Built under license from the Jeanneau Sun Fizz 40, the O’Day 39 emerged when O’Day and Jeanneau shared ownership under Bangor Punta. In 1986, C. Raymond Hunt Associates lightly reworked the design into the O’Day 40, adding a sugar-scoop transom. Briand’s original was a low-profile, European-styled trunk-cabin sloop intended to balance pace and livability for coastal cruising or light racing. It remains a distinctive example of early-1980s transatlantic design exchange.
Design and Construction
The O’Day 39 has a sleek, low-profile trunk cabin that looks deliberately European beside the taller cabin trunks of contemporary domestic boats. Its wide, cambered decks were laid out for easy movement fore and aft.
Below the surface, O’Day fitted what the builder described as an incredibly strong unified grid pan and integrated rig-support system. O’Day developed the technique and said it was rarely found even on the most expensive custom auxiliaries. This internal structure forms the backbone of the 18,000-pound hull, which carries 6,600 pounds of ballast and has a 12-foot-6-inch beam.
The solid-fiberglass hulls were built in Fall River, in keeping with O’Day’s construction methods of the period. Both deep-keel and shoal-draft models were offered, with a maximum draft of 6 feet 4 inches.
Rig and Handling
The 39 carries a tall, double-spreader masthead sloop rig. Its dimensions include a 50-foot-2-inch I measurement and a 44-foot-3-inch P measurement. Standard sail area comprises a 323-square-foot mainsail and a 337-square-foot jib.
The sail plan was sized to balance speed and comfort for coastal cruising or light racing, rather than for all-out offshore pursuit. Its 667 square feet of working sail area is reasonable for a boat of this displacement.
A 150-percent genoa expands the foretriangle to 522 square feet. For downwind sailing, the catalog listed an 861-square-foot asymmetric spinnaker and a full 1,065-square-foot symmetric spinnaker.
Pedestal steering and the immense cockpit place the helm and crew in a coherent working arrangement. That suits a design concerned as much with livable volume as with race-course pace.
Accommodations and Stowage
Below, the O’Day 39 has four separate cabins, berths for up to 10 people, and two heads with showers. The layout makes full use of the boat’s 12-foot-6-inch beam and low trunk cabin.
The European styling isn’t merely cosmetic: the sleek cabin trunk provides interior headroom and a social footprint that a traditional American trunk would not. A complete navigation center anchors the saloon, while the cavernous storage capacity suits extended cruising or a full crew.
The immense cockpit also serves as outdoor living space. A lockable life-raft compartment and a lockable foredeck anchor well show that the builder considered orderly, secure stowage both at anchor and at sea.
Known Issues and Model-Specific Considerations
The material drawn from the builder’s specification and the period editorial survey identifies no structural-defect campaign, osmotic-blister bulletin, or systemic rig-failure advisory for the O’Day 39.
Instead, its service history is shaped by its licensed origins and short production run. With only about 120 hulls built from 1982 to 1985, followed by the O’Day 40 redesign in 1986, the 39 is a narrow-generation model. Its foibles belong to a single three-year run rather than to a type that evolved over a long production life.
Buyers and owners should weigh that short run against parts commonality. The O’Day 39 shares its lineage with the Jeanneau Sun Fizz 40 but predates the sugar-scoop O’Day 40, so upgrade paths from later O’Days don’t map cleanly onto it.
Ownership and Refits
The boat’s corporate history bears directly on its identity. Bangor Punta owned both O’Day and Jeanneau when the 39 was built, and Lear Siegler absorbed Bangor Punta in 1984, midway through the model’s production.
C. Raymond Hunt Associates’ 1986 redesign marked the end of the 39 as a current model and the beginning of its successor generation. The resulting O’Day 40 gained a sugar-scoop transom for better cockpit access and a swim platform.
For an owner planning a refit, the 39 is therefore a fixed target: a Briand-designed, license-built hull with O’Day’s grid-pan structure, a double-spreader masthead rig, and a four-cabin interior that didn’t evolve into later O’Day practice.
The Verdict
The O’Day 39 is a compact, well-structured cruiser-racer that combines a French-designed, license-built hull with an O’Day-developed unified grid pan—a construction technique rarely seen even on the most expensive custom auxiliaries.
Its four-cabin, 10-berth interior and low European trunk cabin make it a roomy platform for coastal cruising and light racing. Against that, the short 1982–1985 production run and rapid introduction of its successor call for careful attention to generation-specific spares and rigging.
Pros
- O’Day-developed unified grid pan and integrated rig support, a technique seldom used elsewhere
- Philippe Briand design with a low-profile European trunk cabin and wide, cambered decks
- Four separate cabins, two heads with showers, berths for 10, and cavernous storage
- Tall, double-spreader masthead rig designed to balance speed and comfort
Cons
- Only about 120 built during a three-year production run, with narrow parts commonality with the later O’Day 40
- Built under license from the Jeanneau Sun Fizz 40, so some references and spares follow the European parent design
