Tips & Tricks

The Sunfish is the most popular boat ever produced. Millions of people have learned to sail and enjoy the water on the Sunfish. Sunfish have explored quiet lakes, planed across lagoons, and sailed in big ocean swells. For over 40 years there has been no better way to play on the water.  

This section provides you with a variety on information about the Sunfish. Just click on one of these index items below:

INDEX

• Tuning the Sunfish sail

• Sunfish sailing technique

• Performance of Sunfish vs. other sailing boats

• History of the Sunfish

• Sailing computer games

Tuning the Sunfish sail

Your Sunfish sail should be configured to local wind conditions. This holds especially when you sail in Aruba. The position of the gooseneck (i.e. the copper ring connecting the mast and the boom) is the single most important item in tuning the sail. In light wind conditions the gooseneck position should be moved forward. This lifts the back end of the boom and moves the sail triangle backward so that it captures higher winds. In heavy wind conditions the gooseneck position should be moved backward. This causes the boom to become more horizontal and moves the sail triangle forward providing better stability.

The following table provides and overview of the optimal gooseneck position based on wind speeds:

The second most important item in tuning the sail is the position of the halyard (i.e. the position on the upper spar where you tie the halyard line which upholds the sail). The upper spar displays of a number of sections marked by the Sunfish sail clips. The basic position of the halyard is to tie it in the 9^th section from below (i.e. note that this corresponds to the 5^th section from above).

• In light air conditions, the halyard should be tied at the top of the 9^th section from below (i.e. just below the sail clip).

•  In medium air conditions, the halyard should be tied one to two inches down from the top of the 9^th section.

•  In medium air conditions, the halyard should be tied two to three inches down from the top of the 9^th section.

The reason for this configuration is that the free end of the spar should be longer in heavy wind so that it can spill more excess power.

A complete Sunfish rigging guide can be downloaded (7 MB) from the manufacturer’s website: http://www.teamvanguard.com/2007/Boats/Sunfish/Rigging/Sunfish_Rigging.pdf

Sunfish sailing technique

The Sunfish provides great stability making it ideal for Aruba’s coastal waters. The Sunfish sails easy due to its simplicity of having to handle only one sail and one sheet. However, to be competitive in a Sunfish it is key that you learn to master sailing technique. This page provides an overview of the basic principles.

Windward sailing technique

Finding the right groove

Going to windward you will be concentrating on making your Sunfish go as fast as possible. The fastest way to sail is to have the sail itself working as closely as possible to a perfect airfoil. The simple rule to remember is that the sail should be out as far as it will go without luffing. If a sail is pulled in too far, it will stall. Stalled, a sail feels like it is pulling you sideways.

The competitive Sunfish sailor always tries to find the right groove going to windward. The groove will always be a little different, depending on the combination of wind and waves. But it is always there – the right combination of pinching and footing. Pinching is sailing as close to the wind as possible. Footing is cracking off from that pinched position by a few degrees to gain a little extra speed. The best sailors are those who can snuggle up as close to wind as possible and still keep their boats moving well.

The key to effective pinching is avoiding either a stalled sail of a stalled board. On boats like the Sunfish, with too little board or keel, one can sail so close to the wind that the board stalls and that the boat starts sliding to leeward. To pinch effectively in a Sunfish, you must learn to sail on a razor’s edge. Footing allows for greater margin of error, although this is usually not as fast a way to get to the windward mark. The new racing daggerboard lets you pinch a little closer than the old one did, although the perfect groove is still quite narrow.

Going to windward, obviously at all times, you should strive to keep your Sunfish flat. This means hiking out during strong winds and using the weight of your body to balance the boat. Under most conditions you should try to keep the leeward bottom of the Sunfish flat when going to windward.

Dealing with wind shifts

Going to windward, when the wind shifts so that you can sail closer to the upwind mark, you have sailed into a lift. The right thing to do is to steer higher and benefit from the wind shift.

