I've been refurbishing a 1960's Alcort sunfish for the past few months. Everything good until it came time to put the hardware back on. All of the screws for rudder assembly, bow handle, cleat, etc. won't bite into anything. I tried longer, larger screws and nothing is working. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
Sunfish Refurbish Project gone wrong
- Thread starter fiorefish
- Start date
RomanSailer
Member
There's no backing material there for the screws to bite into. Dont believe that vintage had any built in, and even on newer vintage, they can rot out or displace. Hopefully during the re-furb you put in inspection port(s). Use the ports for access to glue/glass in some quality wood behind where your screws will go. Pressure treat would work, or small hardwood or marine ply blocks from the special wood section of BigBoxLumberIsUs. Its your only real hope.
Cavi
Member
I am planning on changing the handle on my 1979, do you know if it has wood behind the handle?
Jonva
Floater
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.
Fiorefish - if cosmetics are not a priority you could try drilling a new set of holes adjacent to the ones that are worn out and be able to grab some wood. The blocks are glued in. Probably not possible to reposition rudder.
Cavi
Member
also, maybe you coule push some epoxy down the existing holes, very thin epoxy, then screw the handle down before it sets up. It might work.. If it doesn't you can always go to plan B
I went to replace the horn cleat on my 1968 Sunfish and when I removed the second screw I heard a thud inside the boat. The backer block was held in place by the screws, like mentioned above, and fell to the hull when I removed them. The glue is no good after 44 years? what gives? (I had recently bought it too, and something in my chest made a similar noise.) After a few days working with glue and broomsticks and weights and pressure treated blocks through the inspection port of my upside down Sunfish, I replaced my horn cleat.
The old backer block was black, fully saturated with water and fell apart cleanly along the wood grains.
The moral of the story: Always leave one screw in.
The old backer block was black, fully saturated with water and fell apart cleanly along the wood grains.
The moral of the story: Always leave one screw in.
Petrel
Member
Fiorefish, I hope you've found a work around by now.
Maybe your tale of woe and the comments from others have saved me a good cry. I have a punker-banger SF that I bought years ago with fiberglass patches all over the bottom and an old style rudder. I was going to use this for salt water, but think now that I may swap the nice bow handle off it and put it on the latest old style SF I just got (the one with the crack in the hull where I will likely use Doug's video technique to repair) as that newest SF has a bow handle that is badly worn in one area. Also the splash guard on the new acquistion is askew and needs to be rebedded and recaulked. The one on my '73 SF also needs to be recaulked.
I had been told that they were just screwed into the fg deck. But it appears that they have backing plates (wood blocks). I don't want to go adding deck plates (inspection ports) to the bow -- especially not to the banger SF -- just to swap around the bow handles.
______, do you really think just removing one screw at a time will work? Won't the wooden block tip down on the loose end or be still out of reach?
If I had to replace any wooden backer blocks, I think that I would try to either enclose the backer block with a bit of epoxy and fiberglass (or even polyester resin, as it's less expensive), or maybe (if I planned to keep a SF for a long while) use some of that synthetic Starboard* or even a 3/8" section of culinary poly cutting board with some predrilled, narrower than the screw/bolt holes. Well, oops, epoxy wouldn't stick to it, but some of the caulking would, to make a seal. I'd have to experiment.
Do I need backing blocks then (and an inspection port put in) to recaulk my '73 Sunfish spash guard? The deck in now in good shape and there are no inspection ports/ deck plates.
Maybe your tale of woe and the comments from others have saved me a good cry. I have a punker-banger SF that I bought years ago with fiberglass patches all over the bottom and an old style rudder. I was going to use this for salt water, but think now that I may swap the nice bow handle off it and put it on the latest old style SF I just got (the one with the crack in the hull where I will likely use Doug's video technique to repair) as that newest SF has a bow handle that is badly worn in one area. Also the splash guard on the new acquistion is askew and needs to be rebedded and recaulked. The one on my '73 SF also needs to be recaulked.
I had been told that they were just screwed into the fg deck. But it appears that they have backing plates (wood blocks). I don't want to go adding deck plates (inspection ports) to the bow -- especially not to the banger SF -- just to swap around the bow handles.
______, do you really think just removing one screw at a time will work? Won't the wooden block tip down on the loose end or be still out of reach?
If I had to replace any wooden backer blocks, I think that I would try to either enclose the backer block with a bit of epoxy and fiberglass (or even polyester resin, as it's less expensive), or maybe (if I planned to keep a SF for a long while) use some of that synthetic Starboard* or even a 3/8" section of culinary poly cutting board with some predrilled, narrower than the screw/bolt holes. Well, oops, epoxy wouldn't stick to it, but some of the caulking would, to make a seal. I'd have to experiment.
Do I need backing blocks then (and an inspection port put in) to recaulk my '73 Sunfish spash guard? The deck in now in good shape and there are no inspection ports/ deck plates.