South Atlantic Yacht Racing Association

SUNFISH

History

1945: Waterbury, CT. “Al” Bryan and “Cort” Heyniger form “Al-Cort”, or “Alcort, Inc.” They fitted a sail, rudder and daggerboard on a surfboard to produce the “Sailfish” - a lateen rigged, flat-decked, plywood marvel.

1949: The Sailfish is featured in Life magazine as the “world’s wettest, sportiest boat.”

1952: With the additon of a cockpit and wider, deeper hull, the legendary “Sunfish” was born. The logo is created by Heyniger, who traced a nickel and added fins and a tail. The early plywood Sunfish was available assembled or as kits.

1959: Fiberglass construction leads to an explosion in Sunfish popularity. Other major improvements quickly follow, including aluminum spars (replacing spruce) and Dacron sails (replacing cotton). The Sunfish brand, colorful and simple, was officially on fire.

1984: Sunfish achieves International Class status

1995: Credited with over 250,000 boats produced, the Sunfish is inducted into the American Sailboat Hall of Fame in recognition of “a boat that has earned lasting recognition by fostering new enjoyment and growth in the sport of sailing through excellent design and production ingenuity.”

Changes and One-Design

Over these decades, several significant design improvements are made, usually coinciding with changes in the Sunfish brand ownership/manufacturer.

1971: AMF introduces the current rudder design and upgraded, spring-loaded rudder kickup system.

1988: Pearson Yachts creates the current hull topside design, featuring a wider cockpit and a strong rolled flange hull-deck joint.

1989: Pearson Yachts approves the current racing sail, designed by Hans Fogh. It is approximately 10% larger in area due to fullness. The powerful sail is soon followed, no surprise, by the addition of hiking straps on production boats.

1994: Sunfish-Laser, Inc. debuts today’s longer, stronger foil shaped composite daggerboard - a good match for the more powerful racing sail introduced earlier.

2001: With over 300,000 boats worldwide, the Sunfish's 50th birthday is celebrated at Newport, Rhode Island. An out-of-the-box Sunfish wins the regatta.

2005: Vangard produces a fiberglass version of the rudder.

One design? About as one-design as it gets. No shaping of the hull or foils is permitted and everybody uses the same sail from the same manufacturer. It’s just you, and everybody else, in the same boat.

Major Championships

Sunfish racing begins when as few as two or three boats come together because it is just pure fun. Sunfish racing is everywhere east of the Rockies. Major championships are established and the beat goes on in other countries and continents as well. The World Championships are a treat. Everybody sails the same, new, out-of-the-box boats fresh from production. Major regattas and their inception year make an impressive list:

· 1963 - North Americans

· 1965 – Midwinters (which today is also the US Nationals)

· 1966 – Junior North Americans

· 1970 – Worlds

· 1978 – Women’s North Americans

· 1978 – International Masters

· 1987 – US Masters

· 1999 (every 4 years) – Pan American Games

· 2010 – World Youths

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2010 Worlds at Punta Ala, Tuscany, Italy

Today, the International Sunfish Class Association is composed of over 20 member nations, with continental championships in Noth America, South America / Carribean, and Europe. For many years now, Sunfish class growth has been most dramatic in South America and the Carribean.

SAYRA and the SOUTHEAST

The US Sunfish Class Association is composed of 9 regions and about 1500 members. Racing is active within SAYRA and the Sunfish Class Southeast Region. The two areas coincide, covering GA,SC, and NC. Our regional membership may be small (about 100), but our talent is strong. Among the 29 first-round U.S. qualifiers to the most recent World championships, there were 9 from the Southeast / SAYRA, and 8 of those were from Charleston Fleet 226.

Some of the active fleets in the Southeast include:

Augusta, GA

Beaufort, SC

Charleston, SC

Columbia, SC

Lake Norman, NC

New Bern, NC

Savannah, GA

Wrightsville Beach, NC

From April to November, there are over 20 annual regattas in the SAYRA / Southeast region. This includes an annual Regional Championship that rotates between several locations, and the winner takes home a first-round spot at the next World Championship. Additionally, Charleston SC has hosted many major championships: North Americans (4x), Junior North Americans (4x), Womens North Americans, US Masters, and a World Championship.

