Images of caulking a seam often include specialized mallets and large caulking tools called irons, used to push large strands of cotton or aokum into an open seam between planks. Small boats have small seams, hopefully tight fit, so the tools used to caulk a seam are smaller. As the seam width gets smaller, so does the thickness of the caulking iron. ANd to avoid damaging a thin plank, very little force is used to force cotton into a seam. In the case of this seam, it is the perfect width for us to us a seam roller to ease the cotton into the seam. The iron used has a thickness of 1/16th inch, and the cotton strand is about 1/8th of a full strand. For any tighter of a seam we'll switch to cotton wicking, which is similar to a thick candle wick.
Continuing with hull repairs for SMEDLEY, we built up 4 oz fiberglass cloth to lay over the internal backer patches. We used about 4 layers of cloth per hole, with the idea to leave some room for fairing compound and then gelcoat to add to the thickness, hoping to arrive with a new surface that is flush with the original hull surface. We used TotalBoat THIXO Fast Cure thickened epoxy adhesive to wet out the cloth along with TotalBoat THIXO PRO to add some thickness to the new patch. Why Fast Cure? Because that is what we had. I would have preferred THIXO Low Viscosity to wet out the cloth layers, but we didn't have any.
As it turned out, the Fast Cure does tack up within minutes, which is not a bad thing when working on curved surfaces. We like thickened epoxies, they fill gaps and stay in place, unlike a thin, "straight" epoxy that can run down the side of a hole or out of a crack.
We laid out the 4 layers and wet them out. It is important to get the cloth completely soaked with resin, as any dry spots will fail or trap water at later dates.
Where we had installed internal backer patches earlier, we smoothed on a layer of THIXO PRO.
When the epoxy soaks in, the cloth will change appearance, it will be semi transparent.
We also smoothed a bit of THIXO PRO into the seam of the trial patch area. We like how we were able to make a repair inside and then reuse the cutout for the access hole. This are will need very little fairing and only a small amount of gelcoat.
SMall amout of THIXO PRO to smooth out some notches.
We had planned to paint over the repairs with epoxy based paint, but changed our mind to try a gelcoat coating, as per original factory design. Gelcoat is a polyester based system, think of it it as a thicker, harder paint. But polyester based systems will not stick to epoxy. The way we will get around that is by using a primer over the repair areas that works with both polyester and epoxy, the primer will act as a "bridge" between the two coating sytsems.
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The "new style" (since 1971) rudder assembly on the AMF/Alcort Sunfish attaches to a stainless steel gudgeon. It is held secure with 4 marine grade stainless, self tapping machine screws and washers. In the early days a small amount of marine adhesive was used, more recently larger amounts of 3M 5200 adhesive have been used, to the point where we question if the screws are even needed.
There is a secret inside the boat, an aluminum backer plate that spreads the load from the screws. Shown below is the plate that is shaped to fit over the cove on the transom where the old style rudder assembly carriage bolt used to be, the indentation shown in the picture above.
For some reason AMF/Alcort did not change the shape of their molds, they just kept making hulls with a cove on the transom for almost 20 more years. Then sometime in the late 1980s, possibly when ownership changed hands, the cove was finally flattened out, and the backer plate flattened as well.
We dug this plate out of the parts pile, it is headed off to Colorado!
Nice weather for a sail and a photo shoot, we took our 1981 AMF Sunfish named MADISON out for the first time on the James River. As mentioned in an earlier post, we had the boom set too low for our liking, so the first few photos are of Skipper going out and returning immediately so we could adjust the gooseneck.
Even sitting in the cockpit and ducking, the boom is still too low for a recreational sail. But we have nice wind and a few small waves. Winds were around 6-8 knots with a few puffs coming off of a rain shower about 15 miles distant. Mostly cloudy skies added to the pleasantness with the water temp at 82F and air temp at 75F, dewpoint 74F.
MADISON has been in the family since the late 1990s, she spent a bit of time teaching new sailors at Corpus Christi State University, and after being sold as surplus she found her way to Skipper's parents. We can't remember how and when, but she worked her way from the Texas Gulf Coast over to the Florida Gulf Coast, spending some time on Escambia Bay and then East Bay. Now here she is in the Mid-Atlantic region. Is she trying to get back to Waterbury, CT?
We slide the gooseneck well forward, maybe 16-18 inches from the forward end of the lower boom, which is a little further forward than our normal 19-21 inch setting. We could also tie the halyard 6-12 inches lower on the upper boom. But this setup got us sailing today, with decent lower boom clearance above the deck and the aft end of the lower boom angled up a bit. We like the lower boom set high, the way ALCORT shows in all of their advertising photos, but you may notice in other photos that modern day racers set the sail rig very low.
