looks like a sunfish except for coaming

fjphourty

New Member
coaming made into the deck (raised coaming) halyard bullseye pulley starport of the mast and the main halyard cleat behind the mast. the lenght of the boat is 13foot 6 inches. cant find any pics that look like my sunfish. I assume it is pre 72
 
coaming made into the deck (raised coaming) halyard bullseye pulley starboard of the mast and the main halyard cleat behind the mast. the lenght of the boat is 13 foot 6 inches. cant find any pics that look like my sunfish. I assume it is pre 72
Your description is ok, but could fit a hundred different Alcort Sunfish look-alikes. A picture or pictures would help a whole bunch.

Here's a close cousin that has the attributes you list. Does this look like what you have?

wfx.jpg
 
here are some pics mine kind of looks like yours except where the rudder attaches. there is also a metal pipe inserted halfway down the hole where the mast goes. below that there is a small hole in the glass matting. mine aslo has no way of looking inside the hull except for seperation. did you install the circular door in the hull? and what kind of sail boat is yours? mine is painted white, but when i buffed it i got down to the tan gelcoat
 

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here are some pics mine kind of looks like yours except where the rudder attaches.

  • there is also a metal pipe inserted halfway down the hole where the mast goes.
  • below that there is a small hole in the glass matting.
  • mine aslo has no way of looking inside the hull except for seperation. did you install the circular door in the hull?
  • and what kind of sail boat is yours?
  • mine is painted white, but when i buffed it i got down to the tan gelcoat
I'm not sure what you have there.

Is it possible to see the whole boat, identification from just bits and pieces is tough without the big picture too.

I'm thinking there was a wood or plastic deflector screwed to that little bit of a splash guard rise.

Sunfish single drain plugs are traditionally on the starboard side. The Viking had one on the port side, but Viking had other differences I'm not seeing with this boat.

cfxc.jpg

So far as I know, Sunfish and it's cousins from the same factory never used a metal mast tube sleeve.

I can't say why there's a hole in the bottom of the mast tube, but if you can get a picture posted, I'll be happy to venture an educated guess.

The round access port (deck plate or inspection port) is an owner add-on, usually for some sort of repair need.

The boat I pictured is a Windflite. They were built by the Sunfish builder back in the 1970s as a less expensive alternative.

I am not aware of Sunfish ever coming in tan, but sometimes yellow fades to appear that color.

----------------------------

Would you post pictures showing....
  • the whole boat (side shot)
  • the whole boat (bow on)
  • the whole boat (stern on)
  • the rudder
  • rudder hardware
  • sail emblem (near the top)
  • sail maker label (lower front corner)
  • the whole cockpit (showing the bailer, if one is present)


Thanks

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I noticed the base of the mast has a real nasty curve to it (or maybe it's just the picture).

If so, this may explain the steel etc. mast sleeve - perhaps someone inserted a mast sleeve such as to give the bent mast bottom more strength...

Or maybe that itself contributed to the mast bottom being bent....
 
I noticed the base of the mast has a real nasty curve to it (or maybe it's just the picture).

If so, this may explain the steel etc. mast sleeve - perhaps someone inserted a mast sleeve such as to give the bent mast bottom more strength...

Or maybe that itself contributed to the mast bottom being bent....
Good observation...

That bend does look uncommonly shallow. Could be that "sleeve" that was mentioned is not allowing the mast to sit down the tube where it needs to be.

The spar end looks broken as well. Ouch :(

sf3h.jpg
 
ill take some pics tomorrow and post them. just bought it for the hull. Ive got a complete donor sunfish that needs a hull. I have not seen it yet, but I think it uses the old style rudder. I paid $125 for the hull and it came with the mast 2 booms and some other pole. maybe the extra pole was going to be used to fix the end of the lower boom. I know the donor hull is red and it has been seperated. I wonder which hull would be easier to fix?
 
ill take some pics tomorrow and post them. just bought it for the hull. Ive got a complete donor sunfish that needs a hull. I have not seen it yet, but I think it uses the old style rudder. I paid $125 for the hull and it came with the mast 2 booms and some other pole. maybe the extra pole was going to be used to fix the end of the lower boom. I know the donor hull is red and it has been seperated. I wonder which hull would be easier to fix?
The pictures will help a lot - thanks. They'll help for comparing the other hull as well.

