Media Recent '73 Starfish Purchase

Starfish

New Member
This last year, my wife and I purchased an RV that was (is) located in a marina campground on Possum Kingdom lake here in Texas. The RV soon became our weekend getaway as you can imagine. This became a perfect opportunity for me to justify (to the wife) checking in to something in which I could learn to sail. Something that I've always wanted to do but never took the time. Not knowing anyone that did sail and having a very limited (as in zero) knowledge about sailing I opted to buy an Aquaglide Multisport to start learning with. After reading everything I could find in regards to sailing basics, I gave it a shot and spent the entire summer sailing in our cove. It really is allot of fun and it has taught me the basics but it left me with wanting something a little more substantial - like a real sailboat!

I recently ran across a '73 Starfish with a trailer and bought it. It is in very good shape, i.e., no soft spots, no gashes or dings, doesn't leak, all fittings are firmly attached to the deck and hull, yadda, yadda. The guy that I bought it from sailed it quite regularly and obviously took very good care of the boat although he was not the original owner. It came with the original sail (from what I was told) and it has a Sunfish rudder, tiller, hiking stick and center board. Of couse the rudder was rigged to fit the gudgeon on the Starfish and works perfectly.

The finish on the wood parts needed some attention so I've stripped and sanded everything down and just finished staining things last evening. I'll start putting the finish coats of spar varnish on this weekend. So far it is all looking 100% better and I'm excited to get the finish complete. I'm even more excited for the weather to straighten up (i.e., get warmer) so I can get out on the lake and give this puppy a go!

Anyways.....just wanted to share a few photos of the Starfish.
 

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Basically, the Starfish is a Sunfish clone and was made by Fillips Mfg. Its length and beam are the same as the Sunfish. One major difference is the gudgeon, which means the rudder attachment is a little different than the Sunfish but it still kicks up. The other noticible difference is the coming on the Starfish is integrated in to the top deck so the deck is a bit higher from that point back to the cock pit. This is easily seen in the photos that I've attached.

I'm using all Sunfish parts.......rudder, tiller, daggerboard, boom, gaff & mast. I'm sure that most other Sunfish deck parts are interchangeable as well. I have the original rudder, tiller and daggerboard and they are similar to the Sunfish parts but with some differences. Their condition is not all that great and is the reason the previous owner changed to the Sunfish parts.

When I was looking to purchase a sailboat, I wanted to get a Sunfish but there were no used ones available in my general area. I ran across the Starfish and decided to purchase it because it was similar to a Sunfish, was in very good condition......and the price was very reasonable. I'm very happy with my purchase and couldn't be more pleased getting the Starfish.

Thanks for asking!
 

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