My O’Day 22 Sailboat Blog

This company in the UK makes three different sizes of sailing trimarans from 16 ft, 21 ft and 24 ft. As you may know about trimarans that they are design to plane over water under sail power and they often can sail faster than the true wind speed on a beam reach. I was fascinated by them but knew that most of them are expensive and one of the more popular brands is a home built kit.

This company makes a real capable 21 footer that can reach 20 knots under wind power. It also takes a similar outboard like the my 6 HP Tohatsu and can cruise up to 10 knots under it. Unfortunately it is not easy to get a hold of one if you are in the US. They go for about 10 to 15k pounds in the UK which is about $25,000. I wonder if there are comparable trimaran makers in the US. I bet there is a market for these things since small catamaran sailing seems to be so popular.

Next weekend I am trying to plan an overnight trip to Santa Barbara. It is about a 28 nautical mile trip each way in a straight line. With the prevailing westerly winds here, unless I motor, it will take likely all day to sail since I am pretty much going directly into the wind. At least the way home will be nice and relaxing downwind sailing.

Given this weeknd will be Memorial Day, I am sure the guest slips will be full. I will definitely go out on Saturday and shake everything down to make sure I am ready to go for next week. The coast line along the Santa Barbara/Ventura area is very beautiful. I will pass Rincon Point along the way which happens to be a legendary surf spot. I am definitely going to bring a surfboard just in case the conditions are just right. It will be a little sketchy to try and anchor outside of the breaking surf. I am just imagining a big set coming through and wiping my boat out into some multi-million dollar homes. Note to self, make sure insurance for the boat is up to date…

This should be a great trip. Marlene doesn’t much like to sail but she will drive up and meet me for dinner once I get there. Stay tuned. I will post more information about this trip once it is more concrete…

I have had these flexible solar panels since before I got the boat. By the way, I think I have a name for her now. I will announce it one I run it be a few more people to see what they think. Back to the solar panels. I have 2 small 5 watters and a 20 watter. They are great. Portable, daisy chainable and has built in charge connector. They are the only method I have of charging up the 2 batteries in the boat. Although I haven’t sail the boat enough to even put the batteries to the test so as far as I know, they are just keeping them topped off…

I have them connected through a wire coming out the starboar side lazarette and into a cigarette lighter adaptor. I keep the main battery switch on both batteries and the panel switch to on only on the lighter plug. Each time during the day I go to the boat I find that there is always condensation beneath the chargers as they sit on each sides of the cockpit. I didn’t mind too much since its just water. But today I noticed that there is actually discoloration caused by the panels being on top of the seating areas. I have since relocated them to on top of the boom. It is lashed down with bungee cords so it does not get blown away but I do worried about people seeing them and ripping them off. I don’t know why the discoloration occurs but it is fairly minor and once I paint the topside it will be gone.

Here is a photo of what one of the panels look like. I think I may have already posted a photo in the past but it doesn’t hurt to do it again.

I saw this on del.icio.us today. A cruising catamaran that folds up to a trailerable size. Pretty cool concept. I know that there have been trimarans like the Farriers which fold up for years. But I have not yet seen a folding catamaran. There are definitely some draw backs to this boat since the large and spacious cabin area typically associated with cruising catamarans are not usable as interior space with this design. But I would gladly trade that with the new found trailerability or the ability to fit into a monohull slip at any marina. Check out the video attached below or visit their site for more info at www.cat2fold.com

I was just taping up the old main sail today on my lawn with the 12-dollar-a-roll, rip-off sail tape I bought from West Marine when this truck pulled up and parked across the street. A guy gets out and asks me if I owned an O’Day 22. I didn’t think twice and said yes. I had the boat parked in front of the house for a couple of weekends last month so I figured it was just someone who’s seen it there. Turns out he had found this blog while researching an O’Day 25 online and recognized my street since he lives in the neighborhood.

I’ve never met people who’s stumbled across any of my sites or blogs who I don’t already know. That was pretty cool. His name was Gary and he was looking to upgrade from his Hobie Cat to a bigger single hull leaner. Since I really haven’t been tracking the visitors of this site I didn’t realize anyone reads this stuff until last week when I finally checked my Gmail account. This makes me feel more obligated to write more and post more updates for everyone who visits the site. I am a bit embarrassed about this because there are some very articulate writers and bloggers out there and my stuff sometimes make me look like fool. Especially when I know I am just braindumping into a post that probably makes no sense…. Kinda like this post I suppose…. Anyways, Gary told me he enjoyed the site and I hope the rest of you do too. Don’t be shy to sign up for an account in the forums or just post a comment to say hi. I would love to hear about your projects and boat stories. If you are more adventurous, I can even give you an account to post directly to this blog. Let me know. I would not mind sharing this space with others.

Thanks again Gary for stopping by and saying hello. Good luck finding your sailboat. I am probably going to take the boat out this weekend if you want to come along. Just shoot me an email.