Is this a sunfish?

Dorda

New Member
Nice web page and forum,thanks.Newbie here,yes I browsed the page to find the answer to my question,which is,what kind of boat is this,and when was it built?I've had it for a number of years,and finally gave it a little overhaul.There are no serial numbers anywhere that can be found.The cockpit seems much larger than all the other pictures I've seen.The rudder bracket was made by yours truly,so don't let that fool you.

Any help is appreciated,

Brett
 

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Nice web page and forum,thanks.Newbie here,yes I browsed the page to find the answer to my question,which is,what kind of boat is this,and when was it built?I've had it for a number of years,and finally gave it a little overhaul.There are no serial numbers anywhere that can be found.The cockpit seems much larger than all the other pictures I've seen.The rudder bracket was made by yours truly,so don't let that fool you.

Any help is appreciated,

Brett

It is not a sunfish, but the fish on your sail is an angelfish so I assume it is called like that
I could't find any information about it

Matias Jochamowitz
 
what kind of boat is this,

when was it built? There are no serial numbers anywhere that can be found.

The cockpit seems much larger than all the other pictures I've seen.
Gosh, I'm fighting the urge to just say, "sailboat" :rolleyes: ... sorry, you set up the straight line so perfectly, I just couldn't help myself.

Is it a Sunfish? There are two ways to answer that. The name sunfish has been genericized over the years to represent nearly any beach boat with a lateen sail. In actuality, Sunfish is a trade mark name first registered to a specific beach boat by Alcort Inc. in around 1952. So, in general, your boat is a sunfish-like boat, but it's not a brand name Sunfish.

I am not familiar with the hull design you have there. It could be well known, like a Chrysler boat design or it might be a regional product that was not widely marketed.

No serial number in the upper right of the transom says it was made earlier than November of 1972.

That was a time when beach boat popularity was reaching a fever pitch and every ma & pa fiberglass shop (along with some big boys who normally made things like radar domes and x-ray machine housings) briefly got into making a boat. Many were very short lived and the production information for their boats faded out of the scene rapidly.

Could be the photo, but it strikes me the sail is a little oversize for the hull length. This and given the pumpkin seed hull shape, I suspect an original sail may have been a bermuda rig rather than the present lateen.

Never the less, if it sails well and is fun, tell everybody it's Brett's Angel and keep 'em guessing.

Sorry, not much help :eek:

.
 
I had hoped this topic would generate enough information to pinpoint year/make.Now I have realized this is truly just a sunfish forum:(
 
I had hoped this topic would generate enough information to pinpoint year/make. Now I have realized this is truly just a sunfish forum :(
I'm sorry no one has yet to recognize your boat. Before I posted my observations I compared your boat to the over 50 "other-fish" examples at Sunfish Sailor and some past mystery fish posts here at SF Forum. I did not see anything that struck a resemblance when it got to the telling details. I'm at a loss to where more significant information might be found.

No labels or numbers, home-built rudder bracket, no series of photos of any other detail elements..., I can't say anyone would ever be able to narrow it down if they didn't or hadn't owned that exact boat. Boats (all boats) don't change styling yearly like pop-commodity items so without numbers to work from it would take intimate knowledge of minute changes to even narrow it to a decade, let alone a year.

There are databases of companies where you can dig year by year through their catalogs of keel boats and/or motor boats to find that one 4 year window they got a wild hair to make a beach boat sailboat. Fiberglassics.com is one such place. Another are the collections at Shorty Pen.com, Sailing Texas, or Sailboat Data.com where they not only list sunfish-like boats, but boat's in many categories.

The search process for a boat that has lost it's distinguishing insignias can be arduous. Something better set aside until the off-season. In the meantime, I still recommend just going sailing and having fun with your boat.

.
 
Just sail it. Sunfish or not, sailing is sailing. It looks like you could modify it pretty easy to fit Sunfish parts if you needed to make repairs.
Wayne, I have to disagree with you on the Bermuda rig, though. There would be nowhere to put a jib unless there were some sort of stays to hank it on to that were removed when the boat was converted to a lateen rig. Although you do have a good point about the hull shape.
 
Wayne, I have to disagree with you on the Bermuda rig, though. There would be nowhere to put a jib unless there were some sort of stays to hank it on to that were removed when the boat was converted to a lateen rig.
OK, let's say "Laser-like", high aspect ratio without a foresail. It appeared to me the lateen rig pictured in the first post extends further beyond the transom than most boats designed to carry a lateen sail. Could also be it's simply oversize, like putting a Sunfish sail on a Minifish.

What would you call a Laser's sail rig. Cat perhaps, but some argue the mast needs to be set further forward to be a cat rig. From what I've read, "Bermuda" describes a more modern (for the 1600s) high aspect ratio, triangular sail style as opposed to earlier square rigs and trapezoidal gaff rigs. If you add a headsail it becomes a "Bermuda Sloop", or as it's more commonly referred today, simply a Sloop.

.
 
Holy cow!!!Sailing is so fun!I killed the dragon yesterday and took my little dinghy around the horn.Actually,I sailed about 10 blocks north,dodging the pier and all the fisherman,and then back to where I launched off the beach.Tacking included,I probably went around 2 miles.I am so excited about this little dinghy!All my repairs proved to be perfectly done,and when I pulled the little plug,no water came out.I got in irons a few times,but mostly I stayed busy on broad reaches,beam reaches,I was full and by most half the way north,although I never did jibe.The lifeguards said I looked pro...career change?I don't know much about sailing,but what I learned on my little adventure was priceless!

Brett
 
Thats awesome to hear, I had a very simular experience my first time out. It was amazing! Sailing can be so free and refreshing, its the only past time I can think of where you can get a full vacation in a day. Its like no worry or stress can touch you out there.

Glad you enjoyed it.
 

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