Specifications Under Current Rules
Number of crew 1 LOA 4200 mm 13 ft 9in Beam 1200 mm 4 ft 1in Hull weight (with fittings) 59 kg 130 lb Sail Area of total of Main Sail 7 m² 75 ft. A sail is any type of surface intended to generate Thrust by being placed in a Wind &mdashin essence a vertically-oriented Wing. sq.

A recreationally rigged Sunfish sailing on Long Island Sound

A race rigged Sunfish racing on Irondequoit Bay, NY. Long Island Sound is an Estuary of the Atlantic Ocean and various Rivers in the United States that lies between the coast of Connecticut Irondequoit Bay is a large Body of water located in northeastern Monroe County, New York. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous The rig is carried lower to the deck and additional lines are added to control sail shape.

The Sunfish dinghy is a popular one-design sailing dinghy which was developed in the 1950s. One-Design is a Racing method where all Vehicles or Boats have identical or very similar designs or models Dinghy sailing is the activity of Sailing small boats by using (1 the Sails and (2 underwater foils ( Daggerboard or Centreboard The 1950s Decade refers to the years of 1950 to 1959 inclusive It can be sailed with one, two, or three persons, but is most often sailed singlehanded (one person). At 13 feet 9 inches (4. 2 m) in length and 130 lb (59 kg) in weight, the Sunfish is easily carried in a luggage rack or a light trailer. The Sunfish is used as a day sailer or a racing boat, with over 1000 racing events every year worldwide. A day sailer or dayboat is a small Sailboat without sleeping accommodations but which is larger than a Dinghy.

Key to the Sunfish's success are simplicity and low cost. A Sunfish can be sailed using only a single line (the sheet) and the tiller. In Sailing, a sheet is a line ( Rope, Cable or Chain) used to control the moveable corner(s of a Sail. A tiller or till is a Lever attached to a Rudder post (American terminology or Rudder stock (English terminology of a boat in order to provide A second line (the halyard) is used to raise and lower the sail. In Sailing, a halyard or halliard is a line ( Rope) that is used to hoist (pull up a Sail, a Flag or a yard. A Sunfish setup for racing will typically add outhaul, cunningham, a gooseneck quick-release adjuster, and vang lines. An outhaul is a line which is part of the Running rigging of a Sailboat, which is used to extend a Sail, and control the shape of the curve of the In Sailing, a cunningham or cunningham's eye is a type of Downhaul used on a Bermuda rigged sailboat to change the shape of a sail The gooseneck is the Swivel connection on a Sailboat by which the boom attaches to the mast. A boom vang (US or kicking strap (UK is a line or piston system on a Sailboat used to exert downward force on the boom and thus control the shape The lateen sail is fixed to the spars and is stored by simply wrapping the sail around the spars, or by rolling the sail up parallel to the spars. A lateen (from a la trina, meaning triangular or latin-rig is a triangular Sail set on a long yard mounted at an angle on the mast In Sailing, a spar is also know as a round pole of wood or Metal used on a Sailing ship.

A single person can easily handle the Sunfish. The "board boat" design, with its small, self bailing cockpit, resists swamping. The boat can carry up to 3 small people. The wide, hard-chined hull allows it to plane and achieve a Portsmouth handicap of 99. The Portsmouth Yardstick (PY or Portsmouth handicap scheme is a system of Handicapping used in Yacht racing. 6, which is very low for a boat of its size. A new Sunfish costs about US$3395-$3820[1], with older used models in working condition going for under US$500. Because of its low cost and simplicity (it is often regarded as the simplest boat to sail, and is widely used for teaching sailing) it is also perhaps the most popular sailboat class ever designed; over 500,000 Sunfish have been built.

The Sunfish was inducted into the American Sailboat Hall of Fame in 1995. The American Sailboat Hall of Fame was established in 1994 by Sail America to recognize ingenuity in designs by American boat builders

The great popularity of the Sunfish has led to many imitators; Starfish, Aquafin, Phantom, and Big Fish are all boats virtually identical to the Sunfish.

