O'Day Day Sailer II Tabernacle

17 Apr 20:

Our Day Sailer II mast has a tabernacle, it makes raising and lowering the mast a lot easier. Ours got bent a few years ago and we recently ordered a replacement from D&R Marine, who specializes in O'Day parts. We'll replace it soon.

The Day Sailer II may also need a mast step installed on the floor of the cuddy.

Installation instructions call for the lower mast section to be pinned to the step, we use a stainless hose clamp with a rubber pad just under the cuddy top to keep the lower half of the mst fixed in place. This keeps the lower mast section from rising while the mast is raised or lowered.

Another good tip is to make a mast crutch to place back at the transom, that will keep the upper mast from resting on the aft lip of the cuddy, possibly damaging the mast or the cuddy.

One more tip, we tape the lower turnbuckle so that the side stay does not get fouled on the hull tang as the mast goes up, otherwise the turnbuckle barrel gets trapped in the tang and the lower turnbuckle screw will bend.

FMI: D&R Marine Day Sailer I or II Tabernacle

Mast Step

1971 O'Day Day Sailer II CYANE Spring 1994 Ramp Launch

10 Apr 20:

Spring of 1994, playing with Capn Jack's first O'Day Day Sailer II CYANE, hull number 5709. Skipper has always been the Dock Commander and Dock Wench, she is a pro at handling lines and keeping the boats calm at the ramp. Capn Jack dropped the centerboard, shipped the rudder, raised the main and loosed the jib. They were quite the team, poetry in motion, unspoken efficiency demonstrated by two old salts.

Log of CYANE (Second Edition).

O'Day Day Sailer II CYANE 04 Sep 19 Lower the Mast

04 Sep 19:

Lowered CYANE's mast to get her ready for the road trip. First we hooked up the trailer so it wouldn't tip, then we took the boom and mainsail off and my little pirate disappeared with it.

Loosened the turnbuckles and took the forward pin out of the tabernacle.

Tied the bow line to the furler, ran the line through a shackle on the bow tang and cleated that line. Then we removed the clevis pin from the jib stay, loosed the line and slowly lowered the mast. One hand for the line and the other hand to keep the mast centered over the mast crutch.

(L-R) Spinnaker halyard block, jibstay/furler, jib halyard. CYANE can be set up with either a jib furler or her stock hanked on jib.

Skipper skippervising.

Used our Porter Cable cordless shop vac to get some rainwater out of the bilge. We keep the cuddy and ports covered with a tarp, but the rainwater got in there by running down the mast, out the cuddy drains and onto the inspection ports. The ports are original and need to be replaced, sealant failed also. New ports are on order.

Some detail shots of how things are secured for the road trip.

Ready for the road trip!

Log of CYANE.

The O'Day Day Sailer

21 Jun 19:

The boat that built a company....from a 1981 advert by Bangor Punta Marine...

1981: "Olympic Gold Medal sailor George O'Day had a vision. a swift, easily sailed boat that could be built efficiently and at modest cost of low-maintenance materials. He went up to Uffa Fox, a versatile small boat designer with his parameters and the Day Sailer was born.

That was 25 years ago, and the Day Sailer II still has the same hull and sailplan as the original, but a superb boat has been made even better. The mast is now stepped on a tabernacle for easier rigging off the trailer. Cockpit and deck are designed for high buoyancy for self-rescuing in the event of a capsize. The cockpit has a built in ice box, provision for an outboard engine fuel tank, and a self bailer.

Both deck and cockpit colors are a soft, non-glare cream. And the hull and sail stripe are color-coordinated.

But what made the O'Day Day Sailer an instant success over 25 years is the soundness of her now classic design. This is the boat that quite rightly claims to have started American families daysailing.

Her handling is responsive without being skittish. Her powerful rig offers wonderful opportunity for speed, yet the novice will feel comfortable with her as sailing skills develop.

There's the safety of built-in permanent foam flotation, and a non-skid surface molded into seats, deck and cockpit sole. And she's remarkably stable, even in a stiff breeze.

You see Day Sailers everywhere, there are over 12,000 of them and they can be taken anywhere. And launched in less than a foot of water.

If you'd like to get together with other Day Sailer owners, you won't have any trouble finding them. At last count, there were 89 organized Day Sailer fleets across the country."

Standard Features:
Pleasure Group -
All hardware non-corrosive or stainless steel
Boom crutch
Built in icebox
Cockpit drain plug
Kick up rudder
Main and jib
Mooring and trailing bow eye
Storage locker
Transom designed for outboard
One year warranty

Accent Group -
Multi color coordinated sail and stripes
Anodized mast and boom

Safety Group -
Mast is filled with flotation
Non-skid deck and seats
Positive foam flotation
Roller reefing gooseneck (*needs reefing claw)
Self bailing cockpit
Self rescuing
Stainless steel rigging with swaged terminals
Thru bolted mooring cleats
Cockpit inspection/bailing ports

Performance Group -
Adjustable jib sheet leads
Best dacron running rigging
Quick relese cam cleat for mainsheet and jibsheets
Stainless steel turnbuckles

Options -
Block action outhaul
Boom vang
Cowl vent
Tabernacle
Tiller extension - adjustable length
Wood cuddy enclosure - lockable


Editor's Note: Bangor Punta Marine was one of 8 builders of the Day Sailer through the years. The first builder was O'Day Manufacturing, other builders include Can-AM Sailcraft, Rebel, Spindrift, Precision, McLaughlin, Sunfish/Laser Inc. The current builder is Cape Cod Shipbuilding Company, give Wendy a call and order your new Day Sailer!

