This predominantly fiberglass monohull combines a fixed stub keel and centerboard with a fractional Bermuda sloop rig. It’s a small, light, trailerable coastal boat with a documented preference for a small crew: keep the weight down and it rewards you, but overload it and its limitations quickly become apparent.
Design and Construction
The hull has a raked stem, a slightly reverse transom, and a transom-hung rudder controlled by a tiller. At 1,400 pounds empty, the O’Day 19 has the compact footprint of a trailerable weekender rather than a pocket cruiser with pretensions. Its 7.75-foot beam sits on a 16.67-foot waterline, and the fiberglass construction is straightforward for its era.
The boat carries 300 pounds of ballast, including the 52-pound centerboard. With the board down, draft is 4.33 feet; retracted, it falls to just 1.00 foot. That combination suits shallow-water gunkholing while retaining a useful keel profile under sail.
Rig and Handling
The fractional sloop rig carries 178.68 square feet of sail: a 101.68-square-foot mainsail and a 77-square-foot jib. The mast has a 22-foot foretriangle and a 24.5-foot mainsail luff.
Combined with the centerboard, low wetted surface, and light displacement, the high-aspect-ratio rig should make the boat fast in light air with a small crew. Period test sailors did, however, identify several handling compromises. The mainsheet lead is awkward, with no traveler to help keep the boom in close in a breeze. With the centerboard retracted, the bottom of the rudder sits below the keel, leaving it vulnerable in shoal water.
Reviewers also noted the relatively short cockpit and a lack of buoyancy aft. The stern won’t support much crew weight, reinforcing the importance of sailing the boat with a small crew and keeping weight sensibly distributed.
Performance
The O’Day 19 has a PHRF average handicap of 218 and a hull speed of 5.5 knots, placing it squarely among modest-performance racer-cruisers.
Reviewers observed that its 300 pounds of ballast—compared with as much as 400 pounds in competing boats—is both relatively light and mounted high in the boat. In their view, this would make the O’Day 19 too tender to be fast in all conditions. Its tender, high-mounted ballast and short-coupled hull point to a boat better suited to gentle-air club racing with minimal crew than to heavy-weather passage work.
Accommodations
Below, the O’Day 19 sleeps two in a double V-berth in the bow. Cabin headroom is 46 inches. The galley is on the port side, just forward of the companionway ladder, and includes an ice box. The head is at the companionway on the starboard side.
These are necessarily minimal cruising amenities in a 19-foot hull, but they make the boat genuinely campable for two people overnight. A small 3 to 5 hp outboard is the normal fit for docking and maneuvering. These minimal amenities are consistent with a 19-foot hull.
Known Issues
The O’Day 19’s principal limitations are closely related. Its relatively light, high-mounted 300-pound ballast makes it tender, while the lack of buoyancy aft limits the crew weight the stern can comfortably support. The cockpit is also relatively short.
The awkward mainsheet lead and absence of a traveler make it harder to keep the boom in close in a breeze. In shallow water, the rudder’s position below the keel when the centerboard is raised creates a grounding risk. Together, these traits define the boat’s safe operating envelope.
The Verdict
The O’Day 19 is a tidy, light-air racer-cruiser that punches above its length in calm conditions with a small crew. It demands respect for its tenderness, short cockpit, and limited buoyancy aft, but remains a straightforward fiberglass trailerable with genuine overnight capability in a very small package.
Pros
- Fast in light air with a small crew, thanks to low wetted surface and light weight
- Centerboard retracts for a 1.00-foot draft, well suited to shoal-water exploration
- Double-berth accommodations, a galley, and a head within a 19-foot hull
Cons
- Tender because of its relatively light, high-mounted 300-pound ballast
- Awkward mainsheet lead, with no traveler
- Rudder extends below the keel with the centerboard raised, leaving it vulnerable in shoal water
- Short cockpit and insufficient buoyancy aft to support much crew weight
