Typo: Make that "Sailfish hardware..." forsale.Aiden,
Kent Lewis (AKA "Signal Charlie" on this Forum) is the resident expert on wood sailfish. I am confident he will chime in. I have a pretty good supply of Sailfish for sale if you need some items.
Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY
This is great, thank you. I live in France so finding an old sailfish is impossible. I'm really drawn to the simplicity of the boat and the fact that it doubles up as a big paddle board is also ideal, I've got two little boys who'd love to throw themselves of a big stable platform! I've thought about stringers, as suggested by signal Charlie (I've checked out your inline resources, they're excellent and thank you for to taking the effort to put them out there). I've also been looking at how the Australian sailfish as been constructed, along with various plywood paddle boards. Availability of materials is going to be key to this build, along with budget. One last question, I've got the plans as shown above for the super sailfish, does anyone have any access to scans or offsets for the original, shorter sailfish design? I'm good with cad so I can translate the old imperial plans to Metric so they don't need to be amazing, although I am also wondering whether the super sailfish would make a better family boat (my boys are not getting any smaller!). Thank you all so far for your input, this will happen, albeit slowly but when complete I'll show you the results.
I'm looking at the bolts used in the mast step and thinking of the aluminum bolts I bought at a yard sale. (At ¾-inch diameter, they're too big).A bit late to the party, but good on you for building a classic. That’s one of the things that I love about these boats is that they made sailing accessible for anyone with the will to put it together.
For what it’s worth, my genuine Alcort Super was built with the thinnest of marine ply, including the sides. Stringers top and bottom gave nailing surface to attach to bottom and deck.
Bonne chance, mon Ami!
Thank you... do use fiberglass with the epoxy? Or only epoxy resin over wood?Nico, beautiful work! Thanks for the video.
For waterproofing we either us epoxy resin (West System or TotalBoat) with Special Clear Hardner. No varnis is needed unless you leave it out for monthi in direct sunlight, which should never happen....
...or we use quality Marine primer and paint, 2 coats primer and 2-3 coats paint. That's the Old School way they came from Alcort. Kirby is our favorite because they have been custom mixing colors since 1846. Tell George that Kent and Audrey recommended them
No fiberglass cloth is used.Thank you... do use fiberglass with the epoxy? Or only epoxy resin over wood?
No fiberglass cloth is used.
Epoxy with special clear hardener is overkill also. The wood could be finished with several coats of marine grade varnish or paint, like Alcort did back in 1945...and every other boat maker. Modern day boat builders can overthink things sometimes.
thanks Charlie ...so you say that if I build a sailfish with plywood , I may waterproof it with epoxy at the seams or unions and just finish the hull and deck with only premier and paint?