Wooden Sunfish

[Leon m]

Last fall I purchased a really nice
wooden Sunfish.I am currently trying to
restore it back to pristine condition I just
got the last of the original bronze hardware
and have varnished all the mahogany parts
next I will paint the hull and she will
be done.

There is still one thing I am perplexed about
though...the number on the manufacturers plate
indicates that she was built in 1968.I've been
to a number of websites to verify this,but these
sites also indicate that they started building
Sunfish out of glass in 1960 :confused:

Now I've heard that Sunfish(Alcort) produced a
wooden kit for the home builder.Does any one
know if they produced them as late as 1968?
or do you think my boat may be older and
someone just took the plate off a different
boat?

Last but not least...does any one know
where I might find more info on wooden
Sunfish.Im not finding anything on the net.

Thanks !...Leon

[paladin]

I don't know about amf alcort, but the original wooden sunfish came out as plans in an old copy of Popular Science Monthly..WAY back when Christ wuz a pup...

[ishmael]

I'd be suprised if wooden Sunfish were factory made that late also. Hard to say re your question. I'd like to see/hear how your's was made. I mean how was the cockpit framed, what made the mast step?

The Sunfish has a deeper hull, and a draining cockpit to set it off from the Sailfish.

Yours may well be a home-built boat. Tell us some more.

[ 05-31-2003, 11:51 PM: Message edited by: ishmael ]

[Leon m]

Originally posted by ishmael:
I'd like to see/hear how your's was made. I mean how was the cockpit framed, what made the mast step?

.The cockpit is square maybe 3'x3' it has a keelboard that runs along the bottom ,bulkheads
fore and aft,and a bronze auto bailer.The deck
overhangs the cockpit by a few inches and is trimmed with aluminum channel.

The mast step is solid mahogany fashioned
in an oval shape and fastened to the deck with
bronze screws.It has a bronze cleat fastened
on the starboard side of the mast step.Below
deck level is what appears to be a water tight
length of PVC tube.

The dagger board ,rudder, tiller,and splash
gaurd are all solid Mahogany fastened with
bronze fittings.

The hull is 3/8'Mahogany ply painted white.
All the seams are very tight with no cracks.

The overall condition of the boat is
superb.I doubt the boat was used very much
at all as there are no scratches on the hull.
the only problems with the boat were small
cracks in the paint,faded varnish,and a couple
of missing peices of hardware.

[ 06-01-2003, 12:49 AM: Message edited by: Leon m ]

[Todd Bradshaw]

I believe the Popular Science boat was a knock-off, rather than the real Sunfish or Sailfish. You could still buy a wooden Sunfish kit in 1963 for $297 and a finished fiberglass version for $476. I don't know when they finally went all glass, but the company was sold to AMF in 1969 and I get the impression that wooden kits had been out of the line for a while prior to the sale.

The mast step does have the oval block of wood on the deck, but it also has what looks like a stack of 2x4's about 12" long inside the hull that go from the inside of the bottom up to the underside of the deck and have a hole for the mast bored into at least most of them. This makes the boat solid all the way through at the mast step. I assume the plastic tube lines the hole through the deck and blocks.

There are solid plywood bulkheads formimg the front and rear ends of the cockpit-well with some sort of short, lengthwise deck beams between them to support the sides of the cockpit-cut-out in the plywood deck, which hangs over a bit. The rest of the hull has half a dozen similar full-cross-section bulkheads with holes cut in them for air circulation. The keelson and a similar king-plank-like, lengthwise beam (missing the section in the cockpit) and located under the deck are let into the bulkheads and both have a slot for the daggerboard as they form part of the well and transfer stress on the board throughout the entire skeleton. The upper one also has a mast hole and is between the stack of 2x4's and the plywood deck. The daggerboard has a fairly normal trunk and it's aft end butts up against the forward side of the forward cockpit bulkhead for support.

It's really pretty clean looking construction and before the plywood skin is attached, the perforated bulkheads almost make the hull structure look more like part of an airplane than a boat.

[ 06-01-2003, 04:25 AM: Message edited by: Todd Bradshaw ]

[Dave Carnell]

Get a copy of "The Sunfish Bible", about $10, for the full history and much more about sailing and racing them. Check amazon.com or buy.com

[paladin]

The Popular Science article came out in the mid-late 50's....I built one in woodshop when in high school.....

[Todd Bradshaw]

Leon,
I have a copy of "The Sunfish Book" (1983 published by SAIL). It's the same author as "The Sunfish Bible" which Dave mentioned and they may just be different editions of the same basic stuff. It doesn't have a whole lot of info on the wooden boats, but does have a few construction photos and a short chapter on the boat's history. You're welcome to borrow it when we get together for the stuff about the other boat. It does have a lot of information about how to get the best performance out of the boat.

[Leon m]

Good info Todd !...and all others.