Racing

There are regional, continental and world championships every year. Recently, the XXXVII Sunfish World Championship was held in New Jersey with Sebastian ¨Chan" Mera, from the Dominican Republic, as the new champion . The Dominican Republic ( Spanish: República Dominicana;) is a nation located in the Caribbean region and shares the island of Hispaniola with ^[1] South American, North American and European championships are very popular among Sunfish racers. South America is a Continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a

History

In the 1940s, Cortlandt Heyniger and Alex Byran created a company. The 1940s decade ran from 1940 to 1949 Events and trends The 1940s was a period between the radical 1930s and the conservative 1950s which also leads the period to be They used their names to form the portmanteau Alcort, the company name. (The name Cortlandt is often misspelled Cortland, but authoritative sources use the Cortlandt spelling. [2])

Alcort's first sailboat was the Sailfish. Introduced in 1945 according to The Sunfish Bible by Will White, it was similar to a large wooden surfboard with a sail, a rudder and a daggerboard. Year 1945 ( MCMXLV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar Surfboards are elongated platforms used in the sport of Surfing. It was available in either finished or kit form.

Carl Meinelt - one of Alcort's first employees - created the classic shape of the Sunfish in 1951 as a wooden kit boat. By 1959, hulls were being commercially produced in molded fiberglass composite. Fiberglass (also called fibreglass and glass fibre see Spelling differences) is material made from extremely fine Fibers of Glass. Over the years, rights to produce Sunfish have been held successively by Alcort, Inc. (1951-1969), AMF/Alcort division (1969-1986), Alcort Sailboats, Inc. *, (1986-1988), Pearson Sailing Yachts (1988-1991), Sunfish/Laser, Inc. (1991-1997), Vanguard (1997-2007), and LaserPerformance (2007-Present).

• Alcort Sailboats, Inc. was not affiliated with the founding company, Alcort, Inc.

The class became popular for racing in the 1960s and 1970s. The 1960s decade refers to the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969 This article is about the Decade 1970-1979 For the Year 1970 see 1970. A Class Association was established by AMF/Alcort in 1969 and it became the International Sunfish Class Association (ISCA) in 1984 with official recognition by the International Yacht Racing Union (now the International Sailing Federation). The International Sailing Federation (ISAF is the world governing body for the sport of Sailing, particularly yacht, dinghy, Windsurfing and

Major Changes

The boat changed in 1972 with the change to the current rudder attachment, switching to a design that would not release under sailing strain. This change identifies more modern boats.

In 1970 AMF began manufacturing the AMFlite and later (post-1972) the Windflite and licenced sales to alternate dealers as a similar hull using the same fittings and equipment as Sunfish. The alternate hulls employed the rounded over style hull to deck bond used in the current Sunfish design.

Super Sunfish

Launching a Super Sunfish on Shinnecock Bay

AMF manufactured a variation of the Sunfish, called the Super Sunfish from 1976 to 1980. A Super Sunfish consists of essentially the same hull rigged with a sail, mast and boom more similar in size and design to a Laser Sailboat. An additional bit of rigging in the cockpit for pulling in the sail, and a few rigging points attached to the splash guard are all the modifications made to the hull. The sail, mast and boom are completely different from and share no common parts with that of the standard Sunfish.

The Super Sunfish was available as a complete package, as well as a modification kit to be applied to a standard Sunfish.

The Super Sunfish's larger sail area gives it a speed boost over the much more common standard Sunfish. It is also a bit more complicated and takes more time to rig. The Super Sunfish is not as fast in the water as a Laser due to the difference in hull shape, but at the same time is more stable and less likely to capsize in the hands of a novice sailor for the same reason. As such it is an interesting and rare hybrid/compromise between the two boats.

References

External links

• International Sunfish Class Association
• Manufacturer's website
• The Sunfish Forum - Sunfish News, Discussion, and classified ads
• Sunfish manual covering 1955 to current production boats.
• Owner's Support Group Sunfish, Sailfish, and "Clone-fish". Download Library of Repair Diagrams, Setup Guides, and Historical Information.
• Sunfish Racing Class Netherlands, Sunfishklasse Nederland