Our sailing club has 14 Sunfish boats and someone has donated an AQUA FINN. Everything seems to be good with this boat except that a metal ring, where the rudder attaches to the hull in the stern, is broken. Typically, our club sells donated boats unless they are Flying Scots or Sunfish. Does the AQUA FINN have any advantages over the Sunfish that will make it a valuable addition to our Sunfish fleet? Other than the broken rudder attachment this boat is in better condition than most of our Sunfish.
I'm thinking it's so close in every detail, that its performance versus Sunfish would be identical. (Which is what I'd want in a racing fleet).
The ring can be fabricated and heli-arced back onto the gudgeon. Here in Florida's Hurricane-Alley, re-purposed aluminum street signs provide plenty of aluminum material! (Cut five pieces, pop-rivet them together, and have a shop "reconstruct" the gudgeon).
The Aqua Finn is a decent boat but the all aluminum rudder design is poor, overly complex and prone to breaking (like yours did.) See if you can fix the rudder, sail it then decide if you want to keep or sell it.
To get back to the original question, if there would be a demand for another dinghy, I would add the Aqua Finn to your club's fleet. But if it would just be sitting around in the 'boat park', I would sell it to someone who might actually use it.
I’m the original poster. Although the AquaFinn is in better shape than any of our club’s Sunfish I have decided not to try to persuade our club’s leader to retain the boat. From the other posters, I have decided that the AquaFinn offers no non-cosmetic advantages over our Sunfish. So, it will be put up for sale now that Spring has arrived. Attached are some recent photos.
Our sailing club has 14 Sunfish boats and someone has donated an AQUA FINN. Everything seems to be good with this boat except that a metal ring, where the rudder attaches to the hull in the stern, is broken. Typically, our club sells donated boats unless they are Flying Scots or Sunfish. Does the AQUA FINN have any advantages over the Sunfish that will make it a valuable addition to our Sunfish fleet? Other than the broken rudder attachment this boat is in better condition than most of our Sunfish.