I took my new red white and blue Intensity sail out for a maiden voyage yesterday. I, too had a Ratsey & Lapthorn sail that appears to have been with my boat since its birth in about 1972 (still a mystery since there are no numbers on the transom and where the Alcort badge goes on the older...
It looks like the "Jens Rig" which is a way to de-power the sunfish rig in heavy air. I've never used it but here's a video about it:
And a brief quote describing it better than I can:
The “Jens” rig, dubbed for its creator Jens Hookanson, is unique to the Sunfish. He devised a method...
I'm assuming that your old metal drain is the same style that I had on my '72 fish. The new drain for the Sunfish is a bit bigger, so you'll have to widen the hole slightly. I used a dremel sanding bit in my drill (too cheap to buy a new tool). Once you've widened the hole enough, drill holes to...
Take a look at this blog where they blogged their entire restoration process on a minifish. It is always a good idea to watch someone else hack up their boat before you take the drill/sawsall to it.
http://minifish-restoration.blogspot.com/
The subject of the upwind groove was discussed in this thread from a few weeks ago:
http://sailingforums.com/threads/footing-or-pinching-how-do-you-find-the-groove.28641/
and if you search you may find more discussions from earlier. Starting I haven't seen recently but a search of this forum...
I wrecked my '78 Sunfish last summer with the same sort of mast step failure. I am planning to repair it but haven't found the time and bought a '73 sunfish in OK shape so I can get out on the water this summer. It sounds like he came out with less damage than I did. My mast tube was also broken...
It is a durable boat that is simple to rig and sail but I find its usefulness to be very limited. It is relatively slow and has fairly poor upwind performance, too. My sister has one and this past summer (because this is the kind of younger brother I am) I was literally able to sail circles...
There are a couple of options out there. Torresen is a good source for sunfish parts and I'm very happy with the sunfish cover I got from Slo Sail and Canvas, so hopefully they'll be a good source (with a logo to boot!) Kevane seems to be the bargain option and I think I've seen some positive...
Believe it or not I did manage to get a layer of gelcoat onto the bow and finish off this project and get the boat back to my sister before the summer started. It just took me four months to post any photos. I'm not 100% happy with the looks. It doesn't match and is also a bit splotchy, so I...
Pat 75, there are three things that I think would be worth doing to reinforce your mast step:
1) Fill the gap in the bottom of the mast step with resin and chopped cloth so the bottom of the step is flat and doesn't have that divot in the bottom. I think it is part of the design in some model...
Yes it does. On my sister's 1981 I left at least one screw in the wood )somewhere) just in case the backer block had an urge to drop down to the bottom of the hull.
These are some good stories here. Apparently you can submit your Sunfish stories on the Sunfish FB page to enter a contest to win a new boat:
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Sunfish/128512110556705?sk=app_95936962634
This thread might help: http://sailingforums.com/threads/rigging-a-super-porpoise-and-getting-parts.12207/
And I found this on Tag's blog:
http://my2fish.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/super-porpoise-history/
Hopefully they'll get you headed in the right direction.
Yikes, that is one scary "fix" done by the previous owner. As minifish2 said you need to fill in those holes and get a mast step disk. You might consider filling it with something with more strenghening power like chopped up fiberglass mixed with resin. You'll hear more advice from other posters...
As I noted in the paint versus gelcoat thread, I apparently got a bad batch of gelcoat. I managed to slather some of the cottage cheese substance on most of the areas. The area for this repair is the worst and I think I'm going to remove it and try again. I was more successful covering some bare...
I just had my first spin with gelcoat and have to agree with the "tricky-to-work-with" issue. No matter how little hardener I added, the whole batch would turn into cottage cheese. That was a major drag from start to finish.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.