Two old boats to make one good boat sounds like a plan.

.
 
It looks like a windflite 14 to me which had that molded coaming with a wood top screwed to it.
. . . or the Amflite, but look at where AMF places the drain plug. And compare the cockpit design with the one yet to be identified.

4707561393_ae45013784_b.jpg
 
here are some more pics of the hull, mast, booms, and another pipe
 

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here are some more pics of the hull, mast, booms, and another pipe
Thanks for posting the additional pictures.

I'm still puzzling over this one. Lots of things look Sunfish-like, then there's that coaming and the drain plug location.

The bailer's cockpit portion looks non-standard for a Sunfish, but considering the De Persia bailer's reputation for corroding, a replacement wouldn't be out of the question at any point in time.

Is the cockpit trim aluminum? For early Sunfish, aluminum would have been the standard.

It could be the camera lens, but the cockpit's opening strikes me as narrower than I recall. We'd need to measure and compare a couple to be sure I guess.

My thought at this point is it might be a very early Amflite, before AMF made a one-piece deck mold (this is pure SWAG speculation because I have no idea if AMF ever made a half-step model on the way to the Amflite design).

I am leaning toward a competitor's very close Sunfish copy with a few subtle differences to keep from getting sued for copyright infringement. The Funfish/Viking is one such design that did land in court.


Funfish/Viking
by Intl. Fiberglass Co., Inc.

98367433.jpg
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I am leaning toward a competitor's very close Sunfish copy with a few subtle differences to keep from getting sued for copyright infringement. The Funfish/Viking is one such design that did land in court.

continuing . . .

Regardless of some confusion over your boat's pedigree, that shouldn't prevent you from building it up into a great sailor.

The only drawback to not knowing the builder is, should you need to make an internal repair you'll be on your own to discover things like internal support structure or deck hardware backing blocks. Not a problem really, more of an adventure.

It will be up to you to measure and investigate the design rather than simply asking if someone's been there before.

On the up-side, it appears all the setup and sailing tips will apply at an equal level.

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the cockpit moulding is white rubber or plastic. top of the boat measures 13 6. the bottom of the boat measures 13 9 with the cruveature? Ill take more measurements and post them tomorrow.
thanks for all the help
thomas
 
More head scratching. Check out the back end of this boat in question (shown above) vs. the back end of my fish, as taken before I did the conversion kit. In the picture above, there is some sort of aluminum ridge at the back edging - a raised edge at that. That I've never seen on a Sunfish - the aluminum edging usually goes right to an empty gap.

Additionally, my recollection of the Viking is that the rudder systems were really, really bad, with rusted and (always) bent cheap stainless steel parts (as opposed to the thicker brass parts that were always prevalent on the Sunfish).

I also thought the back end of the Viking's were skinnier, like that of a Sailfish.
 

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i think the hull color is red top and bottom. i pulled a cracked piece of gelcoat of and saw red underneith. looks a little thin though to be gel coat, but matbe it was the 80 mil thick white gelcoat that was rolled which made the red look that way. or was the resin red incolor used to lay the mat. also what type of resins did they use(epoxy, polyester ....) the cockpit measures 32 lenght 22 width, and the widest piont assuming thats the beam was 45
 
also noticed a tag on the front center of the cockpit stating "vent" with a small hole drilled above it. do sunfish have this vent tag on them?
 
i think the hull color is red top and bottom. i pulled a cracked piece of gelcoat of and saw red underneith. looks a little thin though to be gel coat, but maybe it was the 80 mil thick white gelcoat that was rolled which made the red look that way. or was the resin red incolor used to lay the mat. also what type of resins did they use (epoxy, polyester ....) the cockpit measures 32 lenght 22 width, and the widest piont assuming thats the beam was 45
This type of boat is most often made using polyester resin. Epoxy and glass fabric in the same hull thickness would result in a boat about 10% heavier and 4x the resin cost. The factory gelcoat layer is about 0.020" (20 mil), beneath that the structural resin/fabric lay-up I've seen has had a straw yellow or coke bottle green appearance.

82415224.jpg


Here's the Sunfish specs from 1972
sp1dn.jpg


At present I don't have a Sunfish from that era to compare cockpit dimensions with.


also noticed a tag on the front center of the cockpit stating "vent" with a small hole drilled above it. do sunfish have this vent tag on them?
Sunfish has a vent hole in the front wall of the cockpit. It's about 1/8" diameter, but I've never seen one that was labeled.

