Sunfish hull, out of the blue

minifish2

Active Member
Sometimes you never know. I bought a kinda beat-up minifish hull yesterday just because I'm always on the look-out for them, and after she saw it my sailing niece thought she'd like to make a project of it, which is nice. That hull would be some work, and it will next season before it's fully dried out. But it's a better project for her than for me, and when it's done we'll both have minifish and a common activity, so -- hopefully it will work out ok.

So almost immediately following that handover to her, I took a quick look on-line and saw a listing for a Sunfish hull and trailer that had just come on Craigslist just a bit earlier, for $300 (ad since taken down). My first thought was that either this was a typo or the boat had issues that weren't apparent -- or worse, that the boat was hot. It turned out to be 'none of the above'. A rather interesting aspect was that this boat just happened to be located in another brother's immediate neighborhood, less than an hour from where I was reading the ad. I figured that if it was legit, this offering wouldn't last the day, and I'd better hop to. Besides, worst case I could get a family visit in.

The hull turned out to be better than I was imagining from the photo (below). It was a seldom-sailed Vanguard-era hull, really nice, and even though set on the trailer in the dreaded hull-side down position, the hull was firm and not indented at all by the supports. It was on the light side - probably heavier than my best boat that I save for travel regattas (last weighed at 122) but noticably lighter than my everyday club racer. It came on an aluminum Trailex trailer, a really nice 'plus' for the price.

The problem was that I didn't have a vehicle anywhere with me with a trailer hitch, just my little compact sedan with my always-ready Thule's. Again, I didn't want to leave anything to chance, so I zipped over and as soon as I got the bill of sale, the hull went onto the roof. When my brother finally got back into shore on his own boat, I asked him if he could do me the tremendous favor and make a deal with me - a free Trailex for him if he could just get over to the seller's house in a timely manner and cart it off. He said he could manage this, for me.

So I guess what I learned from this (again) is that patience pays with these things. If I were actively looking for or needing a boat, this never would have happened. Now I can hardly wait to try it out.

boat.jpg
 
Great deal. Especially with the trailer. What are the black things I see on the front corners of the cockpit?
 
Great deal. Especially with the trailer. What are the black things I see on the front corners of the cockpit?

Those unfortunate black things are "deck cleats" for securing the main sheet on one side or the other in steady breezes. They are particularly popular with recreational sailors in coastal areas where the breezes are strong and steady but not so much so with racers or lake sailors. The good news is that they are through-bolted into the cockpit, and not into the hull, so when I take them out it really doesn't matter if I fill the holmes or not, except for aesthetics. If anything the holes might aid cockpit drainage during storage or transport. But I'll probably fill them.

I shouldn't be too disparaging. On the Laser Forum one regular poster uses the by-line 'sailing without deck cleats since 1993' or something to that effect, which I loosely interpret as being off the training wheels.

I took the hull out for its inaugural race today. I liked it a lot -it felt great - but in the end it seems that it's pretty much as inept as the other hull I normally sail. It made the same dumb mistakes and didn't help my overall season standings one bit. So I'm still keeping my eye out for a boat that actually knows how to win. Here's the vexing thing, though. We have one sailor at our club who can jump into any boat in the fleet and coax it to a win. He's actually done it. It's frustrating for everyone, in that the boats generally have no appreciation for the effort put into them. They'll win for a stranger but not their own owners. Then again, I'm new to his hull, so In fairness I'll give it some time to come around.
 
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Really good sailors can sail anything fast as long as the boat is not a tank. Boat setup is important goose neck position, halyard position, weight position, sail setup and steering. Good sailors don't just sail the boat they are sailing the conditions, good starts, looking for wind, playing the shifts and lots of practice.
 
Really good sailors can sail anything fast as long as the boat is not a tank. Boat setup is important goose neck position, halyard position, weight position, sail setup and steering. Good sailors don't just sail the boat they are sailing the conditions, good starts, looking for wind, playing the shifts and lots of practice.

Whew.....lots to think about. No wonder my racing career is something to be desired. After a week at work, my mind is not in the mood come the weekend sometimes.... Couple weeks ago I didn't get the "memo" that the race course had been reversed due to shifting winds. Only realized when I saw the rest of the fleet coming straight at me on a run. Opps!!....... I still love it. They haven't run me off yet :)
 

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