Description
The O'Day Sprite is an American-built fiberglass daysailer designed by Robert H. Baker and first produced in 1959 by O'Day Corp. in Fall River, Massachusetts, as an ultra-lightweight, trailerable junior trainer prioritizing playful responsiveness, simplicity for beginners or young sailors, and effortless portability for family outings or club racing on protected ponds, lakes, or bays with its centerboard configuration enabling beaching and shallow-water fun. Featuring a fractional sloop rig with aluminum spars, it displaces just 150 pounds with no ballast, measures 10.16 feet LOA, 9.67 feet LWL, 4.33 feet beam, and drafts 0.25 feet board-up to 3.42 feet board-down, achieving a hull speed of about 4.17 knots and 79 square feet of sail area under a responsive Bermuda setup without an auxiliary engine for pure, unpowered excitement. Renowned for its buoyant hard-chine hull, open self-bailing cockpit seating up to three, minimalistic tiller steering, and no-cabin design emphasizing speed over accommodations, the O'Day Sprite was produced through the early 1960s with an impressive 3,000 units built before evolving into variants like the Super Sprite, enduring as an affordable, low-maintenance classic for nostalgic enthusiasts seeking uncomplicated joy and agility in the tiniest O'Day package where velocity and virtue eclipse versatility.
