That’s a repair and a deal I’d love to accept, Alan! No charge?BB,
You can actually repair that chewed up boom. If you have another bent Sunfish boom, cut a proper straight length of the donor boom, cut off the damaged section shown in your photo and join the two sections with a length (maybe 12") of wood dowel and secure with epoxy and a few stainless screws. When the epoxy has cured, grind or file the screw heads flush with the outside of boom sections. I would not make such a repair mid-boom, but at the end, it will work fine. If you dont have a donor section of boom, E-mail me and I will mail you one, no charge - you pay postage. Specify length.
Alan Glos
aglos@colgate.edu
Ahhh, but you fell for a Sunfish. It's always okay to fall for a Sunfish.
One alarm bell for us is when the sail is rigged wrong, on the wrong side of the mast. Now of course as Pickers we hope that the price is awesome and the sellers don't realize they have an $800 boat vs the $500 they are asking.
If someone is buying a boat like that for personal use and $$$ are tight, they could swap that spar end to end, or dowel it, and she would sail fine. A new interlocking spar eyebolt should be obtained. The bolt ends should be trimmed, especially the lower bolt, so it does not scratch the deck. We would also add an outhaul cap and put that on the lower spar, with the outhaul tab down, so the tab acts as a bumper instead of the bolt/nut.
Back to being Pickers/Flippers, we would swap ot the rig for better spars and whatever other parts to sell a "Just Add Water" boat, one that we would put our Granddaughter on. We know at least $200 will be added to the invoice for a new bow handle, bailer, lines and a few other geegaws.
I’m going the dowel route, thanks to our friend Alan
You’re right,SC, he had me at Sunfish.
the bow handle and bailer are like new. She’s a little overweight but aren’t we all? I’m debating whether to add ports. Leak test is next and I know two suspect areas. Here’s the stern- note two rivets are all the way through the trim and are not proper size- evidence of a previous poorly done repair. These are little things that I saw and can easily repair after leak test.
I plan to do a leak test first. If there’s a leak at the hull/deck seam I’ll drill out the section of trim using a 1/8” drill bit (careful not to drill through the bottom trim), then clean out the seam and use a syringe to inject Flexpoxy or Six10 into the seam and clamp it down. Might lower the bow first so gravity keeps the epoxy in place.How are you going to repair the trim above the gudgeon?
Just curious how our approaches would differ.
Well, that’s not ALL the damage, SC. More concerning is the bottom of the daggerboard trunk, which is the main suspect for the excess weight, but nothing that can’t be fixed!That all the damage you got Breeze Bender? She's a creampuff.
We have ideas on trim/rivet repair, but want to hear BreezeB's approach first.
It mostly acts as a bumper; however, once you have one-foot piece of Sunfish trim in your hand, you want to say, "This is a dang dagger!"Bonus question 1: What is the purpose(s) of the trim?
Ha! That’s exactly what I thought of, danpal! My brothers used to make nunchucks in school (Industrial Arts) when we were kids. They’d also make deadly sharp metal stars that were thrown into a wooden target but could easily maim someone. I’m sure it wasn’t part of the curriculum! As a girl, I had to take Home Economics and learn how to sew. Now I’m making up for lost time.Nunchucks! You have to be careful though, they're illegal in Massachusetts so definitely don't bring them over the border.
The hull looked clean, the price was right, but it was the North sail, so colorful and fun, that caught my eye in the ad. I hadn’t seen this color combo before, either!
Both seller and I were on tight schedules, so I didn’t rig the boat when I got there. The guy kept telling me that everything was perfect (*a sure sign to check things over!)
The pretty sail was wrapped around the spars. He delivered the boat for a very fair price.
I know it’s ‘buyer beware’ and I should have known better, but when I sell something I always disclose any issues. This guy clearly hid a big problem. Check out the end of the spar! It is toast. He hid this under the wrapped sail.
I can cut the end off and fit this to a Minifish sail, and I have another set of spars, but my great deal didn’t turn out as great as I’d thought
Moral of the story: Take your time to check things over thoroughly and don’t just fall for a pretty face!
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