Good idea, definitely saves me time tooWhy would you try to grind away all the gelcoat? If you do that, you will need to paint the West as it’s not UV resistant. So if you feel you want to paint the boat anyway, why not just smooth the existing gelcoat and paint it? Plus the west will end up with drips, high and low points, etc, whereas the gelcoat is already on and smooth.
Regarding your point 2, mast caps are available wherever Sunfish are sold.
The hole behind the mast might be the hull vent. Someone else will know for sure.
Okay so I have taken her out once already and I didn't notice any issues.Howdy and Welcome,
Congratulations on your new Alcort Super Sailfish MKII. The rudder dates her to around 1971, if that is the original rudder. So she is around 50 years old. Let's give that gal a chance to breathe and discuss some of you questions.
-She has been painted, the question is usually why and the answer is usually that there is damaged gelcoat underneath, from sunburn or multiple repairs. Once painted they usually get a light sanding and repaint. On one boat we did lightly sand all of the paint off and restored the gelcoat.
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-Which screws on the deck have been pulled out?
-The piece missing behind the mast is the Alcort Serial Number tag, and Beldar is correct, that is the hull vent hole that is drilled right through the tag.
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-Rudder- That latch plate on the keel looks okay. Do you have the correct carriage bolt? Should be just over 4 inches long and it ties into the horizontal hinge plate and spring plate. If it is bent then we would take it off and straighten it.
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-Play in the hull is not uncommon in older boats, the foam block inside may have come partially detached. I'd go sailing before I investigated that any further.
The other issue to look at is hull weight. ALCORT advertised 98 pounds for the Super Sailfish MKII, though I must say we've yet to find a vintage boat as light as the factory specs, usually 4-5 pounds over, possibly from water entrapped in the internal foam. We get an old bathroom scale and stand the boat on its side to get the weight...hey, maybe our scale is off, it says I am over my specified weight too
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-So over all it looks like you have a relatively unmolested MKII. We'd suggest getting her rigged for Sea Trials aka Dynamic Leak Test, taking her out and seeing what else she may or may not need. Definitely want to do an air leak test on land or a water test, to find and fix leaks before you get too deep into making her purty.
I'm going to start this week, I'll eep updatingThe best way to approach that... is to keep the bow handle....I'm confused, just keep it. You should replace the screws 1 at a time, #8 x 1 inch marine stainless wood screws will do the trick. While you're there, grab 4 #10x1 inch screws, in case the wood block inside has opened up a bit. Don't take all 4 screws off at the same time, the internal block may fall away. It was originally secures with a fiberglass strip and adhesive putty, but thos bits dry up and fall off in some boats.
If you plan to paint then take all but one screw out, swivel the handle clear of one of the other holes, reinsert a screw to hold the block, then remove the other screw. Take the bow handle off and put a second screw back in in a hole farthest from the first screw.
It’ll be Christmas every day!The boat will be seafoam green on the top and also red on the sides and bottom. Should be pretty unique
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I swapped the red for a darker red so hopefully it will have a vintage lookIt’ll be Christmas every day!