1981 AMF Sunfish MADISON Chine Repair

signal charlie

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Okay, this is the last one, I promise. MADISON was the third boat in from the shoreline when Hurricane Sally's 9 foot storm surge rolled through, and she got chine damage on the port side aft of the beam. Not sure from what, the dolly next to her maybe?

Could be coincidence, maybe because they were closest to the rolling waves, but the 3 fiberglass Sunfish on the right took 99% of the damage. The wooden boats to the left, Sunfish CHIP, Super Sailfish TRACKER and Penobscot 14 ST JACQUES had a few rub marks on the gunwales. Nice job Gals, you saved the wooden Fleet!.

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We grabbed another piece from the salvaged Sunfish SALLY and cut a backer patch. I suppose we could just epoxy that to the hull and call it done. We have also made patches like this by laying poly sheet over the hull, and laying up 4-6 layers of 4 oz fiberglass cloth, either on the same profile of a good boat or on a section nearby that has the same basic shape.

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Test fit to see if it will go through the hole.

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String to pull it tight against inside of hull, buttered up with THIXO. For style you could sand the inner edge of the rpair area and outer edge of the patch, but it was cool and windy outside, we didn't do that. THIXO (or Pettit FLEXPOXY too) is pretty much dirt proof.

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Hmmm, now where and how to tie off that string...
 
.....one of The Usual Visitors whispered in my ear to tie the string off to the Carriage House. Brilliant. I did that then added some more THIXO, smoothed it out level with the side and bottom as best I could. In the past I'v laid in strips of fiberglass cloth but I've done a few recently thay were just THIXO "plugs" and it's worked great.

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Tied the string to the pergola overhead. Seems I took a selfie too. Only walked into the string about 4 times before I went and found the CAUTION tape.

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MADISON showed us where the foam blocks are inside the hull one morning, dew formed over the blocks, I guess warm moist air condensed over the cooler surface above the blocks.

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Skipper designed MADISON's sail, Blue White Green White, and our friend Hunter at Schurr Sails Pensacola made it for us. In this photo she's out chasing ROSE"BUD" during ROSEBUD's Sea Trials. ROSEBUD's sail also happened to be a vintage Schurr Sail.

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Here's MADISON sporting the Newport style sail, hanging out with WAVE.

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MADISON is ready, she found her mast, rudder, daggerboard and a cover. She's going to wait for PHOENIX so they can do Sea Trials together.

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L&VW, there's the catboat keelson and strongback. Put on hold by the 2020 Gulf Coast hurricane season/pandemic.
 
70F here in Florida today, light wind, good day to Float Test MADISON. She jumped ahead of PHOENIX in line because we thought we were going to load MADISON in a PODS container before it got picked up this afternoon, more on that later.

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Note how shallow, I didn't get out much deeper. While the air temp was warm, the water temp is down in the 50s. I spent a lot of time managing the daggerboard, keeping it high enough to to drag and down enough to not catch the boom. Speaking of boom, MADISON hit me with the boom about 20 times, knocked my hat off twice.

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MADISON knocking my hat off...


Everyone should have a Crickle.


We planned to Float Test and Sea Trial MADISON and then load her into the PODS container for Virginia, but 1) Skipper is under the ill effects of early Florida pine tree pollen so Sea Trials will happen on the Chesapeake and 2) MADISON didn't fit in the PODS where I thought she would, under SMEDLEY's trailer. I had a Sunfish under the Catfish trailer last time but forgot that it was a wooden Sunfish, which are not as tall as the fiberglass boats. So MADISON gets to ride on the next mode of conveyance, or maybe will be towed like ducklings behind our runabout. We regrouped and found more items to load into PODS 1 before the truck showed up, catboat parts and one of Skipper's wagons among them.

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So final roster for PODS 1 is Super Sailfish TRACKER, 1953 Sunfish ZIP, 1965 Catfish SMEDLEY, Standard Sailfish WINNIE and 2021 Pascagoula Diamond Bottom Catboat parts.

So if you see PODS 75516BX somewhere between NW Florida and the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, you know there's a party going on inside.

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PHOENIX still needs Sea Trials and so does the new punt that we just built, her name is SCUPPERS. I had spare boards and plywood, and didn't want to move it, so I built a boat, which I don't mind moving...and I like even numbers, so our Armada numbers 16 boats now, from 8 feet up to 19.

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