my newest toy...
 

I just picked up my 1965 Alcort Sunfish sailboat. The lower hull is off-white, the upper is aqua with no stripe. It has the old-style rudder and is in good condition. It's sitting on the rustiest little trailer I've ever seen, with little 8 inch wheels on it. I think the trailer is going to need more repair and restoration than the boat itself. Anybody here play with tiny little boats?

How's the sail. The material is subject to rot. Most of the money is in the sail. :)

The sail looks great. OEM sails run about $300, aftermarket sails that can't be used in races run $200ish. Our club bought a bunch of sails in bulk for $85 each, just for daily use.

Way cool, Dave. I have had the pleasure of sailing an AMF Force 5 for a couple of summers, and a ZUMA for equal amount of time. The Zuma was new, modern and loads of fun, while the force 5 had a bit of "Weather helm" which made it a bit mild in the handling department. Both were approximately 10' waterline, and could carry 2 people "comfortably".

That sounds like a really cool boat. Congrats.

Just a thought, I found out the hard way that buying a new galvanized trailer for $350 for my little 13" Boston Whaler was much cheaper than fixing the old one. After I spent over $150 on new tires and wheel bearings, the axle snapped in half sitting in the driveway(salt water boats are a pain). A bare axle was $175 without U bolts, so I just bought a new trailer and kept the wheel/hub/tire combo's as spares.

Buy a set of extra wide thule racks for your cherokee and a wind-surfing mast cradle if you don't have to move it around much. If you are at a club, why not put it on saw horses? I understand needing a trailer if you are going to race it at other events.

In the bathtub....

Way too cool. Man that brings back memories. They were the boat to have back then. I'm sure you will have a ball with it. I was in one 3 times, wind died 3 times, paddled back in 3 times and that was it for me. And it wasn't like we were close to shore when we started paddling either...:D :D

I'm not even sure what that is. Any pics?

I wouldn't mess with the trailer, little galvinized trailers can be had for under $300. IMHO in salt water even a new steel trailer is worth its weight for scrap.

Lots of pics on this website

http://www.sunfishsailboats.com/

How to sail
 

I've watched people sailing those all my life. Is it hard to learn? It does look like fun. They seem small enough that it seems they'd be fairly manageable even for a neophyte.

I went to the sailing club meeting and the lesson consisted of " you can't sail straight into the wind, you have to tack side to side". Then they pushed me out onto the lake. On a 75 acre lake you just can't get into too much trouble and with a small boat with simple rigging there's not much to it. I have a 12 year old autistic son who sails by himself.

Oh its a sunfish! Those are made not to far from me, fun little boats.

I used to teach kids how to sail, well I shouldn't say that. I used to attempt in a 4 week period to teach them how to sail. We never got advanced like wing on wing, or anything like that.:D You can't really teach someone how to sail in that short of time, but they can make the boat move along pretty well.

It takes years to learn how to sail, the best boat to learn on is something like a JY15. The Sunfish are fun to mess around with, and learn the bare bone basics. But you would be quickly lost on anything else. The JY's are nice because they have a main, jib, and basic control lines. Like an outhual and vang, and can even fly a spinniker. So you get a good taste, on a very forgiving boat. Once you get a handle on that crew! Racers are always looking for crew and if your young they will train you! That is the best way to learn how, and it doesn't cost a dime. :D

Now if you really want to get confused try to sail a Schooner, or Brigantine. A Brigantine is.:dizzy2: Schooner not so bad, just a bunch of work to get all the sails out.

It's also not my newest toy anymore...I "won?!" the auction on a 1987 Toyota Cressida today for $127.50. Nice interior, hail damage and some rust...for that I can either do a quick fluff and cheap paint and turn it or just part it...it shares a drivetrain with the Supra of that era.

You'd have to be pretty advanced indeed to sail a sunfish wing and wing.....sincin it don't got a jib:silly: