sunfish at sixty

EastBayRI.com has a great article by Bruce Burdett posted right now about the Sunfish sailboat and it’s manufacturer in Portsmouth, Rhode Island: Sunfish at sixty: Most popular boat ever still keeps them busy at Portsmouth plant

The little Sunfish, far and away the most popular sailboat ever built, just turned 60 and they’re still churning them out at the rate of four a day at LaserPerformance in Portsmouth.

HT: @LaserPerform

10 things about a Sunfish

Laser Performance, the current manufacturer of the Sunfish, Laser (& other sailboats) has started to promote a new community for it’s various sailboats – called Laser Performance United (LPU).  I recently joined the LPU International Sunfish Union (ISU), and have begun to receive their new weekly email, the “Rhumbline”.  this week’s email was focused on the Sunfish – celebrating it’s 60th year, and LPU has put together a pretty neat “top 10″ list of facts about the Sunfish sailboat:

Our U.S. (Portsmouth RI) factory runs on a ten hour day – we can pull a boat per day per mold from our Sunfish build team.

Nine sail clips down when attaching the Main Halyard, the rule of thumb is to go between the ninth and tenth sail ring (counting from the tack of the sail upward).

Approximately Eight kilograms of Gel coat go into the Sunfish hull.

ISCA (International Sunfish Class Association) has had seven presidents – Paul-Jon Patin currently holds the office.

The sunfish has had six builders in its lifetime ( Alcort, AMF Alcort, Pearson, SunfishLaser, Vanguard, and LaserPerformance).

Five Cents (a Nickel) was used to draw one of the most iconic logos in Sailing.

The Sunfish is actively sailed on four continents: North America, South America, Europe & Asia.

The construction of the Sunfish Hull comes from three parts (Deck, Hull, and Cockpit Tub).

Two major evolution’s of the Sunfish Hull – wood to fiberglass and a flat deck to a cut out cockpit.

Hailed by Fortune Magazine as one of America’s 25 Best Designed Products.

you can find out more about the LPU and it’s various parts here or on their Facebook page.

cold air sunfish racing [video]

here is another video of frostbiting at Barrington Yacht Club in Rhode Island.  this one is edited down nicely and is much shorter, only about 2 minutes long, but catches a lot of the action out on the water.

HT: @MYCSunfishFleet

frostbiting with Bill [videos]

here are (2) videos from just a few days ago of Bill Brangiforte sailing his Sunfish for the Frostbiting at Barrington Yacht Club in Rhode Island.  both videos are of a full race, so they are about 15 minutes long (each!).  I just recently posted Bill’s “Words of Wisdom” from his racing experience at the 2012 Sunfish Worlds.

race 1

race 2 – about 2 minutes or so into this race, as Bill is tacking his mainsheet snags on his life jacket, and he comes pretty close to tipping over!

HT: @MYCSunfishFleet

old world vs. new world

here’s a sweet photo from the America’s Cup World Series racing that just wrapped up a little bit ago in Newport, Rhode Island.

© Photo Guilain GRENIER / ORACLE TEAM USA

with an interesting description of the photo from the America’s Cup website:

a meeting of new world wingsail cat and old world lateen-rigged one-design

HT: Wavedancer at SailingForums.com

America’s Cup sailing on NBC this Sunday

this Sunday afternoon – July 1st at 2:30pm on NBC, you can watch some of the America’s Cup World Series sailboat racing from Newport, Rhode Island.

this will be the fleet and match racing final championships, so a lot is at stake for the sailing teams.  currently Oracle Team USA’s team captained by James Spithill holds a slim 4-point lead over Emirates Team New Zealand.

photo by © Gilles Martin-Raget / ACEA

you can read more about the racing and the events going on in Rhode Island at the America’s Cup Newport website.

plan your day around it, set your DVR, or use an old-school VHS tape to record it – sailing isn’t on network TV much, so you should take advantage of it while you can!