old Sunfish. dead?

[carp]

About three years ago I purchased a used Sunfish. For various reasons, I never had it in the water. It was stored on a small frame I built, about eight inches off the ground, and outdoors.

A few weeks ago, it finally looked like we'd have a chance to get it in the water. A friend of mine and I started to carry it out to where we could clean and wax it -- and found it weighed a *lot* more than the 120 lbs. or so it's supposed to weigh. While neither of us are weightlifters, picking up and carrying 60-75 lbs wouldn't be a problem for either of us.

My first thought was that there was water in interior of the boat, but I can rock the boat and can't hear anything. I can't seem to find any info on what is (or isn't) inside the hull, so I don't know whether what is in there could be damaged by water.

I have two hints concerning what has happened. First, about four feet from the bow, on the bottom right side, it looks like the hull has been pushed out in a sort of cresent pattern, and once I saw a very small trickle of water from what might have been an extremely small hole in the bottom of the hull.

The hull is now stored inside my garage so no more damage will occur, but I'm suspecting that the damage is already too extensive for the boat to sail again.

Nonetheless, I put it to all of you.. Any ideas as to what has happened, and if it is fixable?

Thanks,

Sean.

 

[Porpoise2]

"...While neither of us are weightlifters, picking up and carrying 60-75 lbs wouldn't be a problem for either of us..."

I found I wasn't a weightlifter either.

My problem boat is a "clone-fish" of the Sunfish, whose flotation had become a giant sponge for water. I removed, then replaced, the offending flotation which, it turned out, was only in the aft section.

You'd be advised to search "inspection port" installation at this forum and elsewhere. Your boat can be saved with inspection ports, a few hours, and a saber saw.

I stored my boat "on edge" and found water trickling from the seam, as the sponges dribbled out their load of water. I'd try it on both sides.

After a few days, it might lighten the boat enough to ease future handling.

The crescent part, I'm not sure about. Was it created because of the manner it was stored previously?

 

[Gail]

Don't give up. See the sunfish_sailor page on yahoo for tons of information on how to dry out a hull. It's not a fast thing but is rewarding. You could choose to replace the foam blocks, but that is an enormous project. A week of the sunshine/black trashbag/fan drying system will get it down to 145 or so, plenty light enough to sail. But, you need to figure out where the water is getting in! See the bubble test info for that.