Ten Cate Sunfish

R

RDP

New Member
I have recently acquired a grp Sunfish in England. It has all the original bronze fittings and the old style rudder, centreplate, mast fittings and the short cockpit with no storage compartment. Therefore, based on what I have learned from the internet it appears to have been manufactured in the early 1960s.

It is in generally good condition but has no Alcort manufacturer's plate forward of the cockpit and there is no indication that it ever had one. It does however have a Ten Cate Sunfish decal (see attachment) fixed prominently in the front of the cockpit. It also has the number 114 - 93 stamped into the spring plate on the top rudder fitting and the number 93 stamped into he top of the centreboard and the underside of the tiller.

I am aware that Ten Cate produced Sunfish under licence in the Netherlands at one time but I do not know when. Is it possible that this is one of the boats that Ten Cate produced?

Any information on when Ten Cate manufactured Sunfish in the Netherlands or any information about the numbering system referred to above that anyone can provide would be much appreciated.

Sunfish Ten Cate logo.jpg
 
Ten Cate also built Windsurfers.

A very curved and adjustable rudder/stabilizer once washed up on shore after a windstorm.
 
Thanks for clarifying the dates between which Ten Cate produced Sunfish. As my boat was almost certainly produced in the early part of the 1960s that would rule out Ten Cate as the manufacturer.
So what I have here is a boat manufactured in the early 60s bearing a decal relating to the period 79 to 83 and bearing numbers that don't correspond with the published data.
It is going to take a lot more research than I had anticipated to sort this one out.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
 
Very early Sun and Sailfish had the serial number stamped into the vertical part of the bronze rudder deck fitting on the starboard side. I don't know if they used a dash as in yours.
 
The stickers were passed out to folk and were common way back. What are your needs for the old hull?--I have a few olde parts available.
 
Thanks for your response. Good to know that there are old parts still out there but for the time being I need nothing. The boat came complete and in generally good condition. The hull has been painted (guide nicely) at some time but the deck is still the original gel coat. The only thing I have had to buy was a new mast foot plug (from Laser here in the UK. I have replaced the original 3 strand halyard with some prestretched braid and shall be refinishing the foils over the winter then it will be back in the water come spring.

Annoyingly the number / date of manufacture still eludes me. I have looked carefully at the top rudder fitting but there is definitely nothing stamped on it. The only clues remain the 114 - 93 number stamped into the spring plate, the old style rudder fittings and the twin drain plugs. Anyone who can shed some light in this area will win my undying gratitude.
 
Some pictures of the deck would be helpful. Wonder if Ten Cate simply imported Sunfish and put stickers on them? Is there a sail number? While that won't nail things down for certain, if it's on official Sunfish class number, it'll give a potential idea of how old it is.
 
oldpaint said:
Do you suspect the sail is original? Is there a sailmaker label on it?
Click to expand...
I suspect that the sail is not the original as it was manufacturered by Dolphin Sails of Harwich here in the UK. Dolphin were founded in 1964 but I am not aware that they were ever an official supplier of Sunfish Sails. Sadly there is no date marked on the sail itself so the only clue to the manufactured date is the telephone number. This is in the old (pre STD) format so it would probably have been made some time before the mid 1970s. It is, never the less, in perfectly useable condition.
 
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