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Review of the Oday 25 by r.w.landau

Year built 1979  
Location of boat Lake Authur, Pittsburgh, PA  
The boat is sailed on Lakes  
How the boat is used Weekends and longer  
Normal wind strength less than 10 knots  
Average size of crew solo  
Liveaboard? No  
Owner bought the boat in 2002  
If the clock could be turned back, would owner buy again? I bought this boat because I was the owner of the same boat but a 1978 model. I found this boat and decided to fix it over the winter and resell it. well instead I grew to like it and sold the 78 O'Day 25 that my wife liked. It took a few monthes but she now likes the 79. Yes, I would buy both of them again. They were and are good boats. It is fast, stable, comfortable (for the most part, would be better if it had 4 more inches of head room). It is trailerable easy to handle single-handed and has a clasic look.  
Gear that's been added Wow, mostly comfort Items. Multi meter, speed,depth,log,temp. Bimini, boom tent, sail cover, CDI FF4 roller furling and 155 genoa. Backing plates on all hardware including the winches, motor and gungeons. An onboard Guest 6amp tree phase batery charger, a second battery, a battery switch, new vhf, wash down pump, solar panel and solar regulator. Misc. 12volt outlets in the vee berth, galley bulkhead and cockpit. New running and standing rigging. Dock lines, home designed tiller tamer, rod holders,stubby vhf antenna on the push pit. 3/8 plywood storage covers. Compass, barometer, clock. Installed new bronze hulls ball valves and hoses. Waterline hoses. Rewired all electric less the bow light and interior lighting. New custom teak hatch rails, custom ipe cabintop rails and ipe tiller. Mohogany companionway boards. Velcro forward hatch bug screen and both a sunbrella and bug screen companionway curtain. Clothes line inside from the rear companion way to the port side of the fold down table. Rebuilt the step/ storage at the companionway. Installed a flat piece of plywood that was sectioned off for storage in the bilge under the cockpit. Installed a thru hull in the gas storage that is connected to the installed thru hull at the motor with a hose to keep fumes out of the boat. reinforced the motor bracket area by removing the rotted plywood core on the inside of the stearn and installing wover roving and large aluminum backing plates.  
Structural or complex improvements OOps, check out the previous gear added question.  
The boat's best features Fast, classic, comfortable for the size. Easy to single hand. Trailerable.  
Problem areas in terms of design, materials, maintenance, etc. I think the worst part of the design was the plywood reinforced transom. The idea was not bad. he problem is that most owners drill holes that allow water into this area and about 50% of the 25's I have seen, the plywood in the transom is rotted. It is not all that hard to fix it is just a design problem. Second is the genoatracks. The tracksare short enough that it is hard to have a larger furling genny that worked correctly in many points of reef. This would have been a bomb shell boat with 6' of head room. It missed that by about 4 to 6". The rudder draws 2" more depth than the keel trunk with the board up. It actually draws more than that when the stern is loadd with people. I think this is why there is a steady flow of others having problems with broken rudders. ( have ground hard one time rudder first and it is not the thing you want to do.  
Sailing characterisitcs Points nicely, most of the time higher than the other boats I sail with. I don't always lower the centerboard and rarely drop it all the way down. It is a wonderfull gunk holer and ,for that matter, racer for it's class.  
Motoring characterisitcs Like all sail boats, not to responsive until there is some headway, but once a small ammount of head way is achieved, it is managable in tight spots. It has alot of freeboard so in heavy wind conditions it does have some wind walk.  
Liveability See above  
The owner's experience in dealing with Hunter (if any) [builder]  
The owner's experience with the boat dealer or broker, if any  
Other comments Nice design, Comfortable inside and yet wide catwalks to go forward to the mast and foredeck.  

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