1963 Alcort Wooden Sunfish CHIP Restoration

signal charlie

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Started the restoration on our 1963 Alcort Wooden Sunfish CHIP, she'll go side by side with the Super Sailfish ZSA ZSA.

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Follow along on our Small Boat Restoration blog

Cheers!
Kent and Skipper
 
We'll have fun and get her back on the water. Yes, we published The Sunfish Owners Manual in 2013, thanks for the feedback and glad you are enjoying it. Some of the contrasts are startling, and there is satisfaction in putting these 3D puzzles back together.

Just had our 1953 wooden Sunfish and 1950s Standard Sailfish out a few days ago.

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Our buddy Alan cartopped the Sailfish down to us.

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Our goal is to publish The Alcort Restoration Manual in 2018 with information on how to restore these classics. So stay tuned!

Cheers
Kent and Audrey
 
Picked up the 1/4 inch marine grade plywood for the bottom and the THIXO arrived. No excuses now, except I want frame patterns first.

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Pulled a stem pattern too.

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I am sure you are keeping track.....it would be nice, when you are done, to let us know how much time you spent, and how much $$ in materials. Interesting to then compare it to the cost of buying a new one way back.

Thanks for all the cool updates......

Mike
 
Well you can help out by adding up the price of all of the hardware, bow handle, rudder fittings, blades, sail, spars etc. I did a few years ago and it was close to $2500, without bare hull, before shipping. 5 sheets of marine ply, fasteners, epoxy, primer, paint....

Time spent I can't figure out, because I tend to do things 3 times to get it mostly right once. It would not be a hard boat to build, the deck is flat and other curves are not too fancy, defined by the frames. What I think will take the most time is building daggerboard trunk, mast step and stem. ANd beveling the keel and chine.

The Stations numbers are inches back from the bow. Traced and cut the transom and frame just forward of it. Transom is 16 inches wide.

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And then there is time spent watching this...

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So probably $3,500 today plus another $1,500 in plywood, paint, glue etc......

More or less the same price (not including labor!), that you'd pay for a new boat today. The new boat's easier to maintain, care for and takes the abuse better, your boat looks a lot cooler!

And you can't calculate the cost/price/value of that sunset!!!!!

Thanks

Mike
 
Let's see, marine grade doug fir ply running $75 a sheet x 5 = 375
16 foot blank Planks, longerons, stem, transom, trunk, step. SYP or oak or cypress = 125
Other various bits = 100
THIXO 8 tubes x 25 = 200
Primer = 75
Paint = 75

so approaching $1000 plus shipping, brushes, rollers etc...$1500 is a good guess.

Pulled 2 more patterns today from the cockpit bulkheads. Compared the paper-tape-stick pattern to the table of offsets, they matched up pretty well. The frames don't touch, the cleats that attach the longerons, sides and stringers are really what is used to fair the lines. That and beveling.

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Time to cut these out, 1 to go.

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All cut out. Probably need to put them on the deck longeron and run a batten over the to check of fairness.


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8 tubes of THIXO would be about right for a new build, 3+ for deck seam, 3+ for bottom seam and leftovers for trunk, step and rub rail. It took 4 tubes to do the bottom seam, rub rail, toe rail, inner step and inner trunk on the Super Sailfish. I put a double bead on the side plank and a double bead on the plywood panel, by my math there is about 30+ feet of seam on the top and another 30 feet on the bottom seam. The other option is to use a different type of waterproof adhesive, or mix everything up. I didn't want to spend that long mixing epoxy and adding structural filler batch by batch.

In other news I bought a different caulk gun, it is a heavy duty gun with an 18:1 ratio that is supposed to make it easier to dispense high viscosity materials. Haven't validated that claim yet, it was recommended by Andy at Boatworks today, he has been using a lot of THIXO. We'll let you know if it works as advertised.
 
I've built many wooden airplane models—and three wooden powerboats—but had used "Weldwood" resorcinol glue. 'Superior to epoxy in many ways, but is not a gap filler.

On fiberglass, I'm currently using a West System epoxy adhesive, sold as "Six-10". Although I have chosen not to use it yet, the tube comes with a plastic screw-on "mixer". (One use throw-away).
 
Flipped her over to get measurements, profile and breadths.

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Something amiss here, what is it?

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It's fun how she is just under 4 feet wide, 2 sheets of plywood for the deck.

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1/4 inch A/B marine grade Doug Fir. Stacked the sheets and cut 2 panels at a time.

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Barrier coat for the inner face.

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Just like the Minimax and Minimost, designed to take advantage
of 4 x 8 plywood sheets. Anyone care to list any
additional '4 X 8' boats kits? I believe the original glue that
was used at the time was powered Weldwood.

These things would be perfect for a laser cut kit if you had
the hardware on hand. Thanks to the 2 inch mast hole they
will never go metric.
 
Primed the cockpit, easier to paint it now, before the bottom goes on.

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Repaired the stem with THIXO.

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Repaired errant cuts with THIXO, the cockpit bulkheads need to be watertight. We found out that there are High Thrust caulk guns recently, 18:1 ratio makes it a breeze to dispense thick materials. Bought our from Jamestown Distributors.

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Made paper patterns for the fore and aft bottom panels.

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Marked the patterns with the stringer locations.