A header is the opposite – in this case the wind shifts so that it forces you to sail lower and away from the mark. The right thing, by far, to do is to tack whenever you encounter a header. But you have to figure out if the shift is for real. In some conditions, the wind will shift in fairly predictable patters. In other conditions, the wind will shift sharply for a second or two before slipping back to its original direction. If that happens and you have already tacked it becomes a very costly maneuver. So it pays to study the wind, and decide how long you should wait, after being headed, before tacking.

Dealing with waves

In waves, you are constantly either sailing uphill or downhill, and as the waves get larger you have to pay more and more attention to them and less and less to the direction of the wind. Usually it is best to take a rather zigzag course through the waves, trying always to go through the low spots.

It might seem logical to bear off and gain speed going up the wave and pinch up as gravity helps you down a wave. However, the opposite is usually the best. I.e. you pinch up a little going uphill, and foot off and gain speed going downhill. On of the reasons is that as you go up the hill, you slow down, and the winds strength is translated into greater heel and less forward movement. And heeling is the one thing you don’t want to do much going to windward. Moreover, you want to spend as little time on the upside of the wave as possible. So the best technique seems to be to get up as much speed as possible going downhill and head up going up the wave.

Downwind sailing technique

When sailing downwind in a Sunfish you may experience a big lever effect as the boat tries to turn to windward. This is case if the boat is flat and the sail is out, placing the center of effort of the sail leeward of the centerline of the boat. Counteracting this with the rudder causes extreme pressure on the tiller as the rudder drags trough the water at a permanent angle. The resulting weather helm slows down the boat substantially.

To sail downwind effectively in a Sunfish you should heel the boat to windward. You should heel almost to the point of capsizing, with the seat of your pants often touching the water. There are two reasons for doing this. First, the center of effort of the sail is kept over the boat. That way, the sail is not a huge lever trying to make the boat round up to windward. The second reason is that heeling reduces the wetted surface, reducing hull drag and increasing your speed.

Going downwind and heeled to windward in a Sunfish may seem like an unstable position. And it gets so more as the wind and waves pick up. But is it actually more stable once you get used to it. An experienced sailor can even steer the Sunfish downwind without the rudder by using his body weight and balance. The more you can steer with your body, using the degree of boat heel to change direction, the straighter you can keep the rudder and avoiding it to drag at an angle though the water.

Performance of Sunfish vs. other sailing boats

Due to its flat bottom and single sail the Sunfish is not the fastest one design boat around. Over the years many other one design boats have been introduced although these are not as comfortable to sail in Aruba’s coastal waters.  

The performance of Sunfish versus other boats can be expressed through the SW-rating system. The SW system is a simple handicap system which is based on experience figures and not on any measurements. The SW system works with several correction factors which strive to eliminate the speed differences between boat designs. The SW system provides a reliable comparison of the boats under light to medium air conditions.

The imaginary reference boat for the SW system has handicap rating 100. The Sunfish has an SW rating of 120. The table below provides an overview of how much faster other boats need to sail to deliver similar performance at a Sunfish trip time of one hour. 

History of the Sunfish

The sunfish has its roots planted firmly in 1947 in Waterbury, Connecticut. Friends Alexander “Al” Bryan and Cortlandt “Cort” Heyniger (the Al and Cort in Alcort) pondered, “How to put a sail on a surfboard?” The answer involved a rejected design for American Red Cross waterfront rescue surfboards, leading to the Sailfish - a lateen rigged, flat-decked, plywood marvel. In 1951, Bryan's pregnant wife found its flat deck somewhat uncomfortable. The addition of a cockpit and widening of the hull created the Sunfish. The logo was created by Heyniger, who traced a nickel and added fins, the tail and an eye. Early wood Sailfish and Sunfish were available assembled or as kits.

