Design and Construction
The Outlaw 26 is a monohull of fiberglass construction with wood trim, carrying teak exterior woodwork and teakwood exterior trim over a solid fiberglass hull and solid fiberglass deck. Hardware is chrome-plated bronze, stainless steel, or special marine alloy, and the bottom left the factory painted with anti-fouling paint. At 5,050 pounds displacement with 2,300 pounds of ballast in a fixed long keel and an 8-foot beam on a 19-foot waterline, she is a modest but purposeful cruiser. Rhodes shaped her hull with far less wetted surface area, following the trend toward narrower keels to improve speed and maneuverability, and a keel-mounted rudder controlled by a tiller gives her a direct helming link.
Rig and Handling
She is a masthead sloop with a Bermuda rig, an anodized mast and boom, and a mast stepped on deck. The standard working sail area is 291 square feet, and a tall rig version was available with a mast about two feet higher than standard, intended for locations with lighter average winds. Wire halyards and Dacron running rigging were specified, with a full-width mainsheet traveler and cam-action mainsheet cleat, roller reefing, winch pads, and two top-action jib and/or genoa winches. On the water she responds to the lightest breezes yet handles admirably even in heavy weather, with a hull speed of 5.84 knots and a C.C.A. and M.O.R.C. rating each approximately 22.5. Her outstanding M.O.R.C. record confirms the racing credibility behind those numbers.
Accommodations
Below, the Outlaw provides four berths described as roomy and very sleepable, with storage shelves above all berths and plenty of room for galley, head, and stowage. Four fixed cabin ports and translucent hatches bring light below. The galley unit has a formica top with locker and shelf but was delivered less sink, tank, and pump, and a molded-insulated icebox is fitted. The cockpit is self-bailing and 8 feet long — deeper and bigger than found on many much larger boats — with an outboard motor well and outboard well plug, plus a stern flag socket.
Ownership Notes
Propulsion is a small outboard motor in a transom well for docking and maneuvering rather than an inboard. After the O'Day production run ended, the molds were sold to Northern Yachts of Ajax, Ontario, Canada, and the design was developed into the Northern 25 in 1970, marking the end of the O'Day-built lineage.
The Verdict
The Outlaw 26 is a compact Rhodes cruiser with a real race pedigree, a big self-bailing cockpit, and a straightforward outboard-well propulsion scheme. She is small-volume and sparsely equipped at delivery, but her handling and M.O.R.C. credentials make her a distinctive entry in the O'Day story.
Pros
- Largest O'Day model built, with a Rhodes cruiser design and 80-unit scarcity
- Low-wetted-surface hull with narrow-keel influence for speed and maneuverability
- Eight-foot self-bailing cockpit larger than many bigger boats
- Outstanding M.O.R.C. record with light-air responsiveness and heavy-weather composure
Cons
- Galley delivered without sink, tank, and pump
- Outboard-in-well propulsion instead of inboard auxiliary
- Only 80 built; tooling left O'Day after 1968, limiting factory support lineage
