Restoring an old wood Sailfish

R

RHudson

New Member
I've just acquired an old wooden sailfish in less than perfect condition. It is missing the toe rails, rudder hardware, rudder and assorted fittings. The biggest problem I see is twofold:

1. The deck is separating from the hull from the bow to a point a bit aft of the mast-step.
2. When I flip the hull over, there are 2-3 bits of wood (?) that go thump. I have a feeling they are stringers that came unglued.

The loose parts inside the hull worry me a bit, as I don't know how the rest of the hull is effected. Glueing the deck back down I can handle with some good gap filling adhesive.

The rig I got with this boat is a bit of a mutt. I got an aluminum mast and wooden spars. The boom fitting if a loop of leather rather than brass. I've never seen one like that. The sail if from a Mini-Fish, but it came with the old cotton sail, badly deteriorated, wrapped around the newer sail.

The finish is the original (?) Grey with red pinstripe, and I there is a faded ALCORT decal on the mast step.

Has anyone else restored an older wood boat in this condition?

Robert
 
I've built new wood boats and restored fiberglass boats: Fiberglass is more "fun", because the fixes are more or less permanent.

Those "thumps" need investigating, IMHO. Could they be floatation? (You could "peek").

If you're not ready to peel the deck away with all the additional work that entails, this case needs to find a teen desirous of a winter project.

I enjoy seeing the occasional Sailfish out there; however, this isn't sounding like an economical restoration—unfortunately.
 
Hi,

I have been restoring a wooden Sailfish for the last several months. I had to replace the deck so I took a bunch of pictures of the interior and will be glad to send them to you if you want them. The noise you are hearing are the small wooden blocks that anchor the railing to the boat. They are harmless, but rather annoying.

There are several sources of parts so let me know if you need the addresses. There were two lengths of the wood Sailfish ( 11 ft 6 inches and 13 feet 6 inches). The toe rails were longer on the longer boat.

If you want to reattach the toe rails you will probably need to completely remove the deck - which is not too hard to do. Or you can try attaching the toe rails directly to the hull with wood screws. Of course you will still have to live with the noise of the old wooden blocks.

Your biggest problem will be finding replacement toe rails. The wood boat has not been manufactured since the early 1960's. The rudder will also be expensive to replace ($50 to $100).

Unless you are really into boat restoration, it would be much less expensive to purchase a used Sunfish or Sailfish on eBay. I have seen several fiberglass Sailfish sell for as little as $10.

I have been looking for a fiberglass Sailfish in the western U.S. but they are a rare item out here.

Judkei
Reno, NV
 
Re: Restoring an old wood Sailfish - clunker found

Thanks for the replies so far, folks. They have been quite helpful.

KsJudson. I would be interested in a few pic of the inside of a wooden sailfish.

We finally found what was clunking around in the hull. Turns out that the bottom of the mast-step had split and was tumbling around inside the hull. When the external piece of the step was unscrewed, we saw that the deck was cracked along the edge of it, and the split off part of the step was on the opposite side. Looks like surgery!

What will probably be done is a partial deck-otomy to cut out a square section of deck around the mast-step and try to lift it out Alternatively, I could put an inspection port near the broken side and re-glue it from within.

I don't really intend to do a full restoration, as there are too many parts missing and it would require at least $300 to get the parts. I just want to repair it to the point it can be sailed safely.

Robert
 
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