storing a Sunfish standing up

tag

my2fish
Over this weekend, I needed to get my Super Porpoise out of the way to get my Sunfish and Minifish ready to take on vacation to Lake Michigan. my barn is in a bit of a disarray right now, so my best option seemed to be storing the boat vertically. I know it's been talked about various times on here before, and Laser Performance has posted photos of the Sunfish (or other small sailboats) in their factory stood up on the tail end and stacked all in a row.

Well, I did it with the Super Porpoise, but it was a major pain in the butt. My barn is *just* barely tall enough to stand it up. This means that my block and tackle I had set up ran out of usefulness about 60 or 70% of the way up to vertical. My son and I were able to finally muscle it up to vertical, but I don't think I'd ever try it again, unless I'm set up with a sweet motorized winch system.
super-porpoise-standing-up1.jpg
 
It looks like the Super Porpoise has the same mysterious two bailers as my now-sold Porpoise II. :confused: Have you figured out how they work?

If you have a digital camera having wide-angle or close-up capabilities, would you (sometime) take a photo with the lens directly on the inner bailer? :)
 
Saw this on a Craigslist ad...not sure where the boat is being held up as it appears to be off the ground by 6 inches or so...
 

Attachments

  • vertical sunfish.jpg
    vertical sunfish.jpg
    23.4 KB · Views: 71
Laser Performance stores them upright in their Rhode Island facility per this picture. It looks likes a double row of 2x4's or similar on the bottom (to protect the rudder bracket), and some kind of spacer in the mast hole to keep the boats from touching.

sunfish-on-edge.jpg
 
are those the new sunfish "logos"?? (snowflake kinda) if they are new logos i really really dont like it
 
are those the new sunfish "logos"?? (snowflake kinda) if they are new logos i really really dont like it
The Sunfish is now the "Snowflake." Actually, those spots in the logo are little Sunfish emblems, and that logo was to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Sunfish. The sails were white with an array of red or green fish on them. Almost all 2013 Sunfish were made in one of these two color schemes. Towards the end of the year they switched to the wide center stripe models that were available until US production ended and the molds made their way to China. Whether any Sunfish make it to the US from China seems to be an open question given the summer is coming to an end and boats have been out of stock for at least 6 months.
 
It looks like the Super Porpoise has the same mysterious two bailers as my now-sold Porpoise II. :confused: Have you figured out how they work?

If you have a digital camera having wide-angle or close-up capabilities, would you (sometime) take a photo with the lens directly on the inner bailer? :)
Well, I did the best I could - but the picture looking right inside the drain hole didn't turn out that well.
It appears that there is *nothing* connecting the 2 drain holes in the cockpit to the drains in the bottom of the hull.
As best I can tell, the cockpit has the 2 aluminum(?) grommet-like pieces, and if you look through the drain hole, you can see the fiberglass at the bottom of the boat, and the shiny aluminum thing that looks like a quarter is the wide open "bailer" that is on the bottom of the hull.
super porpoise drain.JPG


I'm not sure if the cockpit area is contained at all to keep water from spreading to anywhere in the inside of the hull, or if just any and all water that gets in the boat then naturally/eventually drains out of those 2 "bailers" or drains on the bottom of the hull. seems like a messy system.

super porpoise cockpit.JPG


the cockpit has a spot of damage, so I'm eventually going to cut that part out and repair it - but because the cockpit surface is textured/dimpled and I don't think I have any chance of replicating that in a repair, I was probably just going to cut out the damaged area, and put an inspection port there. when I get around to doing that, I'll take some pictures of the inside of the Super Porpoise hull.

super porpoise deck.JPG


there are 2 hunks of bondo or some kind of shoddy patch the previous owner did on the starboard edge of the deck. you can see them in the picture above - kind of a tan half circle. looks almost like the mixed up a wad of some putty and just slapped it on the corner of the deck.
 
Thanks for taking the effort. :) As I wrote a month ago, I thought the Porpoise bailer was "clever" in emptying "splash-water" from the cockpit . Porpoise II self Bailer | SailingForums.com

It wasn't easy to see, but I think there's a black cup below each of the (interior) bailers. Water doesn't enter the hull, as the cup holds it temporarily above the waterline. Then, when the boat heels—the cup (the one to windward)—slowly empties its contents out through the bottom "vent". (While the lower, leeward, cup is now gathering cockpit "splash-water").

Both the two interior bailers and two exterior vents are both above the waterline when a Porpoise capsizes.

I think that's how it works. :confused:
 
I'll look around inside the hull when I cut in that inspection port, but I'm 90% sure there was nothing connecting the hole in the cockpit with the drain on the bottom of the hull. And they are several inches apart.
 
Well, I did the best I could - but the picture looking right inside the drain hole didn't turn out that well.
Does your camera have a setting that can adjust the ISO? Adjusting it for darkness could produce the desired result.

The cockpit has a spot of damage, so I'm eventually going to cut that part out and repair it - but because the cockpit surface is textured/dimpled and I don't think I have any chance of replicating that in a repair, I was probably just going to cut out the damaged area, and put an inspection port there. when I get around to doing that, I'll take some pictures of the inside of the Super Porpoise hull.
I'd probably do the same (replace with an inspection port), but copying the texture seems possible. One could rub a thin film of WD-40 / Vaseline on the best-textured portion of the cockpit floor, pour a glop of epoxy resin down and lay down two layers of fiberglass. When set, peel the replacement panel off. While the resulting texture would be reversed, that replacement-repair panel wouldn't stick out so badly. Plus, you could do the same WD-40 trick on the replacement panel, and get a better (un-reversed) result.
 
LVW - I was using my iphone... so not sure how much I can play w/ iso settings, etc.

And while I like your texture replicating idea, I'm not sure I'll put that much effort into the Super Porpoise... it is my 4th boat and lowest on the order of preference right now, hasn't seen the water in 12+ years. I think a quick and simple repair job is warranted and then maybe finding a new owner via craigslist or this forum in the spring might be my best option.
 
So I was looking at my SP and the bailer system and I agree with Tag that there is nothing connecting the two holes in the tub and the two holes in the hull. Also, there is nothing in the shields that cover the holes in the hull. I am thinking about connecting the two holes with a piece of PECS plastic pipe or pvc so the path does not include the inside of the hull. May just stick some silicone on each end and glue it in and try not to plug the lower holes. I could carve out the end to make a stand-off so that I don't seal on the metal shield. Maybe this will eliminate the water I usually pick up each trip. I thought I may like a one way valve in the pipe., but possibly it is not required since the bottom of the tub is 6" from the lower holes.
 
Last edited:

Back
Top