So, if you had to put a year on this boat
what would you guess ?

[Leon m]

Todd... :cool: :cool: :cool: THANK"S !

[ahp]

There was a paperback book titled "Sail It Flat" which was devoted to compeditive sailing the Sunfish.

[Leon m]

Thanks...ahp

[Buzz73]

My father purchased a mahogany Sunfish kit in June of 1972 from ALCORT, and finished building that summer. He still has the original invoice and brochure. The latter states that Alcort manufactured both completed fiberglass Sunfish as well as the mahogany kits during that time. The invoice even states shipping weight to be 250lbs. which explains why the wooden Sunfish can be a handful when dragging it up on shore by one person. I am planning on restoring our Sunfish sometime in the future; everything is original (even the sail!) except for the purchase of new drainplug assemblies from Vanguard last year. We ended up paying something like $30US for a pair of $4 drainplugs as our local Vanguard dealer insisted on tacking on their $26 commission cost to the purchase price. Vanguard HQ was not happy with the dealer, and neither were we! That's pretty much all I know, for what it's worth.

[Leon m]

dddmdz
THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!! That conferms it then it must be a 1968 home built.
As far as your $4 plugs...I feel your pain,
I paid $55 for a $25 bronze rudder bracket. :(

Thanks again !

[skuthorp]

AHA!! dddmdz. You mention drainplugs. Presuming the Sailfish had the same plugs, and our ALWAYS leaked through them, from early 60's, is that why you are replacing them? As I am finally!, and a new bottom and daggerboard case. (Its on it's 3rd generation of kids in our family)

[Buzz73]

No, we replaced the drain plugs as the originals were lost over the years as their tether-chains broke. Ours have never leaked. We had used 3/8" rubber bilge plugs for many years but got weary of scratching our legs on them when hanging out. So we decided to order the proper drain plugs from Vanguard simply to keep ourselves unscathed as well as maintain the 100% authenticity of our Sunfish. After 30 years, the new drainplugs are the only parts we've needed to replace on our boat!

[woodenboatguy]

Just to confirm a few facts; my father purchased a wooden Sunfish kit from Alcort in Conn. in the summer of 1969. We were moving from New York back to Ontario and did a side trip there to pick up the kit from the factory there.

We built the kit over the winter of '69/'70 in the garage of our new home. I recall hanging onto various pieces as he worked them into position!

It was a fantastic boat to sail on Lake Huron - lots of wind on the best days and not too many knockdowns! I learn to sail on that boat and always hoped to track down the plans for another one.

I contacted Vanguard a few years ago, and, as others confirm, they say there are few if any records from which to follow up on the original cutting plans.

Regards,

[Leon m]

Originally posted by woodenboatguy:
I learn to sail on that boat and always hoped to track down the plans for another one.

I contacted Vanguard a few years ago, and, as others confirm, they say there are few if any records from which to follow up on the original cutting plans.

Regards,I could kick myself ...Hard...the auction where
I purchased my Sunfish also had a skeleton of
a Sunfish,wich would have been easy to draw plans from, and I bet if I would have dug harder
through the builders collection of plans I may
have found some plans for a sunfish,as he was
planing on building a fleet of wooden Sunfish
before he died.

Oh well...if only I had known then that
they where so hard (Impossible)to find. :mad: :(

Anyone know who owns the rights to the wooden
plans ???

[Leon m]

After recieving some e-mail from people
requesting info about building a Sunfish
I went on an extensive search and came up
with two leads.

The first one is a book called Fun Fish
wich can be found at www.dngoodchild.com (http://www.dngoodchild.com)
I was told it was the same as a Sunfish
just a different name.The book should have
everything you need to build a Sunfish.

http://www.dngoodchild.com/5140.jpg

The second lead is: plans provided by
woodenboat.com (here)called Aquafish
wich I did a search for but could not find.

Good luck and happy building.

[kcox]

I have one of the sunfish copies that was sold as a plans kit from popular mechanix. My dad built it in 1966 and was sailed for several years. It was stored in the rafters of a barn for at least 20 years. I pulled it out of the barn, cleaned the rats nests out, put a new coat of paint on it, built a poly tarp ( to see if the old thing would still sail) took it out for a spin and loved it. I still need to find a good sail and refasten the bottom of the hull to the bulkheads in the cockpit area.

[Leon m]

Originally posted by kcox:
I still need to find a good sail and refasten the bottom of the hull to the bulkheads in the cockpit area.kcox
There's a guy in Texas (that I've done business
with...good guy)who sells new and used Sunfish parts.

I would do that link to his web site thingy
but I havn't taken the time to figure it out
yet so just do a Google search on:

Corpis Christy Sailing Charters

Good Luck !

[rbgarr]

Here's a wood sailfish listed in Sinking Springs, PA. :eek:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2427440727&category=31281