Early Mk II Super Sailfish

oldpaint

Active Member
I was offered an early Alcort fiberglass Sailfish this week. Unfortunately the hull had been kept outside and the deck was soft, warped, and obviously detached from any foam blocks. The bottom had a split in the keel near the mast step, which probably was the least of the hull problems. Still it was interesting to see. This Sailfish was built before aluminum trim. The deck had a lip that went over the side of the hull. Below that was red pinstriping visible through the peeling blue housepaint. The original color of the deck was blue. The original handrails were very worn and needing replacing. They had been moved forward an inch in the distant past and were actually firmly attached. I lifted the boat with one. Surprisingly the boat doesn't seem overweight. (I imagine the fiberglass and gelcoat lost weigh the same as the water taken on.) The deck and keel plate hardware were missing so no serial number.

I did take the tapered aluminum mast - in decent shape, as well as the rudder pin, sail, booms, daggerboard, and two rudders. One is an elephant ear and the other has bronze rudder cheeks. It looks like the tiller from the elephant ear and the one from rudder cheeks were swapped, based on the way the finishes match up. The tiller extension from elephant ears is still on elephant ears. Interestingly the tillers all match up in shape and length. The sail and booms look like replacements. Racelight blocks are on the lower boom. There is no sailmaker label, which makes me think Ratsy and Lapthorne: glued on and fell off. The sail, 5 panel red, blue, white is held on with plastic rings.


Some history questions for the experts:
When did Alcort switch to aluminum edge trim?
When did the elephant ears get replaced?
When were tapered masts replaced?
When were plastic rings to hold the sail on first used?
When were bronze rudder cheeks first available?

I took some rudder picture and will post them later today.
 
three rudders.jpg
The top rudder is from my 1969 Sunfish. That tiller looks shorter, but its because I didn't have the rudders lined up very well.
All the tillers are the same length and shape and are interchangeable without modification. If you click on the picture you'll be able to see the bronze rudder cheek on the middle tiller better.

extensions.jpg

The Sailfish extension is shorter than the Sunfish.

Horizontal spread.jpg

This shows the horizontal spread of the tiller froward of the rudder. This is the Sunfish rudder, the spread is the same on the other tillers.
 

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