Recent content by RickR

What's the local wind like? I sailed 420's with a lot of younger kids, normally in the 6-12 range, and as long as the wind isn't heavy (or the skipper is), it's a pretty good sail. A 420 is a great boat to get started in for your son, too, if he would like to race in highschool and college...

We've never had any problem with sailing in the rain. How is the water there, though? Miserably cold water + rain in a laser might not be fun at all. However, if the water is decent and the rain semiwarm, you'll be fine! Rain isn't a huge problem as long as it isn't pounding or huge. If it gets...

Where are you located? Year of the hull?

The way we do it is by putting pillows in between the two sandwiched hulls and then tying the whole thing really well with a lot of rope. if you try hard enough, you can get a few ropes over the back, crossing over the top, and then down the other sides to stop forward-back motion.

Very nice :) We "break out" the spray top for 1/3 of our season - and another 1/3 is drysuit weather - here in Chicago. Most of what I've seen and of all the different ways people winterize them, the best I've seen is from my uncle. He puts his sunfish and laser, on dollys, in the dining...

As my coach loves to tell us... "If it doesn't hurt, hike harder."

I don't know a whole lot about fixing up boats, but I do know one thing about metal autobailers - Just say no. They work great if you can pop 'em up and down easily. Otherwise, they're hell. Unless you can consistantly get the boat moving fast, the autobailer is just going to bring water INTO...

It's an absolutely amazing dolly for any boat you can get one for. I love seitech.

In decent wind, you're constantly out of the boat, on pretty much any dingy. It's normally always faster to get out to keep the boat level rather than just spilling wind by luffing the main. Shorts or wetsuit-like pants that are padded are the best option for reducing the hurt.

I think this makes it clear, especially with him quoting the same quote, that he was not refering to racing. I normally try and keep the boom to starboard, racing or not, just because it becomes habit. And good habits have helped me make a lot of quick decisions right while racing.

You know, you could print out a picture of a sunfish or logo and then use one of those iron-on things to put it on a blank shirt. It's really easy and pretty darn cheap.

A hiking strap should be around two inches above the floor of the cockpit - although this varies, many people like different levels. And no, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, either. My dad's hiking strap has two mounts on each side of the cockpit, and then the seatbelt webbing...

To answer your centerboard question, it's actually a daggerboard (like Porpoise2 said), and it is entirely removable. A cleat entirely depends on how you like sailing and what conditions you sail in. In a light wind, it's great, because you can sit back and relax. In heavier winds, you're going...

As far as I know, the last two digits in the serial number are the year. So your boat is a '71. Also, the websites list of serial numbers and years (the last part of the copy/paste) says the 80000's are 71's... Yours fits in that. AMF 82871MBCE Rick