The Wooden Sunfish Owners Manual

signal charlie

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Drafting The Wooden Sunfish Owners Manual, a sister book to The Sunfish Owners Manual. There will be information on the history of ALCORT and the development of the Sunfish, a derivative of the Sailfish. Inside there will be illustrated chapters on how to Buy, Rig, Sail, Maintain, Restore, Store, Transport and Sell the Woodies, including the Standard Sailfish and Super Sailfish. The Restore Chapter includes Do It Yourself pictures and step by step details on how to conduct common repairs, including deck and hull replacements and rudder conversions. Lines, full size patterns, plans and a Builders Guide are also being developed for the variety of parts, along with a series of youtube videos.

Validation of lines and plans has begun with the transom.

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The first Learning Lessons are that a half pattern would be better to ensure symmetry of the transom blank, and to develop a full pattern. We still need to fine tune the patterns, find the bevel angles to allow excess material for the side planks and hull, based on a 7/8th inch thick transom blank. It would also be nice to build jigs for cutting the those bevels and keel angle.

The parts that came with the kits had some of the bevels pre cut for the stem, planks, keel and transom, but ALCORT wisely left them a little proud so they could be fine tuned on the boat as it was built.

Standard Sailfish Kit shown below to add to the confusion...

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Just noticed this thread... can't think of better folks to do such a job. Those kits were something else, hard to believe that a few scraps of wood could produce such a cool little boat, LOL. Probably be fun to build one, since woodworking is good for the soul. :rolleyes:
 
Put pencil to graph paper...developing a materials list...I think we're ready to pick up plywood and cypress.

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While we had all of the bits off of ZIP's deck we pulled full size pattern for the deck and side planks.

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Interesting, we discovered that the bow section is not symmetrical. Maybe it shape shifted while the ZIP was stored on her side, most likely when the rot happened along the coaming. We had fun pulling the full patterns, but half patterns will be the way to go when we build the new hull.

BTW we got permission from Laser Performance for the build, as long as wen remind folks that "Sunfish" is an LP trademark.
 
Hurricane Sally of Sep 2020 and a homeport move last year paused this project, but we're going to pick it back up in a few days. We had to get storage sorted out for our Armada of 16 boats, get a new shop space and got distracted by the Nutshell Pram build. The latest piece of the puzzle was to add a work deck to the back of the Boat Works. We'll be able to roll the work dolly in and out for cutting and sanding.

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SC,

Ah, nostalgia aint what it used to be. A highschool friend of mine built a standard wood Sailfish from a NOS kit that he found somewhere. I helped a little. All I remember was the goopy Resorsinol (sp?) glue, a thick resin and powder catalyst goop that we mixed up to glue all the pieces in place. The boat sailed well. Guess the Alcort boys knew what they were doing.

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY
 
SC,

Ah, nostalgia aint what it used to be. A highschool friend of mine built a standard wood Sailfish from a NOS kit that he found somewhere. I helped a little. All I remember was the goopy Resorsinol (sp?) glue, a thick resin and powder catalyst goop that we mixed up to glue all the pieces in place. The boat sailed well. Guess the Alcort boys knew what they were doing.

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY
Back in 1955, my Dad and I built a wooden (molded plywood) boat using Resorcinol glue. The same can of glue sits on a shelf, and it still works!

Resorcinol was developed just in time to build the wooden British fighter-bomber, the much-heralded, "Mosquito". (Of WWII fame). Versions could exceed 425-MPH!
 
Thickened flexible epoxy will replace resorcinol in the new build because it does not require tight fits or high clamping pressures.
 

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