George_NJ
New Member
So I found this low mileage lovely for sale locally with a trailer, asking $125. It was pretty beat up & filthy from sitting for many years untouched, looked as if it was left tied up by a rocky shore as there were gashes and chunks out of the hull & four holes (stick your finger through holes) an inch to two inches in diameter. It came with a decent matching sail with a couple of tape repairs but still looks good in my opinion, the seller had also made from scratch a new rudder, tiller & daggerboard that were in nice shape. I offered $100 just from the pics online and that was accepted, as it had been for sale a while, the pics looked that bad. There were no papers for the trailer or the boat as he only used it on his communities private lake by his house. This was not a problem for me, as the trailer got registered as a home made & I marked the boat with it our family name and number of the vessel to us "XXXXXXX #10 & XXXXXXXX Lake, NY" as our family owns a country house up by a lake there, so if any John Q Lawman were to ask in NJ why it is not registered, I can say it is a NY boat here for a short time for short time use, which is legal.
So I got her home, even with no lights on the trailer at all, one poor tire that held air but was soft. The next day I cleaned her up with an acid boat cleaner that got her looking respectable and got all the old private lake stickers off her. I put lights on the trailer and pained the fenders that were starting to lightly rust. Then for the hull damage, I used **Eternabond Tape** to cover any problem areas, and double layered over the four holes, and with those fast repairs, the Sunfish was back in the drink for the first time in over tens years looking pretty damn good for a $100 hoopty.
I took my oldest (17), neither of us was ever in any kind of sailboat before, but I watched a lot of youtube videos on sailing & Sunfishes so I was ready to give it a try on my local lake. It was the absolute perfect day for a newbie sailor, bright sun with very light wind and some light enough gusts to get us moving at a good clip from time to time. We were both surprised at how easy it was, there were no close calls with going over the side, even though we did have to lean quite a few times. We were able to sail back to the dock with a nice steady wind under good control. I was really impressed with myself
The next time out (Memorial Day) I took my other son (15), him a sailing newbie too. The day was another beauty, but the wind was definitely up, there were a bunch of other sailboats out on the water taking advantage of that wind. This day was more of a true taste of what sailing is. We found our selves moving pretty quick out there and having to watch out for the others around us, as compared to the other day when were the only sailboat out there being a weekday. We had to lean and dodge the sail a lot and one of those times she got away from me and she tossed us out as she turtled. I knew it was bound to happen at some point but was surprised how fast it happened. I hadn't even tied anything down thinking it would be easy as the last time, so I had to swim for my son's one sneaker and my kayak oar. I kind of panicked thinking I left my phone in a ziplock bag in the cockpit and that it sunk, but luckily it was in my pocked safe and sound. My son righted the boat as I swam for the stuff, it was surprisingly easy to right it. There is no bailer as that had been done away with long ago, but there wasn't much water in the cockpit, maybe about two inches, so I used my son's sneaker to bail some of it out with as we laughed about it. What a blast we had even with turtling it, it's just another learning experience under our belt.
I'm thinking the boat hull is all original, not repainted. It only has the two stripes on the bow, and no stamped number on the stern. The cockpit has no storage area, and seems to me to be made of a metal of some kind rather than fiberglass? The top plate with the serial number is long gone too. What year do you guys think she is?
** Eternabond Tape is something every Man should have in his bag of repair tricks, this stuff is incredible, it will stick to just about anything and waterproof it and keep it that way. I've used this before on a fiberglass dingy that was in as of bad condition as the Suny and got many uses so far out of her. So while I'm sure some of you purists are shocked that I simply taped up a boat for repairs instead of doing it the right way, trust me it works and is safe enough to count on. I may do the right glass repairs at some point but would rather have gotten the use of her now and not much later with all the time involved to do all the proper repairs. I got her in business in just half a day doing it this way, and I'm sure that she herself was very anxious to get back into the drink sooner than later and that she was very appreciative
So I got her home, even with no lights on the trailer at all, one poor tire that held air but was soft. The next day I cleaned her up with an acid boat cleaner that got her looking respectable and got all the old private lake stickers off her. I put lights on the trailer and pained the fenders that were starting to lightly rust. Then for the hull damage, I used **Eternabond Tape** to cover any problem areas, and double layered over the four holes, and with those fast repairs, the Sunfish was back in the drink for the first time in over tens years looking pretty damn good for a $100 hoopty.
I took my oldest (17), neither of us was ever in any kind of sailboat before, but I watched a lot of youtube videos on sailing & Sunfishes so I was ready to give it a try on my local lake. It was the absolute perfect day for a newbie sailor, bright sun with very light wind and some light enough gusts to get us moving at a good clip from time to time. We were both surprised at how easy it was, there were no close calls with going over the side, even though we did have to lean quite a few times. We were able to sail back to the dock with a nice steady wind under good control. I was really impressed with myself
The next time out (Memorial Day) I took my other son (15), him a sailing newbie too. The day was another beauty, but the wind was definitely up, there were a bunch of other sailboats out on the water taking advantage of that wind. This day was more of a true taste of what sailing is. We found our selves moving pretty quick out there and having to watch out for the others around us, as compared to the other day when were the only sailboat out there being a weekday. We had to lean and dodge the sail a lot and one of those times she got away from me and she tossed us out as she turtled. I knew it was bound to happen at some point but was surprised how fast it happened. I hadn't even tied anything down thinking it would be easy as the last time, so I had to swim for my son's one sneaker and my kayak oar. I kind of panicked thinking I left my phone in a ziplock bag in the cockpit and that it sunk, but luckily it was in my pocked safe and sound. My son righted the boat as I swam for the stuff, it was surprisingly easy to right it. There is no bailer as that had been done away with long ago, but there wasn't much water in the cockpit, maybe about two inches, so I used my son's sneaker to bail some of it out with as we laughed about it. What a blast we had even with turtling it, it's just another learning experience under our belt.
I'm thinking the boat hull is all original, not repainted. It only has the two stripes on the bow, and no stamped number on the stern. The cockpit has no storage area, and seems to me to be made of a metal of some kind rather than fiberglass? The top plate with the serial number is long gone too. What year do you guys think she is?
** Eternabond Tape is something every Man should have in his bag of repair tricks, this stuff is incredible, it will stick to just about anything and waterproof it and keep it that way. I've used this before on a fiberglass dingy that was in as of bad condition as the Suny and got many uses so far out of her. So while I'm sure some of you purists are shocked that I simply taped up a boat for repairs instead of doing it the right way, trust me it works and is safe enough to count on. I may do the right glass repairs at some point but would rather have gotten the use of her now and not much later with all the time involved to do all the proper repairs. I got her in business in just half a day doing it this way, and I'm sure that she herself was very anxious to get back into the drink sooner than later and that she was very appreciative
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