Success

Though much focus is made here on Sunfish racing, the real success of the Sunfish, hands down, is in recreational sailing. Competitors make up only a small percentage of Sunfish owners. The Sunfish is the most popular recreational sailboat in history. Its unmatched stability and incredibly simple and easy rigging are enjoyed by all ages. The lightweight hull easily travels on car top or small trailer.

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Sir Paul McCartney (Beatles) and First-Mate in Antigua

Since the Sunfish, there have been many ‘clonefish’, but none has been able overcome the foothold on the market held by the Sunfish. It’s tough to improve on something when simplicity and basics are the trademarks of success. Today, countless successful veteran yachtsmen of every flavor can trace their roots back to learning the basics of sailing on a Sunfish.

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Old Boats, Getting Aboard and Other Opinions

I observed Paul Foerster (multiple time Olympic sailor) win the 2006 North Americans in an old boat from the mid-1970's. The hull was ugly as hell, a faded international orange hull with a puke yellow deck, but it was very stiff. Apparently he decided that the stiff hull was worth the extra few pounds of weight. Over the decades, the published hull weight has dropped from #139 to #120. IMHO, Older boats (30 and even 40+ years) were better-built and a little stiffer (and heavier) than newer boats (20 years or less), BUT they are just that - OLD. If not cared for and/or heavily used, they do wear out with hull damage and/or internal structural damage. I think the oldest boats, the originals built by ALCORT in the 1960's before they were acquired by AMF, were probably the best. Today, you can get aboard an old Sunfish, go out there and compete with the best of them. It’s not too difficult to find an old Sunfish – they are everywhere!

One of the unique aspects of a Sunfish, for reasons that seem to confound everyone, is the broad competitive weight range relative to other boats. From 100# to 200#, you can get in a ‘fish and be competitive in nearly all weather conditions. Lightweights in light air, and Heavyweights in heavy air, still have some advantage but the gap is narrow. IMHO, the sail’s low center of effort (CE) and flexible lateen rig has everything to do with this. In light conditions, heavyweights benefit from the deep draft sail. In heavy conditions, lightweights can manipulate the flexible aluminum upper and lower spars to depower the rig. The adjustable gooseneck on the lateen rig also allows for movement of the sail’s CE to balance the helm in a way not available to other boats.

Other sail control innovations and improvements over the years have made the situation even better. By simply adding a few lines to the existing rigging, an outhaul, Cunningham, boom vang, uphaul, “Jens” rig, and even a small reef system have been devised.

The “Jens” rig, dubbed for its creator Jens Hookanson, is unique to the Sunfish. He devised a method of adjusting the point where the upper spar meets the mast while simultaneously keeping the sail entire sail plan low to the deck. The longer length of upper spar, above the mast, allows for more flexibility and better control as the wind pipes up. It is a popular, even necessary, innovation for lightweights to this day. Hookanson proved it’s worth, winning the heavy-weather 1976 North Americans as a lightweight.

In a blow, the stable, boxy Sunfish hull with its unique rig is a delight to sail. I often tell stories of confused-looking Laser sailors as I pass them going upwind in 20 plus winds. When you think about it, it makes sense. A Sunfish can bring more sail area into play when it’s smokin’.

On a personal note, I grew up on the Sunfish along with 4 younger sibblings. Our parents got a Sunfish for each one of us (“Red Baron”, “Blue Max”, “Charlie Brown”, “Peanuts”, and “Lucy”). The Whitehurst Sunfish Fleet #295 (still active today), on a custom built 5 boat trailer, traveled to regattas in a 9 passenger Chevy Van dubbed “Chatterbox” for good reason. To this day, 5 or more boats can form an official fleet.

Resources

http://www.sunfishclass.org/

http://www.sunfishforum.com/

http://na.laserperformance.com/sunfish/home

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sunfish_sailor/

Rick Whitehurst, USA #12942

US Sunfish Class Representative

Southeast Region

US #12942 “Bad to the Bone”