Hey minifish owner with a few questions!

[minifish18]

Hi everyone! a little brief introduction first. I started sailing at a scout summer camp years ago(i can even remember now) and enjoyed it a lot with my friends(it was a sunfish im believe). later on a friend of the family gave us a small sailboat which turned out to be a minifish. I like it but at the time i really couldent do much because i was younger. Now i just turned 18 and i need something to do for a little while so i figure i can fix up the old minifish and start sailing again. (being a forum person for years) i searched on the forum about minifish and got all the info i could so i wont bore you with the silly questions. Thanks

A few questions

-What years exactly was the minifish manufactured, mine dosent look that old but from what i searched they stopped making them a long time ago.

-Is there any good after market websites for the minifish? or do i just go with sunfish aftermarket parts.

-I notice i see post saying the sunfish is faster than the minifish, i dont understand because the minifish is smaller and the design looked almost the same compared to the sunfish i was on except the sunfish was bigger. Im not calling the sunfish down(i love the boat) but im curious in what way is it faster or is it the fact theres more after market parts and possibly the ability to hold a bigger sale.

-Can the boat be painted?

-I dont understand the minifish at all it seems to be like a ghost. Its hard to search the web and find information on it(just a rant)

I dont have any more questions its night time atm ill go out in the morning and get some pictures and post them.

Thanks guys!

 

[DanB]

-What years exactly was the minifish manufactured, mine dosent look that old but from what i searched they stopped making them a long time ago.

According to the Sunfish family tree, AMF added the Minifish around 1971 and dropped it about 1983. From 1973 model year onward the hull ID found on the upper right of the transom will show you a model year. AMF00000M80J

-Is there any good after market websites for the minifish? or do i just go with sunfish aftermarket parts.

Doubtful there’s enough demand today for someone to be marketing new parts expressly for the Minifish. Minifish used most of the same parts as the Sunfish of it’s day. Except that the mast and spars are a little shorter and the sail is smaller, parts that fit today’s Sunfish should be equivalents for your Mini’s gear.

-I notice i see post saying the sunfish is faster than the minifish, i dont understand because the minifish is smaller and the design looked almost the same compared to the sunfish i was on except the sunfish was bigger. Im not calling the sunfish down(i love the boat) but im curious in what way is it faster or is it the fact theres more after market parts and possibly the ability to hold a bigger sale.

A couple of things are involved. For starters, the Minifish carries less sail. The hull is also shorter which for these boats affects speed both positively and negatively. Basically, when the hull is settled in the water length limits the top speed, when the hull is planing over the water it can mean a faster speed could be achieved by a skilled sailor. Research “hull speed” and “planing hulls” to learn more about these aspects of sailing physics.

People have put the Sunfish mast, spars, and sail on a Minifish. Information about Sunfish tuning and the affect of weather helm would be good subjects to study up on for adjusting the Sunfish rig to sail well with the Minifish hull.

-Can the boat be painted?

Sure, it’s just fiberglass, a reinforced polyester plastic. Any of the boat paints made for fiberglass will give good results. If the hull is looking good you are probably best off simply buffing the outer gelcoat surface with rubbing compound and waxing it with a good fiberglass protectant.

-I dont understand the minifish at all it seems to be like a ghost. Its hard to search the web and find information on it (just a rant)

Considering the Minifish hasn’t been produced for 25 years and never achieved the status of their more popular cousins the Sunfish and Laser it’s not surprising there isn’t a whole lot of information buzzing around.

With only some slight adaptations today’s Sunfish rigging guide and parts list apply. Most of the Sunfish sailing advice also works for the Minifish.

If there is a Minifish support group it might be sheltered inside one of the big hosting web sites like MSN.com and Yahoo.com. I have found these clubs don’t always show up in a Google search and you have to look through the groups directory inside the hosting site to find them.

 

[Wavedancer]

You can join Yahoo Group's "Sunfish Sailor" group. I am pretty sure there are specific Minifish files kept there and there is a ton of info about all things Sunfish (and clones).

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sunfish_sailor/

 

[minifish18]

According to the Sunfish family tree, AMF added the Minifish around 1971 and dropped it about 1983. From 1973 model year onward the hull ID found on the upper right of the transom will show you a model year. AMF00000M80J



Doubtful there’s enough demand today for someone to be marketing new parts expressly for the Minifish. Minifish used most of the same parts as the Sunfish of it’s day. Except that the mast and spars are a little shorter and the sail is smaller, parts that fit today’s Sunfish should be equivalents for your Mini’s gear.



A couple of things are involved. For starters, the Minifish carries less sail. The hull is also shorter which for these boats affects speed both positively and negatively. Basically, when the hull is settled in the water length limits the top speed, when the hull is planing over the water it can mean a faster speed could be achieved by a skilled sailor. Research “hull speed” and “planing hulls” to learn more about these aspects of sailing physics.

People have put the Sunfish mast, spars, and sail on a Minifish. Information about Sunfish tuning and the affect of weather helm would be good subjects to study up on for adjusting the Sunfish rig to sail well with the Minifish hull.



Sure, it’s just fiberglass, a reinforced polyester plastic. Any of the boat paints made for fiberglass will give good results. If the hull is looking good you are probably best off simply buffing the outer gelcoat surface with rubbing compound and waxing it with a good fiberglass protectant.



Considering the Minifish hasn’t been produced for 25 years and never achieved the status of their more popular cousins the Sunfish and Laser it’s not surprising there isn’t a whole lot of information buzzing around.

With only some slight adaptations today’s Sunfish rigging guide and parts list apply. Most of the Sunfish sailing advice also works for the Minifish.

If there is a Minifish support group it might be sheltered inside one of the big hosting web sites like MSN.com and Yahoo.com. I have found these clubs don’t always show up in a Google search and you have to look through the groups directory inside the hosting site to find them.

Thanks for the response, i see what your saying about the physics im sure something in the sunfishs design made it have an edge i just dont know a whole lot.

I was busy with company to do but i took a look at the minifish and its got a lot of dark colored stuff on it. Ill give it a good wash and put some pics up im also gonna have to prolly search for all the pieces.

Thanks again for the information!