First post...Bought 1999 Vanguard Sunfish for $300...

SailorHD

Member
Hi I have been reading the threads for a few months and was reading a thread about finding great deals...At that time I closed the website and looked at Facebook market place and I found a local sunfish hidden in the classifieds...It didnt look great in the ad but I thought what the heck it's only my time and 30 minutes to look at it...well the boat was sitting upside down on the shore and looked terrible in the photos...but when we turned it over it was solid as a rock and in great shape with no soft spots and only needing minor fiberglass work with a bit of blistering on the flat part of the deck...so I will have to paint the topside with awlgrip...after removing the blistering and dry out the hull if its wet inside ...Then I looked at the rig and gear stored inside. All is in new condition with little use...plastic board ...storm colored sail as new and rudder in new condition...booms and mast as new...It turns out that the doctor who owned it says it has only been sailed 5 times since new... many thanks to whom ever wrote the thread I was reading before I looked again for a boat for sale...
 
Wow, good for you! Smokin’ deal. Please, post a few photos so we can see it. We picked up our first Sunfish a few months ago ... and we still have not had a chance to take it out. Maybe this coming weekend!
 
I'm on my way... I have 2 now...Over the years I was able to buy 2 new lasers and a new sunfish...only to have to sell them at a loss because of a hard time selling a lake house and the economy and 7 surgeries...I'm happy to get a great deal because I love the newer style sunfish...
 
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I picked up the boat today 3 small holes/cracks in the bottom from newbe crash landings and a bit of blistering on the deck from sitting upside down and getting wet in the grass...the hull is stiff and not warped and the foam looks good...the boat is light weight...and the sides are not de laminated...looks like a keeper...I will put my very nice 78 sunfish in the classifieds when I'm ready to sell...
 
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I will update again when its done. Here are the before photos...looking forward to the after photos in the spring...
 

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Not in bad shape... a little glasswork, a little paint, and she'll be good as new. Sail & gear in great shape means WAY less work and expense... :rolleyes:
 
Progress report ...I have been working on my boat and I found some major damage . The glass that had been damaged was shredded and had to be completely cut out I used balsa sheets and repaired from the inside out with bi axial cloth followed by a a last layer of carbon fiber ...I have all the holes fixed and tomorrow will sand and start fairing with epoxy fairing compound...It has been a fun project so far... I put the boat on a glass enclosed porch at my house and bought a propane heater to keep it warm for the glass work...more to come...
 

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That's interesting. You know Sunfish flexes around the midpoint of the hull, have you
considered adding carbon fiber to both sides of the hull? You might get some twisting
with just one side stiffened up. If you can stiffen the hull I'm sure performance will
improve in rough water. At the very least the splash rail will not have to carry so much
of the load. Less chance of it pulling out the anchor points on the ends as it often does.
Shoot I'd say carbon fiber the entire hull but that would run into some serious cash burn.
 
That's not a bad idea to do the other side .I could do it for $30. It would only require a bit more fairing because that side is already perfect. The reason I used carbon on the starboard side is that the fiberglass on that side had been compromised and had some freeze damage from moisture .The glass had cracked fibers and crazing so bad the glass was ruined so I ground out the damage repaired it and used the carbon to get a thin light weight skin to make the fairing compound easier. This gave me a flat surface to work with . I'm in it this far so doing the other side is a good idea.
 
I wet sanded today before putting the fairing compound next week ...I was surprised how easy the carbon fiber sanded I ended up sanding most of the carbon fiber off by the time I got it flat . I now have a perfectly smooth boat to fair . I think I will open up a hole in the deck where the damage was under the seating area and add some glass to the inside where the damage was. There is already glass work done in that spot on the seat area so no big deal...I was a bit concerned over the carbon being too stiff and causing damage elsewhere (thanks Webfoot1 ) In retrospect I'm surprised how much damage was uncovered in the process but I'm getting closer to paint and I am enjoying the project...
 
It's a compromise between how rigid the structure is and how much
the hull weighs. If you can carbon fiber yourself down to 125 lbs. you'll
have really nice performance. I've only heard of one Sunfish being less than 125 lbs. and
that was a Pearson Sunfish which made a always contested racing boat but
probably had a short life due to lack of fiberglass resin. I wonder if there would
be a method of putting thin bands/strips of carbon fiber across the bottom of
the hull to keep it from oil canning between the daggerboard and the foot well.
 
I am trying to keep it light as I can . It was a light boat to start with so I am guessing 135 to 140 finished...A bit heavy is ok with me if it doesn't bang and slam in the waves. What happened to the boat to damage it was it was laying in the lake on that side for years and the water got in and froze. I have given up on carbon fiber for now and will keep it all glass I think you were spot on in your advice... It did work great to give me a flat surface for sanding. I had a Pearson Sunfish a long time ago mine was very flimsy and was one of the ones that were poorly made ... more to come.
 
I'll jump in and offer that the best boats we have had for recreational sailing are the older, heavier boats, the 139 pound hulls were pretty much bulletproof. And the two hulls that we have walked away from out of 30 were ones that had an added layer of fiberglass over the entire bottom.

Your 1999 boat should be 129 pounds.
 
I wonder if I could add a bit of 6# foam under the cockpit to stiffen it up while I'm in there or would that create more problems like the cockpit cracking or coming loose?
 
As an FYI, a lot of boats from the mid 2000s on have been about 125. No idea what the current Chinese and UK boats weigh. I don’t think LP is too big on consistency or QC these days. Also, I think Sunfish flexing midships is unusual so I wouldn’t worry about that.
 
I wonder if I could add a bit of 6# foam under the cockpit to stiffen it up while I'm in there or would that create more problems like the cockpit cracking or coming loose?
'Can't hurt. ;) Internally-stored charts, registrations, keys and detritus (like Styrofoam™, gum wrappers and expanding-foam bits and pieces) can drift under the cockpit floor. (And hold dampness).

