I’ve had the hankering for an old Sunfish type of sailboat for quite some time now. I learned to sail on a Sunfish when I was ten years old. Being from a heavily lake populated area in Minnesota you know there are dozens of old boats lying around. It’s just a matter of finding them. Last week I was browsing through the newspaper classifieds (the old fashioned way) and came across an ad stating “2-13′ sailboats. $250″. My phone call was answered by a gentleman who described these two boats he purchased in the 60′s for his kids. One red and one sea green. “They would race them across Lake Minnewaska” he said. “Everything’s there, the sails are good and they’re easy to use”.

I decided to snag them. I had a friend pick them up for me and upon receiving them was a bit worried about some of the gelcoat cracking. I decided to regel/epoxy them and then sand them down and repaint. I painted the sea green one a fresh blue color for my son and the old faded red one I painted close to the original color of a shiny deep red. The great thing about these boats is the retro design. They have a blend of Cadillac influenced rear “Fins” with 57 Chevy lines on the side.

Check out the fins

My Daughter loves her’s too. Being 4 and 5 years old I wondered how they’d adapt to the sailboats. Both of them hopped right on and within a couple of hours I was onboard with them taking turns running the sail and tiller. I assisted with coming about but they could probably do it themselves. I’m impressed!

The seller was able to find his original sales flyer for the boats pictured here.