My first Sunfish

A

apope930

New Member
So I bought my first sunfish last weekend It has a new north sail that says racing, however I've read racing sails are only white and have a window? The boats is 170lbs so I have a bit of drying out to do I purchased a 6" and a 4" inspection port. The main reason I made this post is because the mast hole is cracked on the inside and there are a few areas I will have to patch up on the bottom of the boat. Do you guys have any tips on repairing this since I cant access the back side of the damage?










 
Unfortunately I hate to bring you bad news but what you purchased is not a Sunfish but one of many knock offs. The sail is a class legal North recreation sail. I'll have to do some research to find out exactly what boat you have. The good news is that you can still get this boat in sailing condition following all the normal Sunfish repairs.

You will probably need three inspection ports as there will be glass work on the mast tube required. I would say that as per other posts on drying out the boat, two 4 inch ports located one aft of bow handle and one at the stern will aid in drying out the boat. The 6 inch would be placed nerhould still be close enough to do the fiberglass repairs. Just cut the holes for the inspection ports and do all the work, then after all work is completed you can install the ports.

There are repair ideas for all these here on this forum or also on Yahoo Groups, sunfish_sailor.

If you are in New England I can offer you the name of an inexpensive professional repair person located in Bristol, RI.
 
That sail may be a pre-1990 or so sail when rec and racing sails were the same. It is certainly not the current racing cut. Further, all Sunfish sails have been made in Sri Lanka for the past 15 years or so, so the sail is at least that old. The lack of a window is also a give-away. Unless you plan to race, a fixed up Scorpion - or whatever it is - should be fine as long as you do not need to buy any parts. If you plan to race, you should contact the seller and try to return the boat.
 
It's definitely a Scorpion. The rudder gudgeon and the manufacture PAR give it away as do the molded coming, molding around the mast step, daggerboard trunk, and cockpit.
It appears from the pictures that the retaining clip for the rudder is missing from the bottom of the gudgeon.
I have some Scorpion parts if you need them.
 
Thanks for all the info guys, I've learned a lot however I'm gonna take a loss on this boat and I'm going to look at a AMF sunfish this weekend now that I know what to look for wish me luck! sailcraftri I'm actually in Charlotte NC but thanks for the offer.
 
Well, if it is any consolation, that sail is probably worht $150 or more on eBay. Your booms look like they might be OK too, but it looks like the mast might be bent at the top. Feel free to post pix on here of any boat you are thinking of buying and we can weigh in with opinions. BB
 
Well I'd like to think I got lucky on this one. Lady posted an ad up on craigslist with no picture, but she was only 30 minutes away from me so I went to go check it out. I got there and she told me 4 people have already called but I was the first to arrive. She was the original owner and kept the boat in storage out of the weather. The ad said all it needed was a good cleaning and it was missing the dagger board. She wasn't lying either it cleaned up pretty good just needs a good coat of wax (i'll take recommendations). We looked around the boat house for about 5 minutes and there under a pile of junk was the dagger board. I gave her $300 since the sail had a rip in it, but ill just use the sail from the other boat. What do you guys think.











 
Night and Day, compared to the Scorpion!

What does the hull weigh?

PS: Waxing the hull can do more harm than good; you don't want a slippery hull when you capsize (we all do...)
Just clean with water.
 
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I haven't weighted the hull yet or done a leak test. but it's definitely lighter than the Scorpion. I wish I could have taken it out today but its missing the block but I have a Harken 2135 on the way! Only reason I want to wax it is there was quite a bit of rust stain on the bottom of the hull and I used Bar Keepers Friend, scotchbrite, and A LOT of elbow grease to remove it.
 
Looks like you got a great deal. I don't know what the center board that came with the Scorpion is like, but the one that came with your Sunfish is a smaller one that they provided for a few years. The wood ones they made before that and after are somewhat bigger. You can sail fine with the one that came with the boat, but if you have access to one of the other wood boards you'd go upwind a little better.

In any event, I think that boat was a steal for $300. Nice work! BB
 
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