Showing posts with label Sunfish sailboat restoration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sunfish sailboat restoration. Show all posts

Monday, September 9, 2013

Sunfish Work Cradle and Sawhorses

We rebuilt the sawhorses that came with Zip using cedar, pine and cypress. They were on their last legs, no pun intended :)

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

We also made a cradle that would hold the sawhorses and a boat, that way we can move the boat from storage to work area to garage as needed.

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Yankee Driver Ratcheting Screwdriver

I saw the old wooden Sunfish Kit building instructions and the person building the boat had a nice ratcheting screwdriver, so I wanted one. Went to Sears and picked up a Yankee Driver, it works great! I was going to change out bow handle on the wooden Sunfish but the new one is a little different, so I kept old one on and will look to see if I can get it rechromed.



The driver required help getting a screw loose, but once it started it worked great, and it did a good job driving screws, saved time over regular screwdriver and had a better touch than an electric drill. Check out youtube video

Next I'll get a bow tie:)

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Wooden Sunfish Gooseneck

Our wooden Sunfish Zip's spars had the same gooseneck as the current ships. We have seen another wooden Sunfish in the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum that has a leather yoke vs metal gooseneck, so we are not sure what is prototypical.

From Small Boat Restoration

From Small Boat Restoration

The gooseneck on Zip was shimmed, and underneath is a hole drilled all the way through the boom. We removed the metal shims and put two layers of gaff tape on the spar to protect the wood.

From Small Boat Restoration

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Splashguard (coaming) for Merci and Gaff Tape

Got a box in the mail a few days back, what could it be?

From Small Boat Restoration

It's a coaming for Merci, purchase from ebay for about half the cost of new, shipping included. There are a few holes that need repair but Marine Tex will take care of that.

From Small Boat Restoration

Merci will be blue and yellow, so I put a base coat of yellow spray Rustoleum on. This will help identify areas that need epoxy putty to seal cracks or low spots in fiberglass.

From Small Boat Restoration

Gaff Tape, some of the coolest tape ever. It is made of fabric so that can be shaped, and the adhesive does not leave a residue like other tapes. It is used by the entertainment industry to temporarily tape down cables on stages. I like to use it to protect spars, a cushion for wood to wood contact, ex keeping the tiller or interlocking hardware on Zip from scraping deck or between yoke and spar. It probably developed from use of similar materials aboard sailing vessels, it would be good when whipping rigging. Speaking of sailing, i found it interesting sailors used to work at theaters when in port because they knew how to work all of the rigging for the stage. The back stage of a theatre looks a lot like a sailing ship, and I've been told the language is much similar :)

From Small Boat Restoration

Heron fishing from top of dock.

From Small Boat Restoration

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Wooden Sunfish Zip Bridle, Bow Line and Daggerboard Retainer Upgrade



Working on the bridle. 3 loop bridle was a near capsize disaster.

From Small Boat Restoration

Cut a line just a bit longer than the stern is wide, leave excess for figure eights or stop knots.

From Small Boat Restoration

We like to use clip mainsheet to a block, it seems to glide easier.
From Small Boat Restoration

Made a bow line so Zip doesn't get loose at the saloon.

From Small Boat Restoration

Added a daggerboard retainer line,clip and eyestrap, don't want to be chasing that if there is a capsize.

From Small Boat Restoration

2nd day of Summer comes to a glorious end.

From Small Boat Restoration

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Bud sails again!

Brought Bud back from Sail Monkey Garage, trailer works great. Time to put in the bailer!

From Sunfish Sailboat

Float test, no leaks

From Sunfish Sailboat

Skipper took Bud out for a test sail, wind was perfect to get off the beach

From Sunfish Sailboat

Wind picked up offshore, Bud surfed along nicely

From Sunfish Sailboat

From Sunfish Sailboat

From Sunfish Sailboat





Friday, March 22, 2013

Stripes and hardware

Installed the coaming, it screwed back in pretty easy. I was able to press 4 seized up screws with rivnuts back into original holes and seal with epoxy

From Sunfish Sailboat

Gudgeon, backer plate and hardware

From Sunfish Sailboat

Gudgeon installed, with a bit of silicone around the screw holes

From Sunfish Sailboat

Both wooden backer blocks for the eyestraps had fallen off. I had to dig through some foam on each side to find them, luckily they had not gone too far. I put some silicone on them, flipped them around, held them in place while Jack drilled a pilot hole. Then we dropped in a screw, put on the bridle and put in remaining screw. That was a satisfying sound to hear them snug up to the deck when we tightened them

From Sunfish Sailboat

Jack puts in the inspection port for the first time. We had to take it back out in order to have more room when the backer block issue arose. Plus the hardware was goofed up, I had some stop nuts that were the wrong size. I grabbed them from the bin at the hardware store without checking ALL of them. I normally do, but I was rushed because I was last customer in store. Also remember to pick up a few extra, in case something gets lost in hull

From Sunfish Sailboat

Her is the rig we plan to use. Sail, mast and spars came from Craigslist, the sail matches new color

From Sunfish Sailboat

Put another coat of paint on the stripes today then pulled off the tape. Also installed bow handle, halyard block and halyard cleat

From Sunfish Sailboat

This Sunfish is ready to go!

From Sunfish Sailboat

New bridle and inspection port, reinstalled with new hardware

From Sunfish Sailboat

Aft deck stripes and cockpit. We left the vintage AMF Alcort sticker

From Sunfish Sailboat