My O’Day 22 Sailboat Blog

Since about a year ago I have been shopping for a dinghy for my sailboat and just to horse around in the harbor. I decided to go with a Walker Bay due to its durability, flexibility and low maintenance. Since the O’Day is only 22 feet long I went looking for the smallest dinghy Walker Bay makes and found me my first 8 footer last November. It had a homemade camo paint job that had been peeling off for some time so I started looking for something a little more easy on the eye.

Ever since the first one I have been keeping my eyes on craigslist to see if there are other good deals that pop up. Sure enough I find them from time to time and have been upgrading as I go. The first upgrade was to a slightly newer one with an almost complete sail kit.

It was great to take it sailing in lakes and inside the harbor but I still wished I had a motor to putt around with when I get the urge to pollute just a little. So the search was on to look for a small motor that was reliable and light since the dinghy can only handle upto a 2HP motor.

Although my first dinghy came with an older 2 hp motor, I had to sell it to get enough money to buy the second boat with the sail kit. Looking for the right motor was not an easy task as everyone was looking for one and good deals don’t last long. Just last week however I saw an even newer Walker Bay 8 footer go up on craigslist that came with a tube kit. The seller had an asking price well below the market value and I was able to jump on that and get in on this great deal.

With the optional tubes now the dinghy is capable of handling a much heavier motor so I decide to give my 6 HP Tohatsu a try that I use on my O’Day since it weighs about the same as a 4HP which is the maximum recommended motor for this dinghy. I went to the launching ramp today at my lunch break and got her in the water with the long shaft motor and it worked great.

The longshaft and the heavier motor noticeably weighed the boat down but it was still able to push it around a a comfortable speed without to much lifting of the bow if I position my body weight correctly.

It seems to help if I position the motor shaft at a slight tilt instead of all the way down.

It isn’t ideal for the boat but I didn’t have to spend a lot of money on another motor so it worked out great for me. Now I have one of the most versatile dinghies available that rows well, sails reasonably well and motors comfortably well. What else can a sailor ask for!