Advice on purchasing a used sail boat

austin1225

New Member
Forgive me for my ignorance but I am new to sailing. I am trying to purchase an entry level sunfush to learn on. After a lot of research I found one yesterday but it seems really rough. The person selling it does not know the year but here are the rest of the details:
13-14ft AMF "AMFLITE" (is that even a sunfish?) WITH TRAILER.
Trailer seems to be OK
Needs new sails
Daggerboard and rudder are missing

Any thought are appriecated. I think... I ma looking at about $100-$150 for new sails and I have not been able to find a daggerboard or rudder. Are those difficult to come by? Apparenlty the Mast and hull are in good shape and he tells me their are no softspots. Not sure whatother questions to ask.
Thanks again for your advice!
 
Forgive me for my ignorance but I am new to sailing. I am trying to purchase an entry level sunfush to learn on. After a lot of research I found one yesterday but it seems really rough. The person selling it does not know the year but here are the rest of the details:
13-14ft AMF "AMFLITE" (is that even a sunfish?) WITH TRAILER.
Trailer seems to be OK
Needs new sails
Daggerboard and rudder are missing

Any thought are appriecated. I think... I ma looking at about $100-$150 for new sails and I have not been able to find a daggerboard or rudder. Are those difficult to come by? Apparenlty the Mast and hull are in good shape and he tells me their are no softspots. Not sure whatother questions to ask.
Thanks again for your advice!

You can search the forum (use 'amflite') and find out more about this cheaper offspring of the Sunfish. Considering the parts that are missing it doesn't seem to me that this boat is worth much :(.
You will need to weigh the hull to see whether it is dry (around 130 lbs is OK). If not, do a leak test (search the forum to see how it's done). Try to find the ID (should be on the right hand side of the transom if the boat isn't too old); it can be translated into the year of manufacturing (again, use the search function to see how that's done).
The price of the sail that you quote seems to be on the low side, or do you have a firm source?
 
AMFlite was the earlier model of AMF’s in-house knock-off of their own Sunfish. The Windflite was the later version.

AMFlite uses the pre-1972 style Sunfish rudder. A daggerboard from any generation Sunfish will fit.

You mentioned the mast, does this boat also have the two aluminum spars that the sail attaches to?

Let’s say you find all the parts shopping around ebay and Craigslist and here. They are probably going to run you $300 including that sail. They could even run more, but it would be a real steal if you found them for less.

It isn’t too difficult to find a newer style Sunfish - 1972 or later - that has all the parts and can be sailed right away for $600 to $800.

Compare these figures to what you will pay for the AMFlite and the parts needed to get it on the water.
 
Thank you Wayne and Wavedancer! After reading your posts and doing some additional research I have decided to keep looking.
 
Austin - you wouldn't happen to be in the northwest, would you? I have all the spars and wood, but I'm in the market for a good old-style hull.
 

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