Many of our recreational boats are 50 years old, and American males are averaging 30 pounds heavier than the years these boats were designed/built. (Weight studies have generally overlooked the steady trend away from tobacco—which kept us slim). :cool:

Modern tacking techniques add their share of pounding. :( A few years ago, one of our members indicated he was going to bond stringers internally to strengthen the bottom—forward of the cockpit.

Last summer, I attempted to video the extreme flexing of the hull in relatively gentle wave conditions; however, there was insufficient light available. I'll try again. :)

.
 
Many of our recreational boats are 50 years old, and American males are averaging 30 pounds heavier than the years these boats were designed/built. (Weight studies have generally overlooked the steady trend away from tobacco—which kept us slim). :cool:

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Interesting. Just went to 7/11 and picked up a carton of Camels to see if I can drop a few lbs before summer.
 
I've used expanding foam under the cockpit and it worked well. The glue pads
the factory used often break loose or don't provide enough support when kids
jump up and down on a beached hull. If you can flex the hull under the cockpit
or hear a 'brattttttttttt....' when you plain-out the pads have broken loose.
 
Great I will get a 2 qt kit of 6# foam from JD ...Its funny all the damage the boat had and the foam is like new still glued in and white and dry...I'll tell you a story about foam... I had a sunfish that I had done a lot of work to I sailed it for a year or so ,then I decided to put some foam under the cockpit. I bought some foam called great stuff from the hardware and put it under the cockpit man that stuff was some "great stuff" it worked fine for a while and then the unthinkable happened ??? What might that be? After the foam had been in there for 6 months working fine....It got wet and expanded like a balloon ...really a balloon. The cockpit was pushed up a good 3 inches in the middle Imagine the horror looking at it...well to fix it I had to cut an inspection plate in the middle or the floor and dig out the "great stuff" and put weights in the floor for a few weeks to get it flat again... I guess I could have read the instructions where it says "spray with water to make the foam expand more...Well that was fun.
 
No kidding! I never had that problem and I always had water in the hull. I wonder what
I did different. Maybe I didn't use as much foam as you did. I injected it through holes
in the cockpit floor and did not use a lot because I was worried about the problem you
described. When the foam activated it oozed back out the holes in the floor.
 
Oh yea I probably used a lot of it...what happened is it had an uncured "bubble "inside the foam and when water got to it it ballooned out...now I use only polyurethane foam made for boats no worries because it fully cures in minutes...and if under the cockpit just expands out around the confined area...
 
The foam bonding under the tub is usually in 6-8 very small blobs, about silver dollar size. Their locations can be spotted a lot of times on the bottom of the hull because stress risers form in the gelcoat over those hard spots. So a very small amount of foam is needed, and leave room for it to expand. Less foam means less trapped water. I would make sure to leave plenty of areas for water to flow through in case a leak developed, make sure water can get out to wherever your chosen drain point is. For us we like to use the deck drain or put in a center deck inspection port, lots of access there to take care of backer block issues, daggerboard trunk repairs and sponge out any small leaks.
 
After working on it this winter it is finally finished. Here are the after photos. Looking forward to a great summer...
 

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I'm calling BS on this one, you just bought a new boat didn't you? She's beautiful!

Tell us all about the resto please.
 
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Thanks for the compliments. It was a fun project this time because I did it over the winter on my glass porch . And took my time . I have done rushed projects out in the summer sun that seemed not so fun at times . Well I bought the boat for $250 and 50 for the title. It looked as though it only needed minor glass work...well as I found out it was a bit major . But once I started to spend the money on her there was no turning back...It had some shredded glass and I cut it all out and had at least 5 holes in her...I used Total boat epoxy and bi axial fiberglass cloth . I took some very thin balsa wood sheets similar to RC airplane wood and laminated cloth to it and when it was still wet secured it from the inside out with string and screws and let it dry .This gave me a strong structure to work with. I then finished up the holes with cloth till it was level with the outside of the boat . I then used epoxy fairing compound the flatten it out...I primed with epoxy primer and sanded and sanded ...that stuff is hard as a rock so 8 hours power sanding ...then sprayed with Interlux perfection paint . It took almost 2 quarts ... This stuff is poisonous so I used the correct respirator and paint suit and gloves ...I bought a new coaming and most of the new hardware off Ebay and other vendors... I wasn't in a hurry so I found some great deals. I sold the older hardware and sail on Ebay and got 75% of the money to buy all new hardware. All in I spent $1300 on everything with the trailer ... It took 85 hours of work ...There is a sense of accomplishment when its done . I am very happy with her and she looks great...Thanks to you guys on the forum...
 
Yeah...i noticed the stripes where gone. I know you can thin and spray Perfection, but you probably know it was designed for roll and tip and gives incredible results. Your job looks stunning.
 
Thanks for reminding me...The bottom was rolled and tipped...the best results I had on this one was to add a bit more thinner than the recommended 10% and to use a foam brush from home depot and then to tip with a larger quality brush. I painted at 68 degrees with little humidity...
 
Yeah...i noticed the stripes where gone. I know you can thin and spray Perfection, but you probably know it was designed for roll and tip and gives incredible results. Your job looks stunning.
This is high praise, BTW...
:)
 
My Dad taught me the basics of sailing and until I got on the Forum that was all I knew. Thanks to the folks here, I have learned a huge amount about sailing and met some great people who's advice has been extremely helpful and may have kept me out of some potentially disastrous situations. Today, I'm going to a boat show in Richmond CA and expect to learn quite a bit there. Also booked a demo ride on an RS 21-should be fun!
 

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