Boating: The Bathtub Navy

Ever since he got his first catboat at eleven, Bostonian George O’Day, 40, has idolized sailboats. Regarded as one of the world’s best downwind sailors, O’Day has handled almost every class of boat up to sleek 12-meter racers (he was the successful Weatherly’s assistant skipper during last year’s America’s Cup races) and has a seasoned eye for grace ful lines and good design. About the only boats that O’Day doesn’t like are those he makes himself.

Since 1958 his O’Day Corp. has been turning out stubby Fiberglas boats for amateur sailors that offend his sensibili ties (“They look like unwashed bath tubs,” O’Day admits wryly) but have sold fast enough to make him the world’s largest builder of sailboats under 20 ft.

Weekend Sailors. A combatively can did man, O’Day is sometimes regarded by fellow sailors as a traitor to his class.

He enthusiastically endorses the change in sailing from a seacoast sport dom inated by yacht clubs and big-boat own ers to a family hobby and national pas time. Last year, of 15,000 boats sold in the U.S., 80% were less than 20 ft. long and one-third were destined for fresh water launching. Only 10% of their new owners intend to race them. “The rest are weekend sailors who aren’t out to break any speed records,” says O’Day. “This is the market I decided to go after.”

As U.S. sales agent for Britain’s boatbuilding Fairey Marine Ltd., O’Day was convinced there was a lot of money to be made from boats for weekend sailing. In 1957 he drew up a list of 35 specifications a weekend boat ought to have, but he could not sell Fairey on the idea. So O’Day, with a handful of U.S. sailing friends, decided to produce the boat himself. Famed British Naval Architect Uffa Fox got the design contract. The boat that came off Fox’s drawing board, christened the Day Sailer, was enough to make an old yacht-club commodore choke.

O’Day’s own wife had little enthusiasm for sailing, and from watching her O’Day got some idea of what women dislike about boats. His Day Sailer was made of Fiberglas instead of wood for easier maintenance and easier production, held six in the cockpit instead of the maximum of three people that most sailboats are ideally designed to carry. It rode far up in the water to decrease splashing while under way, had a peculiarly high boom to clear landlubbers’ heads when it swung around too fast, included such gadgets as shelves for feminine gear. An ugly duckling it was, but at $2,000 apiece O’Day got so many orders for Day Sailers that it took his tiny plant nearly three years to catch up.

Champagne Celebration. O’Day also revised the methods of boat selling. “Most dealers,” says he, “are guys who came up in the marine business as mechanics. They don’t know how to sell sailboats,” and they could not cope with the questions of customers. O’Day hand-picked 250 dealers in 32 states, gave them lessons to increase their own sailing ability, and promised 25% commission instead of the customary 10%.

O’Day has added five more models to his bathtub navy, including the Rhodes 19 (a 19-footer designed by Architect Philip Rhodes), which, at $3,000, may eventually outsell the Day Sailer. His company sold 250 boats and took in $300,000 in 1958. This year, he expects to sell 1,800 boats. The only trouble with all this growth is that apart from a modest $12,000 profit the first year, O’Day Corp. has lost money every year since, largely because O’Day knew a lot about sailing selling but less about business.

In 1961, the operation was overhauled; stockholders moved convivial George O’Day up to the chairmanship and brought in efficient Lyman Bullard, 41, a former textile executive, who has pared the payroll, streamlined the assembly line and installed cost accounting. This year, as a result, O’Day Corp. expects to make a $90,000 profit at last; there was a happy champagne celebration at the company’s Fall River, Mass., factory last week when the 1,500th Day Sailer and the 1,000th Rhodes 19 both were hauled out of the plant. “From here on, it’s downwind all the way,” enthused George O’Day.