Image Credit: Ginnie Gilson Spofford Lake Sunfish Regatta July 13th, 2024
Anyway, we like what we call "The Geezer Rig." And check out our beautiful custom sail, made by Hunter and his crew at Schurr Sailing Pensacola.
Back to the beach. Low tide by the way, we used the dolly to roll the boat about 50 feet out before there was enough water to launch, even then we didn't have full clearance for the daggerboard. We like how the nose wheel rolled, so we didn't have to hold the bow the entire time. The dolly rolled so well that we had to turn it sideways to keep the dolly and boat from rolling back into the bay.
A few photos follow of a recreational rigged boat. At the top of the upper boom here, the tack of the sail, take notice of the outhaul line and that there is a sail ring on the last grommet, some folks forget to add that ring. The outhaul can be adjusted as desired, tight for high winds to depower the sail a bit, and loose for "loose" winds to add more cup or draft back to the sail.
On MADISON we have a long bungee run from the bow handle back to the daggerboard, the bungee's is to be a retaining line to keep the daggerboard from floating away after a capsize. The ideal length is to have just enough tension on the bungee so that the top of the daggerboard is pulled forward enough to keep it from sliding down into the trunk....for some folks...that is where I like it. The Skipper likes to have a loose retaining line, so she clips the bungee around the mast when she goes out.
We use a Sunfish snap shackle on one end of the bungee, so that we can easily unsnap to move or remove the line.
Skipper got becalmed last time she was out, for at least two minutes and twelve seconds, so she is going to start taking a paddle with her as entertainment. Here's one spot to stow it, another way is to slide the handle under the halyard. And many Sunfishers keep a shorter telescoping paddle in the cockpit. Also shown in this photo is how we like to stow the excess halyard. One last note about the sail and booms, it is easiest to put the sail, lower boom and upper boom on the port side of the mast so that the halyard can run free from the top of the mast down to the deck fairlead/bullseye. If the sail is on the starboard side, then there is a big mess of sail and booms to try and work around when raising or lowering the sail, and either you are reaching behind the sail to get to the halyard or if the halyrd runs outside of the booms, then it fouls the sail when the rig is raised. How to remember which side the sail and booms go to? One way is to remember is the "Right is Wrong" meaning sail on the right side is wrong :)
The daggerboard retaining line is attached to a daggerboard handle through a 1/4 inch hole that was drilled into the handle at the factory. The earliest daggerboards do not have this hole, because it took a while for folks to realize that it would be a good idea to keep the daggerboard from floating way, as it is needed to right the boat after a capsize. To right the boat, insert the daggerboard fully, swim around to the bottom side, push down on the end of the daggerboard to use it as a lever to get the boat rolling upright. Then grab the deck edge and haul yourself back aboard over the side, or over the stern.
Capn Jack always liked using a line bridle over the factory wire bridle, and he added a little block to clip a snap shackle to for the sheet. He liked the sound of the block going back and forth and the ease of the snap shackle over tying a bowline knot. There are many variation on this theme, one of which is using a bridle block to create a 2:1 purchase by starting the sheet on the lower boom, running the sheet down to a single bridle block, back up to the aft boom block, forward to the forward boom block and down to the cockpit, where another slew of variations happens with open fairleads or swivel cam cleats or stand up ratchet blocks or...FWIW MADSION has a swivel cam cleat (factory) which I use, but Skipper likes the sheet coming right off of the boom straight to her hands, she don't need no stinkin fairleads and will be the first to tell us to never cleat a dinghy sheet.
AMF Alcort Division. The 1/8 inch hole above the cockpit bulkhead sticker is a hull vent, do not plug it. Without the vent, air inside the hull will heat up, expand and create enough volume to pop a deck/hull seam or pull internal foam blocks loose.
The original Cool Cat AMF cubby cooler...
Did we mention how much we like the nosewheel?
MADISON in the foreground and our photship CLARK lounging on the beach.
Field Trials with the trailer winch were a success, operated by the Trailer Wench aka Skipper aka Dock Line Wench and Galley Wench.
We are also very happy with the Railblaza C-Tug kayak cart.
650 Cold Cranking Amps for the winch is plenty, as is 100 minute reserve. The winch motor has to be cooled 14 minutes for every 45 seconds of cranking, we assume this means when pulling a full 2000 pound load.
To replace a bow handle on older Sunfish (1960-1988 mostly) there is a trick. The screws go into a wooden backer block beneath the deck, that is held in place by adhesive and a strip of fiberglass. If the wood block adhesive or the fiberglass strip have come loose, then the block may fall down IF ALL OF THE SCREWS ARE REMOVED AT THE SAME TIME. So the trick is to leave one screw on the old handle snug, swivel the old handle to the side, and then get one screw started in the new handle. Once the new handle's screw is into the wooden block, take the old handle's screw out and finish attaching the new handle.