The hole prevents internal pressure build-up from popping a seam when the boat sits in the sun. I expect most all closed pontoon hull style boats have this feature somewhere inconspicuous.

.
 
Sunfish has a vent hole in the front wall of the cockpit. It's about 1/8" diameter, but I've never seen one that was labeled.

The hole prevents internal pressure build-up from popping a seam when the boat sits in the sun. I expect most all closed pontoon hull style boats have this feature somewhere inconspicuous.

.

Wayne, has this always been the case? My Sunfish is mid-1960's (as far as I can tell - no hull ID or any other markings). I have the 2 drain-plugs near the ends of the coaming, though. I definitely do not have a vent hole in the cockpit, though.

Thoughts?

tag
 
Wayne, has this always been the case? My Sunfish is mid-1960's (as far as I can tell - no hull ID or any other markings). I have the 2 drain-plugs near the ends of the coaming, though. I definitely do not have a vent hole in the cockpit, though.
This 1964 Sunfish has the vent put right through the emblem. Might your boat have it in this deck location as well?


4772945647_4d6987acf2.jpg

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Wayne, it might have - but the emblem was removed (and lost?) for a re-paint job years ago (by previous owner), and they might have "repaired" that hole, as it was not there. That looks to be right where I cut a inspection port in, so I can't double check, though.

tag
 
Wayne, it might have - but the emblem was removed (and lost?) for a re-paint job years ago (by previous owner), and they might have "repaired" that hole, as it was not there. That looks to be right where I cut a inspection port in, so I can't double check, though.
If your boat has become completely sealed tight through repairs and modifications, you might consider drilling a breather vent in the cockpit.
 
Wayne,
I still have a leak somewhere, so she ain't watertight, that's for sure. But, when I've been storing it in my garage this summer, I keep the inspection port covers off, and have a small fan running on it to keep her dry between sailing trips. I'll look it over again for any tiny holes, though, and if I can't find one, maybe add a vent as you suggest.

thanks,
tag
 
Wayne,
I still have a leak somewhere, so she ain't watertight, that's for sure. But, when I've been storing it in my garage this summer, I keep the inspection port covers off, and have a small fan running on it to keep her dry between sailing trips. I'll look it over again for any tiny holes, though, and if I can't find one, maybe add a vent as you suggest.

thanks,
tag
Don't confuse this vent with something intended as ventilation for staying dry. This little hole is just for pressure equalization when the boat moves from the shade of your garage to the heat of the sun.

.
 
wayne,
yup - I was just saying I don't keep it shut up tight right now, so I shouldn't have any unequal pressure problems. thanks for clarifying the vent hole purpose, though.

tag
 
I once had an AMF Flite 12 ( Minifish ) which had a "VENT" sticker , just below the cockpit vent hole. The sticker also had an arrow on it , pointing straight at the vent hole , just to make doubly sure you didn't plug it up !
I've got some photo's of it on my computer somewhere , but I can't find them. No doubt I'll stumble across them.
 
wayne,
yup - I was just saying I don't keep it shut up tight right now, so I shouldn't have any unequal pressure problems. thanks for clarifying the vent hole purpose, though.
Ah, I thought you were relating the two, but you just mentioned them in the same breath. Got it now. Sorry 'bout that.



I once had an AMF Flite 12 ( Minifish ) which had a "VENT" sticker , just below the cockpit vent hole. The sticker also had an arrow on it , pointing straight at the vent hole , just to make doubly sure you didn't plug it up !
I've got some photo's of it on my computer somewhere , but I can't find them. No doubt I'll stumble across them.
That's cool, never encountered that before. Not that something can't exist just because I haven't seen it :eek:. It is mentioned in the manual, or one of the manuals, but I've yet to see it identified directly on any of the boat models.

.
 
I've found the photo's on a disc of the Flite 12 Minifish clone rigged up , but typically I don't have any shots of the inside of the cockpit & that vent sticker.
 
I definitely have seen a Sunfish with "hull vent" molded into the cockpit right by the vent. This was back when my cone was small - perhaps 1972 or 1973, and the Sunfish in question was from the '60s. That's all I can remember, but somehow the fact it said "hull vent" has stuck in my oversize cranium. BB
 

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