A few Questions

Dinghyman

Dinghyman

New Member
I'm new to sailing and I'm helping my dad get his 1977 Sunfish ready to go this season after sitting on a trailer under a tarp for 11 years. I've been all over the internet trying to find a sunfish like my dads to price it. so far I've had no luck. This lead me to believe that our sunfishes color scheme(Yellow with red-orange stripes on deck,orange on the hull, with a matching sail.) might be rare. Is this true?

The last time my dad used his Sunfish(11 years ago) he said it felt really heavy. He thought that water had probably gotten in. Everyone we asked said that we should install inspection ports on the front and the rear of the boat. Before we install them, we want to know if it would hurt the value of the boat.
 
There was just a thread about finding the year for another member's boat and this color combo was mentioned. Looking around I saw that the yellow-red showed up in 1973 and I still saw it in an AMF flyer for 1978. My guess is it was around for a few years. Viewing the ad flyers that come up on ebay it looks like dark colors fell out of favor about the early 80s. I had a 60s Fish with a blue deck. The deck got so hot sitting in the sun you had to splash water on it before you could get on. I can see why they went to white with just colored stripes.

Did your dad ever open the drain screw and empty out any water that leaked into the hull? That should be done at the end of every sailing day and before winter storage. You may have a dual problem, a leak and water that has permeated the cells of the emergency flotation foam. Thread 2875 has a great explanation of this situation. http://www.sunfishforum.com/showthread.php?t=2875

Adding ports indicates repairs or upgrades. The weight of the hull and the overall condition will say more about the boat as it stands. You seem concerned you might devalue your boat from some antique or collector premium. The Sunfish market has never recognized anything more than the utilitarian value. A neglected, waterlogged heavy hull has a considerably lower value to aware buyers.

Sailing or selling you will do your self a favor to fix it right. There are tips for how to weigh the hull, how many ports to add without making unnecessary holes, and how to dry the foam. Check out the Sunfish Class Organization web Tips and FAQ - http://www.sunfishclass.org and search this forum's past discussions. For diagrams and guides and more discussion check the reference material at Sunfish Sailors http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sunfish_sailor
 
Thank you so much for your reply and time you spent researching. The information was very helpful. My dad and I are going to follow your advice and also look at the websites. Especially the one about installing inspection ports correctly. Once we get home from vacation we are planning on getting it ready for sailing this summer. Thanks again, the information was super helpful and just what we needed.
 
You are welcome. Please don't assume a problem exists without first checking to confirm. Open that drain screw and see if water comes out. Weigh the hull on a bathrom scale to see if it's over the published weight. I think for that generation it was 139lbs. If there's water or excess weight above 10 lbs or so then you should find the leak with the air test method. The test is listed at both resources mentioned earlier. Base your next move on what you find in your investigation.

Good Sailing
 
That is good advice my Dad says "It makes no sense to fix something if it is not broken." We are going to weigh the hull like you said, and then sail the boat a few times to see if it takes on water. The last thing we want to do is cut holes in the deck of our boat if we don't need too. Thanks again!
 
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