myo'day26finale

For some reason, I guess I have always had a soft spot for O'days. We had Finale from June 2006-September 2008.

In 2000, I bought an O'day 23 to sail on Lake Strom Thurmond in Georgia. It was a great little boat for the type of sailing I was doing at the time. But the O'Day 26 moored across from me always caught my eye. It was a 'ghost boat' that never got used, but I knew that if it sailed like my 23, it would be a fun boat.

When I moved to Kentucky, I purchaed a 272. After my 23, I thought it sailed like a dog. It was extremely tender and wouldn't point (what I know now with more experience is that the standard traveler setup is junk and kept the main from proper trim while underway.)

I sold the 272 less than a year later and bought a Cheoy Lee Luders 30. After four years of upkeep, I decided I'd rather spend my time on the boat sailing instead of being caught up in a never-ending teak job.

At that time I was mostly day-sailing out of Annapolis, and the 26 was the first boat I thought of when I began looking. I knew it was small, easy to maintain, easy to sail, big enough to stay on and a design that I find attractive. The diesel was mandatory for me -- I don't like fooling around with an outboard hanging off the back. My goal was to have a newer, well equipped boat for what I could sell my old Cheoy Lee for.

I found Finale in Amityville (right down the street from the haunted house), and I got really lucky. She came with self-tailing winches, autopilot, two headsails, pressure water, VHF, bimini, nice cockpit cushions and even tools. The previous owner was an older gentleman who was getting out of sailing, and he had loved and cared for Finale meticulously during the time he owned her. The catch -- the engine was spitting oil. I later traced that to a hole that had rusted in the cylinder head between the exhaust and the oil passage. One new cylinder head and a few hot days in the engine compartment later, she was up and running again.

She was named Finale when we got her and we decided to stick with it. Don't want to anger the Gods of the sea!!

The smaller boat really opened up a lot of sailing areas in the bay thanks to that 2'6 draft. We sailed the boat on the bay for another year before moving her to Kentucky Lake. She does even better on the lake than the bay, which tended to get pretty choppy. Big swells are no problem with the boat, because she surfs up and down them.

But on Kentucy Lake, she was truly in her element. On windy days she held her own, but better still, even on nearly flat days, she could ghost along on even a little puff of wind, days that I wouldn't have bothered to put the sails up on my Cheoy Lee! The keel-centerboard doesn't have much effect in the way of ballast, but it does give a few degrees extra of windward performance. Not to mention we can anchor pretty much anywhere there is water. Which probably explains why there were three other O'day 26s at our marina!

Features:

• Roller furling with 135 and 110 headsails
• New halyards and running rigging Aug. 08.
• Main halyard runs to cockpit
• Self tailing stainless steel winches
• Boom vang
• Autopilot (tillerpilot)
• Speed and depth meters (both work great)
• Bimini with cover
• Jiffy Reefing
• Yanmar 1GM inboard diesel (new head and top end job 2006) -- less than 150 hours total time on engine
• Two batteries (secured and covered)
• Isolator switch and breaker panel
• Larger than stock, laminated tiller
• Very nice cockpit cusions
• Rail-mount charcoal grill
• Large capacity (five gallon) Porta-Potti with deck pumpout
• Pressure water (head and galley)
• Interior upholstery recovered in 2006
• All interior teak in very good condition and oiled
• Stereo/CD player with cockpit mounted waterproof speakers (2006)
• Brass ships clock and barometer
• VHF radio
• Manual bilge pump mounted in lazarette
• Windex masthead wind indicator
• Wooden steps on swim ladder (easier on feet!)
• Anchor w/ ground tackle
• CETOL on exterior teak in good condition
• Nonskid tape on steps for wet feet
• Lots of TLC and little upgrades!