Recent content by prossmann

I'm curious. If you are a novice sailor, why are you buying such a large boat first time out? Just pulling a 34 footer out of the water is an expensive proposition. From experience, I can tell you that sometimes bigger ain't better. You should give some thought to sailing on some other folks...

I concur... not to mention I would rather have a bunch of Boy Scouts with sandpaper than with cloth and resin. Save that for the Eagles.

Brian, Just leave you rig up after sailing and hose it off real good with fresh water. It will dry much faster if it's up. Never put it away wet. Make sure you really rinse the gooseneck fitting each time. That is a major corrosion point when sailing in salt water!!

I love it! You could use it to mix a Dacari while you were out. but seriously, it looks like a trolling motor prop on a metal dowel. They make little "mixers" for paint and plaster that might work too. Although, me thinks it would be a bit much to have in the boat while sailing...

Good advice. If you are trying to take out some minor scratches, do it by hand.If you have some bumps or trying to smooth out some bad gelcoat, use a random orbital sander. If you start the sander "in the air," put it to work before it gets up to super high revs, or it will scratch the surface...

Getting a little off subject? All the poster asked was a recommendation for sail ties. All of the techno stuff is important (and facinating) but for a Sunfish sail tie, almost any halfway decent line will work.The line specified as "low stretch" is more than enough. Just go with a small diameter...

Wow, that's like a hundred year supply!

I concur with the previous posters. the price is high for that vintage. I bought a solid 70's Fish with a barely used sail and a trailer for under $500. Go look at some other boats and push on them, look inside, inspect the spars (especially where the gooseneck connects to the boom), and...

Wayne, I'm not sure about that; only because the epoxy is going to be much harder than the wood and if the wood is less than perfect and the hole is a drill bit size smaller, forcing the larger post through might rip out the epoxy plug. I would recommend drilling the hole the same size as the...

The beauty of a sunfish is exactly that; "It is what it is," and like Popeye (I yam what I yam) it can be a simple sailer or an all out packed with spinach racer. How exciting would this forum be if the answer to every question was, "aw, just leave it as it was"? Every sailor has limits and...

Any sign company (try the small ones) can do this and for less than the "boat name" guys. If you are handy with a computer and can give them a vector art file, they can cut out anything. If you really want to get fancy they can get real gold leaf with a vinyl backing. Kinda pricey, but once the...

Although a Sunfish was the first boat I ever sailed, I have only recently gotten back into them. I presently have a 70's vintage boat that is in pretty good shape with the exception of a slightly soft bottom. My wife wants to learn to sail and I want to do a little racing and rather than dump...

Hello all. I just finished (mostly) the rudder conversion for my old Sunfish and did it on the cheap. The rudder blade modification was the trickiest, but if you have a little woodworking experience and some epoxy it ain't rocket science. I did as previously mentioned and borrowed a newer rudder...

Clean out the crack either with coarse sandpaper or by gently running a saw blade through it. Wipe it down with acetone and let it dry. Mix up some epoxy resin and wet out the crack (this is important so that the dry wood wont soak up the resin from the thickened mixture). Before the epoxy...

I have recently acquired an older (Alcort) Sunfish with the bronze rudder hardware. The problem I am having is that even after I tighten up the wing nut the rudder has a tendancy to pop loose and "wash out" to one side. Is this a common problem or am I just a wimp and not getting the wing nut...