Alcort Alcove

 02 Apr 22:

Since the wooden Alcort hulls had a new home, we decided to reunite them with their rudders and daggerboards.

1953 Alcort Sailfish 12 WINNIE. Later called the Standard Sailfish. The daggerboard on the far left, bottom, is her original 31 inch daggerboard. We upgraded her to a 39 inch board from a 1965 fiberglass Sunfish, and she tracks and tacks better as a result.

1953 wooden Alcort Sunfish ZIP. Her upgraded daggerboard is from the 1980s, a larger and longer "Barrington" board developed by the Barrington Frostbiters, and she sails better with a 1960s era spoon tip rudder. Also in the photo are the rudder and leeboards for our 1960s Grumman 17 SCOUT.

Rudder and daggerboard video: https://youtu.be/duW1QEhkCqk

Since we cleaned off some wall space in LEWIS BOAT WORKS, we hung up the Christmas yard art.

Current state of the tool trollies.

It's April! 

Sunfish Rudder and Daggerboard Specifications

 22 Dec 20:

Looking for a holiday project? Make a new rudder or daggerboard for your Sunfish or Sailfish.

3/4 inch stock required, 1x12 select #1 pine from Lowes or Home Depot would work, or check your Mom and Pop Lumber Stores or local mill for hardwoods like cypress or mahogany.

The 1980 daggerboard design is also known as the Barrington Board, developed by the Barrington Frostbiters. It works well on any Sunfish or Sailfish. The 1993 board is made from a plastic type material, and at 44 inches it is too big for Sailfish and wooden Sunfish. That extra 4 inches presents challenges when launching and beaching for mess abouts, the boom can snag when the board is raised and cause capsizes on the beach. Makes for great pictures though. 40 inches is plenty for recreational sailing.

ZIP's original 1953 "Elephant Ear" Rudder and "Spoon Tip" 31 inch daggerboard on the left compared to her upgraded 1960s "Spoon Tip" rudder and 1980s 40 inch "Barrington" Daggerboard. She points and tacks much better with more blade in the water. 

AMF Sunfish Parts New Old Stock

02 Nov 17:

Bought some AMF Sunfish parts from ebay, a couple of nice daggerboards. One was the spoon tip sold from the early 60s until 1972, and the other was a Barrington board sold from the 80s until the late 90s, it was new old stock and still had its box! We also scored some boom caps, a deck drain assembly and a halyard still in their AMF bags.

Madison and Zip Day Sail; Spar Interlocking Hardware Repair

Took Madison and Zip out for a day sail today, winds 8-10 knots, water and air temp 72 degrees.

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

Zip had to have the spar interlocking hardware repaired, the bronze lower eye failed on the original hardware. Jim Reineck manufactured a new lower tab and eye and attached the original upper tab and eye. It looks great and worked perfectly.

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

The dolly is perfect to move Zip around, the wooden hull weighs about 145 pounds alone, without the rig.

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

Securing the main halyard.

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

Nice breeze heading out.

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

Having fun.

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

Zip sails better with the 2nd generation rudder, longer and thinner than the early Elephant Ear rudders. This rudder is the same rudder used on the Super Sailfish MKII, early 1960s.

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

We used a daggerboard from our 1965 Sunfish Wave, it is about 11 inches longer than the original board. Zip turned on the dime with the longer board.

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

Daggerboard Retainer Bungee

New boats come with an 8 foot bungee that hooks through the bow handle and a hole in the daggerboard. The bungee pulls the board diagonally and wedges it in the dagerboard trunk, so that it can be positioned at various heights for different points of sail. The bungee also kees the daggerboard from floating away after a capsize. We are adapting our older boats with a bungee that hooks to the board and wraps around the mast. Materials used are 1/4 inch shock cord and shock cord hooks from West Marine.

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

A collar slides over the shock cord first, then the hooks go onto the end. I used vise grips and channel lock pliers to push the collar down over the hook, which seats teeth into the cord and holds it snug.

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

The cord puts tension on the daggerboard and holds it snug in the trunk. The board can now be raised up and down and it will stay where it is positioned.

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

This was my Uncle's, now pulling duty as a rigging bag.

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

Madison heads out to the Bay.

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

Sunfish Zip's New Sail

Zip the wooden Sunfish got a new sail, cut by our local sailmaker Hunter at Schurr Sails. We wanted a heritage feel to the sail and Hunter did a great job incorporating some of the vintage features into a modern sail with a fuller draft. The sail is awesome but the original daggerboard is tiny tiny and the rudder is also too small for this powerful sail. The Skipper spent a lot of time today in the 12-15 knot puffs going sideways and having to roll tack to stay out of irons. What we will do for medium wind days is build up another rudder with old style hardware that uses the newer blade size and shape, and use one of the newer daggerboards like the shadow or Barrington board, depends on which vintage we can get at a decent price. The original rudder, daggerboard and vintage North Sail from Canada will be used on light wind, ghosting days.

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

Dagger board comparison, old wooden style on the left at 30 inches, than old style daggerboard for fiberglass boats at 39 inches, shadow board at 39 inches and template of latest racing board at 44 inches. Not shown is the Barrington board, which is similar to Shadow but not as tapered on trailing edge.

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

Rudder comparison, old wooden boat style rudder is not too much smaller than the latest style rudder but you lose a lot of bite from that rounded lower edge.

From Small Boat Restoration 2013

Madison was the chase ship today, ZIp's much younger sister.

From Small Boat Restoration 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

Sunfish Sailing

We wanted to test out an older sail and a swivel cam cleat that we installed on Wave. The sail, spars and mast came from a craigslist purchase, sail was made by Pensacola sailmaker Schurr Sails, probably in the mid 80s. Launched from the natural beach, Seitech dolly makes it easy. I push the dolly in far enough to see the boat float, then slide the boat a little further back so dolly can be pulled back onto the beach.

From Sunfish Sailboat Restoration

Today the wind was blowing down the shore, so I put the rudder down, jumped in, pushed off, put the daggerboard down about halfway and sheeted in. Mother Nature did the rest.

From Sunfish Sailboat Restoration

The sail looks nice with the medium blue deck on Wave. We also are getting used to using our new tiller extension.

From Sunfish Sailboat Restoration

Light winds equal great reflection shots.

From Sunfish Sailboat Restoration

Got past our sandbar, put the board all the way down. This is the shadow daggerboard and it has more area than the original 1965 board. I could feel a difference adjusting the board in deeper water. The sail set great and has a lot of life left in it.

From Sunfish Sailboat Restoration

From Sunfish Sailboat Restoration

Wind was light so there wasn't much hiking out :)

From Sunfish Sailboat Restoration

Had a great time!

From Sunfish Sailboat Restoration