In 1959 the introduction of fiberglass and the low cost and ease of production led to the proliferation of Sunfish everywhere. Other improvements included aluminum spars replacing spruce, Dacron sails replacing cotton, ash replacing mahogany for tillers, resulting in increased speed, performance and reliability. Sunfish racing started almost as quickly as two or three boats came together - the first North American Championship was 1963, the first Midwinters was 1965. Bryan and Heyniger sold “Alcort Sailboats” to American Machine and Foundry Company (AMF) in 1969.

AMF/Alcort Division hired Steve Baker, and later Lee Parks, to organize events and racing leading to establishment of a Class Association. For almost 20 years Sunfish racing and AMF/Alcort were synonymous. In 1971 the original brass rudder fittings were replaced by the spring-loaded kickup system developed for the Minifish. Two daggerboard shapes were introduced in the 1970's: the “new” style, which was swept back, had less area, and proved unpopular with racers, and the “Barrington” style, developed by the frostbite fleet, which proved equally popular as the original “round” style. As the Class matured, it applied to the then - International Yacht Racing Union and gained International Class status on January 1, 1984.

In mid-1985, Irwin Jacobs of Minstar Corporation of Minneapolis, Minnesota, bought AMF, intending to spin Alcort off, and saw no benefit in continuing to support the Class organization. On July 18, 1985 the International Sunfish Class Association assumed Class management from the manufacturer. On Febrruary 14, 1986 David Loveless and Jerry DeGarmo purchased the business, naming it Alcort Sailboats, Inc.

In October, 1986, Alcort Sailboats, Inc., agreed to work with Hans Fogh, then with North Sails, to develop a consistent and ultimate sail shape. At the same time, ultimate dagger board and rudder shape development was launched. In 1988 Loveless and Degarmo sold the company to Pearson Yachts of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, led by J. Gordon Clayton. Pearson acquired rights to the Laser separately.

On September 19, 1988, Pearson introduced the current hull design, featuring: a 3-1/2" wider and 1/4" longer cockpit; a rolled flange replacing riveted aluminum rails; non-skid on the deck on either side of the cockpit; and a standard hiking strap. By January, 1989, today's aerodynamic Racing sail was approved. It is approximately 10% larger in area with shaping fullness, has a 20% bigger window, a Cunningham cringle, is made of longer-lived and more evenly stretching cloth, and reduced equipment differences. the dagger board had further design attention in 1989. In 1991, Pearson filed for bankruptcy protection. SunfishLaser, Inc., led by Peter Johnstone, was formed in 1991 from the small boats assets of Pearson, with primary funding from North Marine Group, parent company of North Sails.

Production control implemented by “SLI” resulted in hull weight consistency of 128-130 pounds. On January 1, 1994, today's 3-3/4" longer and foil shaped dagger board debuted. It is liked for being forgiving to bad tacks, quicker, with less side slipping, at a cost of the sailor having to work a little harder in a breeze. This saved racers from constant build up and refinishing of wooden boards to get them up to tolerances. Sail America inducted the Sunfish into The American Sailboat Hall of Fame in 1995 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.” In March 1997, Sunfish Laser, Inc. sold the Sunfish to Vanguard Sailboats, Inc., led by Chip Johns and Steve Clark.

Vanguard works on quality control and cooperation with the Class to this day. In 2001, with over 300,000 boats worldwide, the Sunfish's 50th birthday was celebrated at Newport, Rhode Island. An out-of-the-box Sunfish was sailed at the regatta to the win. The rudder remains in development.

The International Class organization continues its development. Sunfish gained Pan American Games status in 1999, repeated in 2003, and is back for 2007. This is causing development in Pan American countries. In 2005, the International Masters was held in Netherlands, outside the United States for the first time. There are three continental and nine national championships regularly. Junior sailing remains big - the 2005 Junior North Americans had over 20 boats and Colombia's Junior Championship had over 50 boats. Efforts are ongoing for events for cruisers and racers alike, including a continuing commitment to an annual World Championship. Sunfish sailors say dedicated to “fun in the sun!” - Gail M. Turluck