Just under 22 feet overall, the 222 combines a stub keel and retractable centerboard with a spade rudder. It’s a practical arrangement for a small family cruiser, offering shallow draft for exploring and trailering while retaining useful depth with the board lowered.
Design and Construction
The O'Day 222 is a solid-fiberglass monohull with 800 pounds of encapsulated iron ballast in its stub-keel-and-centerboard hull. A spade rudder sits behind the raked transom.
The boat measures 21.75 feet LOA and 19.58 feet LWL, with a beam of 7.92 feet and a displacement of 2,200 pounds. With the centerboard raised, draft is just 1.67 feet, opening up shallow creeks and making trailering easier. Lowering the board increases draft to 4.67 feet for useful windward grip.
Encapsulated iron ballast and modest displacement put the 222 firmly in the trailerable family-cruiser tradition rather than at the racing-skiff end of the spectrum.
Rig, Performance, and Handling
The fractional sloop rig uses a Bermuda configuration and carries 207 square feet of sail. The mainsail measures 122.62 square feet, with a 23.75-foot luff and 10-foot foot. The jib measures 94.93 square feet. A genoa option provides 132.65 square feet on the same 22.83-foot luff.
Standard rig dimensions are 22.75 feet for “i” and 7.75 feet for “j.” These figures confirm the rig’s fractional-headed, modest-overlap character, which keeps loads manageable for a couple or short-handed crew.
A 4- to 6-HP outboard handles docking and light-air motoring. The hull has a practical speed of about 6.0 knots. With a PHRF handicap around 240, the 222 fits comfortably into club-racing fleets without pretending to be a lead-line sprinter.
Accommodations
Below, the 222 trades volume for honesty. Headroom is 5'8", and the familiar trailerable-weekender layout includes a forward V-berth, a dinette that converts to a double, and an aft quarter berth. There’s also a compact galley and a portable head.
The convertible dinette provides sleeping space for additional crew, while the quarter berth extends the boat’s overnight capacity without inflating the cabin trunk. Nothing here is grand, but the spaces are real and usable for coastal overnights.
Verdict
The O'Day 222 is a pragmatic small cruiser-racer: light enough to trailer, shallow enough to explore, and built in sufficient numbers to reassure a buyer looking at an established design. It’s a refined evolution of the O'Day 22 rather than a clean-sheet gamble, and its fractional rig remains manageable.
The iron ballast and solid-fiberglass hull are unglamorous but straightforward. Below, the accommodation plan delivers the weekending basics without pretense.
Pros
- Trailerable, with 1.67-foot board-up draft and 2,200-pound displacement
- Refined successor to the O'Day 22, with around 500 built
- Manageable fractional sloop rig carrying 207 square feet of sail
- Practical weekender layout with a V-berth, convertible dinette, quarter berth, compact galley, and portable head
Cons
- 5'8" headroom limits standing comfort below
- A PHRF rating around 240 puts it behind quicker club racers
- Portable head rather than a fixed marine toilet