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Hoping to use a good section of the old hull for the floorboards.

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Brushed on a coat of TotalBoat WetEdge Oyster White. We're hoping it's close enough to the BluGlo White that we don't have to order more paint.

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Just like the Minimax and Minimost, designed to take advantage
of 4 x 8 plywood sheets. Anyone care to list any
additional '4 X 8' boats kits? I believe the original glue that
was used at the time was powered Weldwood.

These things would be perfect for a laser cut kit if you had
the hardware on hand. Thanks to the 2 inch mast hole they
will never go metric
.

Two inches works out to 50mm. (Close enough). ;)

I built two Minimax hydroplanes, when I should have been studying in High School. :oops: In the second example, I had designed new added features that mimicked a "tunnel-hull" design—whose designs were coming out about the same time. :)

Instead of ending the two sponsons just ahead of the driver, if I had continued the sponsons forward, I'd have had the great "lift" that made tunnel-hulls famous. (Or infamous for flipping over backwards) :eek:. Instead, I designed insufficient "down-vents" that would occasionally reverse direction and spray a fine mist across my glasses. :confused:

Weldwood powder is described as a "resorcinol glue"—and is still being sold.

Invented in the UK, resorcinol glue was used to build the molded-plywood "Mosquito medium bomber" in WWII—nicknamed "the balsa bomber".

As for the use of 4'x8' plywood sheets, I still have Mechanix Illustrated (paper) plans for a "Mustang" 10-foot runabout. Could that be an Evinrude 3.3-HP outboard? :confused:

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Fastening the panels with THIXO and silicone bronze ring shank nails.

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SIlicone bronze screws for the keel strip.

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Trimmed the bottom panels.

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Filled the grain and screw holes, covered nail holes with TotalFair.

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Ready for sanding.

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Repaired errant cuts with THIXO, the cockpit bulkheads need to be watertight. We found out that there are High Thrust caulk guns recently, 18:1 ratio makes it a breeze to dispense thick materials. Bought our from Jamestown Distributors.
West© Systems makes a 6-TEN© epoxy in a 10-oz tube (which sounds similar to THIXO©), available at West Marine© stores. Of the clever 2-part mixing devices that attach to the 10-oz tubes, one comes with it, and are available separately, too.

If you're in real hurry, $100 dispensers are available that are air-powered. Caulking Guns

.
 
As for material dispensers, I've seen Snake Mountain Boatworks use the air gun to dispense 5200. I can't imagine what the material cost is to use the many tubes necessary for a No Soak bottom on a Chris Craft or Century restoration. It takes about one tube of THIXO or Pettit Flexpoxy for each one of the 4 panels on a Sunfish bottom, we put a double bead on the side plank edge and a double bead on the panel, plus the material needed for the keel strip and bulkheads.

The Flexpoxy we have bought from West Marine or Jamestown Distributors, it runs several dollars more at WM. JD also carries the six10 also, not sure about the gflex. As for cost, the THIXO is the lowest cost, and TotalBoat ships free Domestic US. There might be a small HazMat fee added, but that is the same for all of those products. We order enough stuff from JD that we pay $50 for the VIP membership each year, and get free shipping. We also are Ambassadors for the TotalBoat line, and get free stuff and a discount. If anyone wants to try the TotalBoat products, send us a private message and we can pass along our 20% discount code.

Looking at the pictures above of a green hull reminded me, we have used Pettit EZFair in the past, it mixes up light gray vs green, and covered just a bit easier with follow on painting in mind. If the next thing going on is primer it really doesn't mater the color of the fairing compound. It also came in the 2 part caulk tubes, which were GREAT for small projects, dispense a small amount without messy stir sticks, then put the cap back on. It stores well. We used quite a few tubes fairing the seams on the 1880s rowboat BARBASHELA's restoration, since it is a softer fairing material we thought it was a good substitute for seam compound and much easier to work with.

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Yep, 40 grit. The Lowes Gator paper I buy is economy grade, it wears out quick to 200 grit. For final finishing I'll got to 120 with just enough pressure to give the previous coat some tooth.
 
We have day sailed Brightside, EZPoxy, Rustoleum Topsides and WetEdge for several hours at a time and had no issues. Brightsides stayed in the water for a week on our Day Sailer.

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and do you have carpet on trailer bunks or is the bottom of the boat able to stay dry, once out of the water? I have another day sailor that I'd like to paint...with wrap around stripes going underwater...similar to what you've done...and Brightside has been an inexpensive solution for me. But I've read of the paint blistering...especially on trailer bunks.
 
Carpet on bunks, yes. Boat also lives on a strap lift part of the year. No blistering. The last coat of Brightside lasted 19 years in the Florida sun.

From what I know blistering would be a product of incompatible primer/fairing compound/paint, important to stay with the same product family. Or improper prep, something like using bondo vs a marine grade fairing compound. IOW, the bunk didn't cause the issue, the skimpy prep work did.

Here she is before paint touchup 2019.

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After paint.

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Great...ive got a couple of colors of brightside laying around. Should there be an issue...no biggie. Working on boats for 35 yrs or so... I've only used bottom paint, VC offshore or epoxy or resin with a gelcoat exterior. Just wanted to get "fancy" with a fun day sailor/racer
 

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