Sunfish Pickin Perdido Beach AL

signal charlie

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Staff member
Picked a Sunfish today, $100 for boat and trailer. Original owner, deck has a hole from Hurricane Ivan. All the parts are there , sail is in good shape, boom is a little bent. Boat is pre 72, converted to new style rudder. lots of clean up and sanding, priming etc, plus new rigging and we will get her on the water again. Trailer is a wreck but can be repaired.
 
Picked a Sunfish today, $100 for boat and trailer. Original owner, deck has a hole from Hurricane Ivan. All the parts are there , sail is in good shape, boom is a little bent. Boat is pre 72, converted to new style rudder. lots of clean up and sanding, priming etc, plus new rigging and we will get her on the water again. Trailer is a wreck but can be repaired.
Hey I saw that one on Craigslist! Good find! Good luck with the restoration.
 
The boat needs a major repair to the cleat area and new sail. Wood parts being sanded, deck needs cleaning and we need new lines. Trailer is basically new now and cost almost as much, new springs, axle, wheels, hubs, lights. I'll upload more pics soon, in the meantime there are more on facebook sunfish sailboats.
 

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Started on repair of cleat area. Faired out the crack and slid a fiberglass backer plate inside. Epoxy, screws and string to hold it in place. Screws and string will come out once epoxy dries.
 

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Here is a picture of the backer patch I made for Bud. I laid plastic over a good hull to get the right shape, then put down two layers of fiberglass and epoxy. The hole in the middle is a cutout for the backer block. I had to make it bigger, the block is about 3x3 inches. But this also turned out to be a good hole to work through, I used 2 sticks to help hold the patch up from inside. I epoxied only the outer perimeter of the patch first and left the flap loose, just in case it didn't work out. That set up real nice and I was happy with the shape of the deck, so I finished securing the rest of the flap with epoxy.
 

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This is the second boat we've come across that had issues caused by a roller.
The first had a delaminates area on the keel, a soft spot, hard to see but it let
Water in when I sailed it. The boat sailed great:). A testament to the design.
The hole on Bud came from being stored upside down and Hurricane Ivan helped
Punch that hole. Luckily that was extent of damage
 
Repair on deck is drying. Next I plan to fair it out with Marine Tex, sand and probably paint. Gelcoat is pretty burnt.

Finished cleaning up rudder, father in law did the hard stuff and I put it back together. Painted the cheek and tiller straps, added a new pintle spring kit and got new stainless from Ace. For the daggerboard I trimmed about one inch off the top and added smaller mahogany cleats. Rudder, tiller and daggerboard were finished with Minwax polycrylic, which is water based but will last for a decent time if no abused. It is very easy to work with, min fumes and easy cleanup.
 

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Picked a Sunfish today, $100 for boat and trailer. Original owner, deck has a hole from Hurricane Ivan. All the parts are there , sail is in good shape, boom is a little bent. Boat is pre 72, converted to new style rudder. lots of clean up and sanding, priming etc, plus new rigging and we will get her on the water again. Trailer is a wreck but can be repaired.
Ivan was like 8 years ago..
 
Ivan was like 8 years ago..

Yep, and I think the boat had been sitting for about 5-10 years befor Ivan, the owner moved on to a Stevens 47. They had to cut it out of a bush that grew around the stern and the trailer had mostly rusted away beneath it. Luckily it stayed upside down and did not fill up qith water, so hull is still light
 

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The boom had a small kink in it, so I used a Bay Magnolia straightening tool.
Also finished the trailer bunks and Bud is back on the trailer, still needs new lights.
 

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My father in law did the grunt work on the daggerboard, took off old paint with a plane. I finished up with 80 grit then 220 using random orbital sander. The top was coming apart so I trimmed off an inch and filled cleat bolt holes with a dowel and glue. Then added smaller mahogany cleats and used stainless screws with finish washers to attach.
 

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Working on the hull, epoxied a few areas, sanded and started a base coat with white gloss spray rustoleum. That will help me find any heavily crazed spots that need more filler. One pic shows the coverage of the first can on the port bow.
 

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Base coat of spray rustoleum, 5 cans total. There are some pinholes in gelcoat that didn't cover, so I'll need to sand and epoxy those areas before second coat. Also a crazed area near the transom where the pattern shows through. Paint is not as thick as marine paint, benefit is that it goes on easily and smooth. Drawback is that it will not stand up to abuse as well as marine paint.
Also began work rehabbing a sail and spar set that I picked up from Craigslist. Bud's spars were in good condition but sail was not. These spars and sail needed new outhauls, S hook, duct tape and hose clamp removal, cleaning, straightening, plus replaced corroded cheap blocks with OEM scavenged blocks. Also added an outhaul spar cap to the clew end of the lower boom, like the new boats come with. The new cap will help prevent foredeck scratches from interlocking bolt.
 

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....and then there's the trailer....I have invested almost as much in parts as a new galvanized trailer from my local trailer store, but I wanted to restore it. And the seller sold me the boat only under the condition that I haul off the trailer too :) New lights, one side of old lights came off easy but starboard side got encouragement from recip saw. Trailer rewiring tip: Use old wiring to pull new wires through frame by taping ends of new wires to plug end of old wiring.
 

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Took off the deck hardware, careful to not let backer blocks drop into hull. Removed old inspection port. Sanded repaired area. Test fit new bow handle. Sand, tape and paint next, interlux Brightside medium blue.
 

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Final deck sanding and tape, first road trip for restored trailer, it pulled great! Took it over to in laws garage to paint, rolled and tipped Interlux Brightside Medium blue, got supplies at West Marine. I'm real happy with results, but think I can upgrade the roller next time. Stripes and splashguard will be white.
 

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I had a few coaming rivnuts seize up and I had to pull them out. Now I'll be looking for replacement fasteners for 4 coaming screws. Laid out the tape for the stripes, putting 2 on the bow and since the tape and paint are out, will add two stripes back by the stern. Maybe I'll just leave the blue tape on?
Not period correct, but neither is the paint and new style rudder. Got the first coat of Rustoleum Topside white applied, and painted the coaming.
 

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That's what a pulled out rivnut looks like. Coaming is back on, gudgeon reinstalled and inspection port secure. Wood backer blocks had fallen off so I had to dig through a small bit of foam to reattach them and secure eyestraps. Luckily they had not wandered off somewhere.
 

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Stripes are done. Sail, rigging and blades are ready for action. Daggerboard is not that long, just a weird photo angle. Bailer will go in tomorrow and we will see if she floats!
 

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Bailer went in. She floats and sails great.
 

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"...Wood backer blocks had fallen off so I had to dig through a small bit of foam to reattach them and secure eyestraps. Luckily they had not wandered off somewhere..."
Just curious, in what condition were the wood blocks?
I replace wood backer-blocks with portions cut from a stainless steel shrimp BBQ platter:

2yua5wj[1].jpg
 
Wood blocks were in great shape. I flipped them over, held them in place while father in law drilled pilot holes (made sure drill bit was adjusted so my hand didn't get a pilot hole too). Now that we can access them, the next time we have to go in a metal backer plate would be a better option. I like your repurposing :) What type of hardware did you use, I.e. did you use nuts also or just screws?
 

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