Bill and hopefully Jax,

You are on home ground here so here goes th whole story:

The Sailfish was introduced in the mid fifties as a plywood boat. they
were 11'9" long and 3'4?" beam because marine plywood in 4*12 sheet was
relatively available (there were a whole of of wood boats being built).
They were available "ready to sail" or as a kit.

I have forgotten the name of the original builder, but he was in
Connecticut.

The boat was an instant hit - but it had a short coming. It did not
have enough bouyancy for two adults.

About the time Alcort bought the design, the Super Sailfish was
introduced. It had aluminum spars. The fiberglass version was anounced
shortly after that and boats were available as plywood kits or finished
plastic. Plastic were originally uncompetitive because they were too
limber and the bottom would "oil can". Alcort tried to stiffen it up
but added too much weight on the first try.

By the early sixties the class was starting to roll, but not well
received by many because the "boats were too tippy" and hard to hang on
to when heeled. This set Alcort to looking around.

There was a guy (on Long Island as I recall) building Sunfish in
plywood. He had tried to copy the sailfish but improve on it. So, he
added to the beam. He still had the "hang on problem. So, he want to
build a cockpit version that would have been a lot more cockpit, but but
the structural issues of plywood nixxed that. The three or five
(accounts vary) Sunfish with cockpits that were he made were all plywood.

This Alcort was looking around and they found the guy building Sunfish
in plywood. They took one back to the plant and came back and bought
the company (the next week -so the story was told). They were soon
producing both Super Sailfish and Sunfish in the same plant. Very
shortly, the Sailfish was only sold order to the few remaining that were
racing the class.

Almost everything was the same except the hull and the daggerboard.
Because the Sunfish hull was about three inches thicker, they added the
length to the board.

There were some interesting stories about people that got shipped
Sailfish with a Sunfish board. They could bang to weather, but if they
pulled the board up to where it could rock aft to run, then they could
not gybe without the boom catching on the board.

So Jax, if you actually have a Sunfish without a well (as we always
called it). Hang on to it.

Matt Colie (also the end of a line of wooden spar builders)



wrote:

On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 13:07:45 -0400, Matt Colie
wrote:


Well Jax,

You have got to tell us how you got a Sunfish without the footwell.

The only one ever build was a mismakenly built (too much beam) Sailfish.
It was plywood and so were all the Sunfish that he built to use the
Sailfish rig and other parts. Other people liked it, and still had
trouble staying on the board, so he built all the remainder with the
"cockpit" until Alcort bought the design from him and made them in plastic.

If it was made by Alcort, is plastic and has the less beam, then it is a
Sailfish (different class).

If it is plastic and has the 4'1" beam, then it is a knock-off made in
the mid ti late sixties by several comanies that are gone now.

Matt Colie (as a small boat sailor)
Lifelong Waterman, and Perpetual Sailor



Alcort made a plastic model called the "Super Sailfish", that was
essentially a Sunfish without the footwell. It used all the same
components, rigging and sails as the Sunfish.

Jax doesn't own any boats, and does not sail. If there was ever a
person needing a boat with "sissy" accessories or design features,
it's Jax.

BB



JAXAshby wrote:

Not being able to get
out on the water recently makes me obsessive.


do as I do, sail a Sunfish (the classic model without the sissy footwell). No
worry about fuel. :-)