full speed, dousing the sails only at the last second to keep from flipping. also looking at the cal 33.
Not that I'm any kind of expert but doing blue water without some sort of emergancy rudder is risky, no? Funny thing last year. on the River in a race on a friend's hunter 33 he lost the steering... guess who was steering with the sails? OH MY! twasn't that hard although it was tedious.
I saw somewhere the some of the roller furling mechanisms that come with the O'Day 322 are faulty and come loose in high winds. As I understand, the roller furling *is* the forestay, on the 322, right? So that would mean losing a mast in high winds. Has anyone had this experience?
Most have been fitted after they left the factory. So the furling equipment could be any of the manufactures. Most odays and boats from the 80s did have CDI "reefer" units that are and pretty common and rugged.. And no. the forestay loss doesn't always mean lost mast. But with any boat the rigging needs to be checked and known issues fixed.
My 1900 Pearson - O'Day 322 came with an Isofurl on the jib... It demands careful maintenance or the mast will come down. After a close call, I got a Harken.
The furler replaces the both forestay and the halyard, The sail is attached to the furler instead of the mast, so the furler is only thing holding the mast. If you force it to clear a jammed sail, you may unscrew the bearing housing and cause the mast to fall.
Check out the RigRite web site for drawings of the bearing housing. The setscrews are critical. Mine were loose when I bought the boat, the bearing jammed and I almost dropped the mast into the cockpit.
If you have this rig, inspect both upper & lower bearing housing setscrews frequently, or replace it.
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