THE BOAT

The O’Day 25 was never designed to be a live-aboard vessel. It was intended for daysailing, weekend trips, or at most a family sailing vacation that would last a week or two. We never intended to do more than this at first, either. Novella was meant to be our little training boat. Once we got ready to do the Loop, our plan was to sell our starter boat and buy something 36’ or larger. However, the more time we spent on Novella, the more we realized she would be an excellent Loop boat for us — incredibly economical, with a simple low-maintenance design, shallow draft, and easy maneuverability.

O’Day innovated some of the larger “trailer sailor” boats in the 1970’s and 80’s. With the O’Day 25 and 26, they popularized boats that were just small enough to trailer on US highways without special permits. This opened up new opportunities for sailors that wanted to change up their scenery every once in a while or, like us, work on their boats in their backyard instead of storing them at a boat yard out of season. O’Days aren’t the sexiest or fastest boats in the world, but they were well made and affordable, and seem to be great introductory boats for new sailors. After spending two days on board, we had a good understanding of how everything worked and where all the essential components were located. Simple.

The layout is excellent and makes great use of the limited space, accommodating all our needs in a super-cozy footprint. The cabin can technically sleep six (yes, six!) people. The V-berth is where we spend our nights, but there are two setee berths, one of which converts to a double. There is also a spacious quarter berth tucked under the cockpit. It is hard to imagine six adults overnighting, but 2-3 adults and a handful of kids seems doable in the short term. With only two of us on board, Meriah has engineered some ingenious storage areas hidden throughout the boat.

Once we decided to attempt the Loop aboard this unconventional choice, it was time to spend considerable hours preparing the boat for the journey ahead. That meant installing safety, navigation, communication and power equipment usually not found on vessels of this size. Certainly there will be more modifications to come once we begin living and working aboard full time.

It seems some people find their dream boat, and others fall into something that happens to work with some re-engineering. For us, that’s Novella.