Tucacas

New Member
Hi everybody, I am new to the forum and new to sailing. I just finished helping a 70 year old neighbor lady get rid of junk (filled her a 10 ton dumpster). She is just getting ready to move to FL. She is a beautiful person and I wish her the best. Well, after I got done (2 weeks later) she asked me if I could please go to a Storage Unit she had and retrieve a dinghy her late husband had. Spoke a lot about it and she had good memories of it. She originally wanted to put it in the dumpster as well, but instead decided to gift it to me as a token of appreciation for the free help. Well, I have never sailed myself as a skipper, I have only been a crew member (20 years ago when I came to MN from Venezuela). So, I decided, I will give it a try fixing it up, learn how to navigate and eventually take my wife and 2 young daughters sailing. - I can't find anywhere on the internet anything with the exact same shape, length, and/or make "Sundowner SSI" on it. It seems to me it looks like an early Contender. I would like to know because it needs some parts replaced, I want to know what to look for. I couldn't find a hull serial anywhere on it. The last registration it had in MN was to navigate for the years 1978-1980. Could anyone please shine some light? I will appreciate that. Here are the pictures I took. Thank you, Gracias!
 

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Interesting. Definitely not a Contender, nor any other international class boat. If it says "Sundowner", then it must be a Sundowner :D But seriously, when I get to my 1970s sailing magazines again (at the summer cottage 300 km away), I'll try to find out what a Sundowner was. The one you have looks clean and ready to go.

What markings are there on the sail?

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Thank you Lali, I really appreciate any help. I have searched for SunDowner SSI (dinghies) and had no luck. Maybe "Google" and "Yahoo" are deciding what I am trying to find. I followed your lead and just requested a couple of old hobby sailing books from the library. I hope there is something there. I will check the sail this weekend when I take her to the lake. Thank you
 
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Turned out that I have my number one source for obscure 1970s boats - the sailboats '74 supplement of Yacht Racing magazine - here at home, after all. Sad to say, the 333 dinghies it lists doesn't include a "Sundowner". I'll be searching for other material from that era in the near future, though, so I'll keep my eyes open.

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