A few Questions

Okay,

I have a 1973 (I think) Sunfish Sailboat, and I have a few questions.

1. The color on the hull is red on the top, and yellow on the bottom. I have seen yellow on top, and red on the bottom of the hull, but no boat with the same color scheme as mine. Does anyone know the story behind this color scheme. (The colors are the original gel coat).

2. My boat is overweight...Bigtime. I intend to dry the hull out as said in other threads in this forum over the winter. The only problem is, I have some sand in the hull of my boat. (As visible from the porthole behind the coaming, but in front of the daggerboard housing.) I fear that this sand is adding a ton of weight to the boat, not water. Does anyone know of a way to remove this sand without putting more holes in my boat? (I'm not a big fan of sailing a piece of swiss cheese.) Vacuum maybe?

Thanks.

I don't know if there's a story, but one of mine is that color. Its a '74, but I'd describe it more as an orange-red deck with a yellow hull.

The hull serial number is stamped into transom just below the deck edge. From that you can determine the year.

I don't know too much, but I'd say a shopvac would be a great start, but reaching all the areas where sand could be from the one port would be impossible.

I don't know if opening the drain and rinsing the inside would be a good idea or not. It may takes months to dry out if you did that.

Wet sand does not like to go anywhere. As soon as the boat is dry you can cobble up a tube on the end of the shop vac hose and suck the sand. Putting a port on the back deck works well for drying out the foam in the rear. I'll gladly go with "Swiss Cheese" for the advantages the inspection ports have given me. They do look kind of funky, anyone tried painting them the color of the deck?

I'm with Webfoot. I want the ports. Better inspection and drying. Don't know about this but what about, after installing for and aft ports proping boat so one end is higher and flushing hull with water. Flowing water should move sand to lowest point where it could be vaccumed out after it drys. Granted, you would have to dry entire hull after wich might take a while but it might be worth it. Just my thoughts.

dbob3d said:

Does anyone know the story behind this color scheme

Click to expand...

If the picture below is what you have I don't know of a story, it was one of the color options at the time.

dbob3d said:

My boat is overweight... I have some sand in the hull of my boat. Vacuum maybe?

Click to expand...

I cast another vote to go with the shop vac and custom wand first..., maybe a piece of PVC.

Rinsing everything to the rear might help. Drying surface moisture only takes a few hours of airflow ventilation as opposed to the time involved reverse-osmosing water trapped in the flotation foam.

One additional port isn't that bad, but if it goes against your sense of aesthetics you can always glass the cutout back in place like a boat repair shop would do.

i used to think my boat was a 1973.. i was wrong..

use your serial# to determine the age @ this link..

http://kb.sunfishforum.com/images/history/timeline.pdf

...I had a lot of (wet) sand in one of my hulls, after cutting in the (ussuall places) 3 port openings, I was able to speed up the drying proccess. The sand turned out to beach sand. And when it dryed up,I just vacumed it out. I also have noticed that when I trailer my other Sf, all of the loose stuff floating around the hull starts to end up at the base of the Dagger trunk. Again an easy clean up. I couldn't imagine what I would do without all of these inspection ports, I'm always looking inside after sailing.

True Value and other stores carry a shop vac hose adaptor so that you can connect the shop vac to different sized accordian hoses or vacuum cleaner parts. They run around $< 20. I use mine for various things like cleaning air conditioners, under the fridge, and so on.
I also bought an adaptor for my random orbital sander that allows it to tightly connect the the large diameter of a "shop vac" fitting.

IF you do this and go with a much smaller diameter wand or tubing, be attentive to your large vacuum motor, you don't want it to be under strain and burn out. There are also these little dinky "situation" vacuums (yard sales, thrift stores). They don't have a lot of oomph, but the hose is small (maybe 1.4" diameter) and they come with small tools. Most vacuum/sewing shops have a long, flat attachment that is intended to get under a kitchen refridgerator unit. With the adaptor, you can attached this to a shop vac for more oomph.
I'd be tempted to let the hull bake in the sun with ample ventilation (inspection ports if not on deck than in the cockpit as Nightsailer has done. Dark plastic or tarping will help the hull heat up. Then you can do what respiratory therapists do with patients with goop in their lungs -- sharp, diffused taps here and there, the equivalent perhaps of being towed on a bunked trailer. Then re-vacuum the dried sand that falls to the bottom of the hull.

Now, I must ask you and the forum: how does sand get inside the hull space in the first place?

Petrel (away for a while, now back <g>)

The sand is suspended in the water that enters the hull.

Thanks, Webby.
I figured that was the case, but as a never-yet-sailed-my-sunfish owner/member, it amazes me that even tiny grains of sand can sweep into the hull through (apparently very small) spaces. So the sand is suspended in the water and, along with the water, flows into the hull? Okay, I get most of that. But (not being a sandy shore frequenter) isn't that a LOT of water entering the hull, or the previous owner sailed in some pretty sediment-clogged waters (maybe surf ?) and the hull must have leaked a lot or been neglected for a long while? I guess better sand than milfoil or (now) zebra mussel larvae.

What about a big coffee flter or cheese cloth to line the hull. Or at least some airport security in critical stations.

The water evaporates but leaves the sand behind, builds up over time. It's also the reason outboard motor impellers don't last that long. Operating on rivers will give you the most problems, will take the paint off lower units real fast.

to get that much sand in, that boat had one heck of a leak!!! Surprising it actually floated!!