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Review of the Oday 39 by Ron Seegan

Year built 1984  
Location of boat Channel Islands Harbor, CA  
The boat is sailed on Open ocean  
How the boat is used Weekends and longer  
Normal wind strength 10-15 knots  
Average size of crew 2-4  
Liveaboard? No  
Owner bought the boat in 2006  
If the clock could be turned back, would owner buy again? Absolutely! These are great vessels. Well designed and well laid out for their time period. I'm surprised more owners haven't filed their info regarding their 39s. One of my slip neighbors has the Jeanneau version, 1983 model, and the only thing his came with standard that wasn't on ours is an electric windlass. The larger O'days were designed and built to Jeanneau standards(Pangor Punta,the parent company).  
Gear that's been added I've done alot of work on my boat. The former owner had her in a 'Charter Service' and really didn't do anything to maintain her except it seems for painting the bottom. She now has full battens on her main with a Lazy-Jack and new stainles steel rigging. At that time we also had a New Furlex roller furler installed and the 'headsail' re-stiched. I also replaced the manual heads(myself), and installed new electric heads with new hoses, upgraded the fawcets, replaced the holding tanks, and have replaced most of the exterior windows and hatch lenses. I also added a Waco Ice-box refrigerator on the Portside Ice-box which is working like a champ for the last year.  
Structural or complex improvements When my wife and I bought the O'day we noticed that we couldn't keep the bilge completely dry, so we elected to have all of the Thru-hulls replaced and have the Keel re-seated. The bilge is now dry as a bone!  
The boat's best features This is a very sound sailboat and performs as well as any high-performance sailboat, based on my sailing experiences with other vessels. The 39's aft-cabins are very comfortable considering this is an aft-cockpit design. The cockpit is also large and comfortable as well. We have no Dodger on our boat presently but even in 20 to 25 knot winds with 8ft swells one remains very dry in the cockpit. The other feature that makes this a great live-a-board and cruiser is the tons of storage.  
Problem areas in terms of design, materials, maintenance, etc. The only thing that I didn't like on the boat was the way the plumbing was set up for over-board disposal. Both holding tanks were tied together with "Y" valves and a manual pumping system of which was very difficult to maintain let alone access for regular usage. I eliminated this allowing both holding tanks to be opperated independent and electrically from each other.  
Sailing characterisitcs The 39 sails remarkably well and many people who sailed her when she was in the charter fleet had nothing but praise for her handling in all kinds of conditions.  
Motoring characterisitcs The motor is a Universal Diesel and is a bit noisy, as can be expected, compared to most of the new boats out there. The boat has ample power to move it through the water no problem.  
Liveability As mentioned previously, the boat is very user-friendly and works well for cruising up and down the coast. I would think she would do fine on extended tours as well.  
The owner's experience in dealing with Hunter (if any) [builder]  
The owner's experience with the boat dealer or broker, if any Since I worked for a broker when we purchased the O'day things went fairly smooth. The boat is now a documented vessel as uposed to being state registered.  
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