First craft

tommybatts

New Member
I'm trying to so hard to find my first craft. I want to buy it for my family and give it to them for Christmas. I've heard a lot about finding boats for 300-600 dollars but I'm yet to see much in that price range. Any advice for how to get my hands on one of these?
 
The first word is patience. Your price target is toward the low end for good boats. Lots of talk about these. Not so much elaboration about whether they were sailed by a little old lady who only took them out on Sunday or they’ve seen a family with 12 kids who all learned to sail on their cream puff. Prepare yourself to know the difference. Get educated by going to look at every boat offered up in your surrounding area. The more boats you look at out of your price range the better you’ll be able to spot a good one when you run across one priced where you can afford it. Print the manual off the Laser Performance web. Get a copy of the Sunfish Bible and study up on how the boat is set up. Got a sailing club around where you live? Go talk with the Sunfish owners there and get some first-hand pointers. Watch the newspaper, Penny-saver, Craigslist, TexasSailing, boat club bulletin boards, Sunfish Class links to your regional Sunfish Groups. When a 300-600 deal shows up you’ll be ready to grab it and not get burned by a super fixer upper.
 
Dan gives good advice, a deal will come someday and you need to be ready to jump on it. I looked for about 2 months in the summer and found one in very good condition 4 hours away for $275. The owners just wanted to get rid of it and they lived in a very expensive neighborhood in an already expensive town, so getting the most money out of it was not important to them. I think I called them within an hour of it being posted and later they told me they could of sold it 15 times that day. Craigslist seems good for me. I am looking for another one so my wife and I can each can take one of our sons out and spar...
 
Tommy,
Try EBay there are 4 in that price range. Wes Slip, NY $610.00, Sloatsburg, NY $535.00, Littleton, NC $510.00, Alma Kansas $700.00. This might work if you live near any of these places. I bought mine this way for $610.00 in Penn. and I live in Raleigh, NC. it was worth the trip.
Kevin
 
Tommy-I have had good luck advertising (local papers/Bargain News, etc.) "Sunfish Wanted" rather than waiting for an ad selling a Sunfish. With this approach you are the only one responding to the call with noone looking to outbid you.
Also, I recently pickup two freebees from a local Sunfish dealer. Often they take oldies in trade and just want to move them off their lots.
Since Sunfish used to be made in Ct., there are hundreds of the oldies in people's back yards unused and gathering moss. Good approach is knock on some doors if you see one, and low-ball an offer. If you are anywhere near southern Ct. give me a call and I can direct you to some backyard dogs--203-453-6416
 
Tommy,

I found my sunfish by posting "Wanted To Buy" posts at three locations:

The Sunfish Forum, and Craig's List (Craigslist.org), and Yahoo Groups SunfishSailer.
 

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