What is this?

[Alan Glos]

This past weekend I went to look at a used Sunfish and what I saw was
odd. It appears to be a genuine Sunfish hull compelte with "Sunfish" decals
but there is no Hull Identification number or even a metal deck plate with a serial number. It also has the cockpit storage compartment under the aft deck but it also has the old style bronze rudder fittings and old style rudder blade design. Last, the splash rail is not the standard Sunfish design. It is solid, triangular in cross section and it joined at the apex of the "V" by stainless steel straps, and it does not look like a homemade retrofit.

I vaguely recall that Alcort made a boat that sold through Sears Roebuck in the early 1970's. Is this one of those boats? If not, what is it?

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY

 

[DanB]

Judging by the Clonefish directory it could maybe be an AMF AM Flite or a AMF Wind flite. The Sunfish time-line says in 1971 Sunfish had the storage compartment and the old style rudder at the same time. Could these cousins follow the same pattern? That splash rail with the straps is a mystery to me.

 

[Sailynn]

Don't always count on seeing the serial number on the stern. Sometimes the boat gets painted over and maybe more than once and then the numbers disappear.

 

[scap114]

With so may things pointing to it being a Sunfish (decals) I would take a longer look at the splash rail to be sure it is not a replacement of some type. I think a 71 Sunfish would still have the old metal deckplate for the serial number and those are missing on a lot of boats. The fact that it has 2 stainless steel straps joining it at the "v" of the splash rail makes it seem like a replacement, not a factory part. I guess if you could put the boat side to side with another known 71 Sunfish that had the original old rudder you could compare all the other parts and see if the manufacturing is the same, other then the splash rail.