Restoration of a Super Sunfish

Recently, I've been spending a lot of time down in Ft. Myers with Alaina and her family. Her dad is really into sailing and has a handful of boats ranging from a small Sunfish to Gulfstar 41. I actually had no idea they had a Sunfish until I found it behind a tree, overturned, where it had apparently sat for over a decade. Luckily it was in the shade and the fiberglass was still decent and the sail was kept indoors. However, there were roots growing in and around the hull (some had even found their way through the hull/deck joint), all the lines had to be replaced, the hardware was a complete mess and the rudder, daggerboard and tiller were all faded and cracked. Here is what she looked like after I turned her over and dragged it up to the house:

So, first things first. Alaina started with a pressure washer:

Next, she tackled the sailing hardware:

In the meantime I tried to get the hand trailer out of a tree that had actually grown around it. A few strokes of Alan's chainsaw made quick work of it:

Next I worked on refinishing and repairing the rudder, tiller and daggerboard. The wood was faded, the varnish was yellow and there were a few cracks. Here is a picture with the untreated daggerboard on the left and the sanded rudder on the right:

After sanding came filling the cracks with epoxy, a few coats of varnish and then reassembling the whole thing:

Once that was dried and set, all that was left was replacing some new running rigging, putting the mast up and setting sail! I really like this first picture of Alaina, she looks so natural at the helm.