1971 O'Day Day Sailer II CYANE

Log of CYANE.

Image and Text Credits: Bangor Punta Marine

Cape Cod Shipbuilder Company Day Sailer I+

16 May 19:

The Day Sailer has been built by several different companies since 1958, starting with the O'Day Company out of Fall River Massachusetts. There have been 3 different models, with the current builder Cape Cod Shipbuilding Company building a modified version of the DS I.

Designed by Uffa Fox, the Day Sailer is a nice boat for cruising and racing. The current DS I, which I'll call the DS I+ has the following features:

-Hand-layed fiberglass hull and deck with high gloss gelcoat
-Waterat centerboard with bronze handle
-Lindsey rudder blade with aluminum rudder head and varnished ash tiller
-Stainless steel 1/8" forestay and shrouds with "T" ball fittings and turnbuckles
-2 sealed airtanks,1 cuddy airtank w/new style hatch
-3-1 mainsheet w/Harken swivel cam installed on centerboard trunk
-Dacron Sta-set Running rigging, Stainless Steel Standing Rigging
-Bow eye for trailering, stern eyes for docking
-Hull choices-red, blue, green or white gelcoat; deck = white
-Rubrail at shear

The Standard Day Sailer has a hinged mast, deck stepped w/ external halyards

The Race version comes with the following items:
-Zephyr aluminum mast, keel stepped with internal halyards led to the cuddy cabin
-Barberhaul
-Boom vang
-Cunningham
-Hiking strap
-Spinnaker gear
-Zephyr boom and internal outhaul, stainless steel and Harken fittings
-Adjustable traveler with Harken fittings. Skipper or crew can adjust from the rail

Wendy runs the show at Cape Cod, they can build a race ready DS I+ with keel stepped mast and hanked jib, or a cruiser friendly boat with mast tabernacle and furler jib. Give her a call and she'll get you set up.

Cape Cod Shipbuilding Company

1971 O'Day Day Sailer II 08 May 19 Paint and Vinyl

08 May 19:



Log of CYANE.

Log of CYANE:

O'Day Day Sailer 2003 Sailboat Hall of Fame

From the web archive for The American Sailboat Hall of Fame:

In 1956 George D. O’Day’s day job was selling insurance in Boston. At night he was importing sailboats designed by Uffa Fox, the famous British designer who had earned a worldwide reputation for innovative dinghy designs including those for the developmental International 14 class. O’Day, who was an enthusiastic International 14 sailor, had met Fox a year or so earlier and the two had started a friendship and a collaboration that would last for many years.

Not long after the two had met O’Day told Fox about his concept for a 17-foot fiberglass boat that would appeal to the emerging family market in America. O’Day envisioned a centerboarder that would have a beam of about 6 feet, flotation fore and aft, a small cuddy cabin, and an aluminum mast and boom. The two traded ideas and plans back and forth across the Atlantic and then, early in 1958, the two finally agreed on the lines and the general layout for the boat that O’Day would call the Day Sailer.

The boats were built in a small facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, and O’Day marketed them from his office in Boston.

Even though Fox never did accept O’Day’s cuddy, O’Day was equally adamant that it was a crucial part of whatever success the boat would have. “That enclosure was the perfect answer for cold kids and new sailors,” O’Day would say later.

But there were other features, many of them revolutionary at the time, that helped make the boat an immediate success. It had an outboard bracket, a spinnaker and reasonably comfortable sleeping arrangements for two.

O’Day also placed the boom almost three feet above deck, which made it possible to put a canvas tent over the boom and create even more living space.

The Day Sailer was built for more than 20 years by the O’Day Corporation, and is currently being produced by Cape Cod Shipbuilding Co. And even though there were minor modifications along the way and a name change from Day Sailer 1 to Day Sailer 2, the planing hull that Fox had created and the cuddy cabin and special features that O’Day had insisted upon remained essentially unchanged.

More than 13,000 Day Sailers have been built since hull number one rolled out of the Fall River plant almost 45 years ago (1958), and today there are more than 60 active Day Sailer fleets in North America. Each year, the class hosts more than 30 regional and national regattas that emphasize family participation for the boat’s two-person racing crews. The Day Sailer has more than delivered on the promises put forth by its creators so many years ago. It is a boat that is spirited but also forgiving enough so that it can be sailed easily by beginners of almost any age. And it has been a favorite for generations of families who want to experience the pleasure that comes when a design is matched perfectly to the wind that brings it to life.

-Text Credit: Charles Mason. 2003.
-Images: Small Boat Restoration

Editor: We have enjoyed Day Sailers since the late 1990s, our 1971 DSII CYANE is a good sporty compliment to our Drascombe Lugger ONKAHYE and our Sunfish fleet. Easy to trail, easy to rig and store. We added a mast tabernacle, roller furling, a topping lift and spinnaker rigging. She is the dolphin's favorite, they show up every time we take her out.

Log of CYANE.

New Day Sailers! Cape Cod Shipbuilding