O'Day 23-1 Sailboat Review, Specs, and Listings

Design and Construction

The 23-1 is a 23-foot fiberglass monohull with wood trim, a transom-hung rudder, and a folding centerboard keel carrying 1,250 pounds of lead ballast that makes both the fixed- and pop-top versions self-righting anchor. The cabin structure is a single molded section running from bow to cockpit, and the lifting-roof models used a mechanism adapted from thousands of camper trailers, warrantied for two years. Early boats carried the full "Lift Top": the entire coachhouse roof raised on struts above the deck while the keel-stepped mast stayed put and the roof slid up around it anchor. Later 23-1s received the reduced "Convertible Top," lifting only the section aft of the mast and allowing the spar to be stepped in a tabernacle on the cabintop rather than through the deck. In the down position the pop-top relied on a pressure-compacted gasket at the overlapping deck-and-cabin junction to keep water out.

Rig and Handling

A tall masthead sloop rig puts 245 square feet of sail over a 7'11" beam, and the narrow 1,250-pound keel with centerboard gives a draft of just 2 feet board-up for trailering, opening to 5'5" down for windward work. The shallow-draft bottom is credited with surfing performance downwind, and the 23-1 carries a PHRF average handicap of 234 — quicker on paper than the later 23-2's 240. The cockpit is deep, self-bailing, and sized for six, with molded non-skid on floor, seat tops, and deck, plus a large seat locker for the outboard and sails and a reinforced transom motor mount.

Accommodations

Both fixed- and pop-top 23-1s share nearly the same lockable cabin, with berths for five adults: a double V-berth forward, a drop-down dinette that becomes a double berth, and an aft quarter berth to port. The galley sits port-side just forward of the companionway with a two-burner stove, ice box, and sink; the head is forward to starboard. The fixed-top version adds a full bulkhead with sliding door between the head and main cabin. Secure stowage runs beneath every bunk, the dinette, and the galley counter. The pop-top's trick is headroom: 4'7" with the roof down, opened to 6'4" with a few turns of a single winch.

Known Issues

The convertible poptop's ambition was also its weakness. Testers found that the full-roof Lift Top suffered problems sealing out rain and spray anchor where the cabin trunk met the deck and where the mast passed through the deck — a through-deck penetration moving through a lifting roof was a natural leak path. The joint between trunk and deck was the other chronic entry point. O'Day dropped the full convertible scheme in favor of the aft-only lift, which removed the through-deck mast from the moving assembly and eased the sealing problem, but early boats with the original design remain the ones to watch for damp interiors after a rain.

The Verdict

The O'Day 23-1 is a genuinely inventive small cruiser that solved the trailerable-headroom problem with a rising roof, then paid for it at the seams. For a sailor who wants five berths, self-righting ballast, and a surfable shallow draft in a 23-footer that trails behind a car, the pop-top is a clever piece of 1970s engineering. The later aft-lift boats are the drier ones; the full Lift Top demands a buyer tolerant of gasket maintenance.

Pros