What exactly is a Flite 12 ?

I

isleofwightlen

Member
Hi ..... I've been offered a Minifish/Sunfish for $300 , but when i looked at the photographs the seller e-mailed , it is a Flite 12 , or at least it has small decals in it which say Flite 12.
It looks like a MiniFish without the self-bailer , but i was just curious that someone could shed some light on what a Flite 12 actually is ..... Is it an inferior or cheaper clone/copy/lookalike ? Who made it etc ?

Thanks ,

Len
 
isleofwightlen said:
Hi ..... I've been offered a Minifish/Sunfish for $300 , but when i looked at the photographs the seller e-mailed , it is a Flite 12 , or at least it has small decals in it which say Flite 12.
It looks like a MiniFish without the self-bailer , but i was just curious that someone could shed some light on what a Flite 12 actually is ..... Is it an inferior or cheaper clone/copy/lookalike ? Who made it etc ?

Thanks ,

Len
Click to expand...


I don't know, but boats with similar names are

AMFlite and Windflite

Both are "clonefish" originally manufactured by AMF. The Yahoo Sunfish group has a number of people knowledgeable about older Sunfish-like boats and you might want to ask your question over there:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sunfish_sailor/
Once you sign in, you can search the files section for "clonefish". There are pictures as well; perhaps one of them matches.
 
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The Minifish and Flite 12 were both AMF products.

Sunfish_Sailor has a setup guide for the Windflite and Flite 12. If you compare this to the Minifish setup guide also found at that web site you can see the pictures AMF used are exactly the same ones.

Early Minifish also did not have a cockpit bailer.

There has been speculation the Flite boats were made for chain department stores to sell. It's also been said the Flite products were developed so stores too near an established Sunfish dealer could sell a similar boat without territory infringement.


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