The Standard Sailfish, Super Sailfish and wooden Sunfish were available as kits in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The wooden boats were also factory built. Check out the long coaming on the 1950s wooden Sunfish.
The Sailfish has a great insignia.
Specifications for the Alcort boats.
The kit boats came with several pages of instructions, and could be assembled with simple tools.
We have an offer from a nice couple to buy VICTORY, they hope to come hook her up soon and show her a new homeport in North Carolina. Details are being worked out and the plan is for her to take off in early August. We went out and told her the news, she was chillaxing with ST. JACQUES, MADISON, WAVE, PHOENIX and PINKY.
Our plan now is to make her a nice road cover for her trip, so she doesn't go down the road under a tarp or unadorned :)
Brushed on another coat of Kirby #4 Orange with a oil paint sash brush, pulled the tape. The paint flowed on smooth and leveled nicely. SUGAR 2 is ready for white bottom paint next.
Sanded for 4 hours, bottom hull is back to gelcoat now and old patches are cleaned up, ready for touch up paint.
Skipper came up with a great idea to hoist SUGAR 2 and flip her, then lower onto the dolly for a Float Test. It was incredibly easy to lift the boat and one person can roll the boat in the slings. Keep the lines about a third in so they don't slip off the ends.
Float Test. No major leaks, had a small seeper come from under the cockpit.
DId an air leak test on SUGAR 2 to track down the leak. Taped up the splashguard and inspection port holes, pumped low pressure compressed air into the hull through the forward bulkhead vent hole...that is AFTER Skipper discovered that someone had epoxied the hole closed. Found 3 small leaks, one 2 inch area on the keel, a small hole in the daggerboard trunk and a short section of the deck/hull seam.
Forward wall of daggerboard trunk, bottom of hull.
Added a 4 oz strip of fiberglass cloth to the keel, bedded in Pettit Flexpoxy.
Used half a paint stick to apply FLEXPOXY to the hole in the daggerboard trunk.
Back on the work dolly, rolled and tipped the second coat of Kirby #4 Orange.
We did some yard sailing for Father's Day and it was time to get ONKAHYE out for a little cruise. We planned to just launch and tie up, then sail later, but the winds were nice so we decided to sail for a bit.
Took some pictures for our upcoming knot book.
Anchor line.
Jib sheet.
Main halyard.
Side stay.
We still love the ease of the sliding gunter rig, easy to set up.
Every boat needs a pin rail.
Saw about 20 dolphin today, they circled us for a while.
We practiced beaching and dropped the hook for a while. ONKAHYE was well behaved.
LIFE Magazine put Alcort Sailboats on the map in 1949 when they published a photo article about the Standard Sailfish. At the time Alcort had sold just over 100 boats, sales took off and they built thousands of wooden and fiberglass sailboats into the 1980s. The Sailfish was phased out in the 1970s and their iconic Sunfish is still being built today by Laser Performance.
