Trimmed the toe rail a bit to fit for the bow handle. The wooden Alcort bow handles have a tab that wraps the bow, and another strip attaches below and wraps the keel.
Keel strip wraps back about 16 inches.
Attached mast collar with #8 silicone bronze screws, drilled a pilot hole that matched the screw shank diameter and a countersink for the head of the screw. Attached the halyard cleat with the vintage Alcort bronze screws.
Drilled pilot holes and attached eyestraps with vintage Alcort bronze screws.
We like line bridles, the original boat would have had a 2 loop or 3 loop plastic coated wire bridle. 2 loop bridles are the standard today on new boats.
Attached the bow line and splashguard. Splashguard functions more as a handhold or foot rest.
Picked up the sheet, halyard, bridle and bow line from West Marine, New England Sta-Set.
Trimmed the bottom panel edge with a flush cut metal blade on a DeWalt multi oscillating tool, used the metal blade because I needed the flush cut. Trimmed it as close as I dared then finished with a Stanley #5 jack plane and light passes with a Black and Decker belt sander. Sanded the fairing compound with 60 grit on a DeWalt random orbital sander
The rub strip is rotten in one spot so we will scarf in a new strip. We started by cutting out the bad part, eyeballed a 45 degree cut and made it with the oscillating tool. The bow is to the left, so we angled the forward end of the scarf so it would overlap aft....
...and angled the aft scarf so the rub strip will overlay it.
Peekaboo.
The wooden Sailfish and Sunfish have a stainless rub strip that wraps from the tab on the bow handle, around the stem and aft 18 inches. Speaking of bow handle, it is different than the fiberglass boats that do not have the tab, or the keel strip. We used the rub strip off of our wooden Sunfish CHIP as a guide, ZSA ZSA's was missing so we need to order a new piece of 1/2 inch, half oval strip. To fit the metal rub strip with used a 3/4 inch long handle hand chisel to bevel down the wooden keel strip, and cleaned that up with the jack plane.
Sanded with 60 grit and ready for primer.
We applied TotalBoat Topside Primer, rolled the bottom with a Mighty Mini Roller kit and brushed the sides with a Redtree Fooler chip brush.
Worked on the sprit rigging, to figure out where to place blocks and how to attach the peak of the sail to the sprit. Lot of pictures.
Edged the rudder with a spokeshave and 120 grit on a random orbital sander. Cut the tiller from cypress.
Rigged the spritsail brailing line. Used vintage Sunfish hardware.
Rigged the upper and lower sprit. Block will lead the snotter down to a belaying pin for easy access.
Bow line and rudder uphaul.
Sprit snotter set nicely.
Bow line and sprit details.
Brail line works great.
First sail went great. We slipped the brail line and the sail set beautifully. While we were out we found out that the rudder and centerboard floated and would not stay down. We also checked several different sheeting angles and determined that it would be best to lead the sheet aft to a line traveler. And Skipper suggested that the tiller be able to move up a bit, so we can duck under it while tacking.
Centerboard downhaul.
Line traveler, the sheet is tied to the clew and runs back through a block, then forward to the Skipper. We also notched the top section of the rudder head and made a pivot point for the tiller, so it can raise about 18 inches now.
Rudder uphaul v1.0. We found that this line was too bumpy and made too many sharp turns. We moved the lower eyestrap to the side and added shackles to each eyestrap. And put on a smooth 1/8 inch nylon line. Skipper still has to give the rudder a nudge down but it pulls down nicely after that and the line is jam cleated.
