O'Day Flying Saucer
Description
The O'Day Flying Saucer is an American-built fiberglass daysailer designed by Andrew Kostanecki and first produced in 1966 by O'Day Corp. in Fall River, Massachusetts, as a lightweight, high-performance planing dinghy emphasizing exhilarating speed, simplicity for beginners or racers, and effortless trailering for family outings or club events on protected waters with its innovative bendy rig and self-tending jib for automatic sail shape adjustment in varying winds. Featuring a centerboard configuration for shallow-draft versatility and a fractional sloop setup, it displaces just 195 pounds with no ballast, measures 15 feet LOA, 13 feet LWL, 5.18 feet beam, and drafts 0.5 feet board-up to 3.25 feet board-down, achieving a theoretical hull speed of 4.83 knots and 115 square feet of sail area under a responsive Bermuda rig without an auxiliary engine for pure, unpowered thrill. The O'Day Flying Saucer was produced through 1970 with 271 units built before being overshadowed by larger siblings, enduring as an affordable, low-maintenance classic for nostalgic sailors seeking unadulterated fun and agility in a sub-16-foot package where velocity and virtue eclipse versatility.
Construction Details
| Designer | Andrew Kostanecki |
|---|---|
| Builder | O'Day Corp. |
| Length | 16.000 ft |
| LOA | 16.000 ft |
| LWL | 13.000 ft |
| Beam | 5.180 ft |
| Displacement | 195 lb |
| Max Draft | 3.250 ft |
| Min Draft | 0.500 ft |
The standard boat dimensions
| i | - |
|---|---|
| j | - |
| p | 16 ft |
| e | 8.50 ft |
| p2 | - |
| e2 | - |
| i2 | - |
| j2 | - |
| I | J | P | E | P2 | E2 | I2 | J2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | 16 ft | 8.50 ft | - | - | - | - |
Sails
O'Day Flying Saucer - MAINSAIL
| Luff | 16 ft - (4877 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | 8.5 ft - (2591 mm) |
| Leech | * 17.69 ft - (5392 mm) |
| Tack Angle | * 87.97 ° |
| Diagonal | * 17.85 ft - (5441 mm) |
| Head (inches) | * 4 in - (102 mm) |
| Area | 67.89 ft² |
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O'Day Flying Saucer - JIBSAIL
| Luff | 11.67 ft - (3557 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | 4.75 ft - (1448 mm) |
| Leech | 10 ft - (3048 mm) |
| Length Perpendicular | 4.03 ft - (1228 mm) |
| Area | 23.5 ft² |
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O'Day Flying Saucer - GENOA
| Luff | 11.67 ft - (3557 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | 5.75 ft - (1753 mm) |
| Leech | 10.42 ft - (3176 mm) |
| Length Perpendicular | 5.13 ft - (1564 mm) |
| Area | 29.93 ft² |
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Disclaimer. Boats are not all the same -- even when produced in the same factory of the same model. Sailrite does its best to publish accurate dimensions, but we often find it worthwhile to have our customers measure their boats carefully before we produce kits for them. You should take the same precautions, especially when the data is not from Sailrite. The information on this site is not guaranteed to be accurate. Sailrite offers this content as a service to our community, but takes no responsibility for the reliability of the data provided.