Sunday, November 11, 2012

Sunfish Frankenboat; The Solar Fish

Drawn to all things just different, I couldn't pass up taking photos of this modified Sunfish, the Solar Fish, that showed up at the 2012 Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival. Very ingenious. It was designed to be a sit-in, non-hiking day sailor with a small cabin. I took a quick once-over on shore but didn't have a chance to talk to the owner/builder. Some features that were apparent in my quick glance over were;

  • Furling sail.
  • Solar panel that fed a small trolling motor (the motor seemed to double as a rudder as well.)
  • A very nautical looking cabin.
  • What looked to be a wooden anchor bowsprit fitting (but I didn't see an anchor).

The Sunfish sported Ohio registration numbers. There seems to be a large number of retired machinists from the now-gone heavy industry factories of Ohio that seem to love hacking into various projects.


The Solar Fish made it out for a sail-about before the sailing race but didn't participate, instead smartly returning to shore under power, ignoring the contrary wind blowing off the Museum shores.



A side on view of the Solar Fish under sail..



Two photos on the trailer.





at

4 comments:

  1. my2fishNovember 14, 2012 at 4:34 AM

    wow, that thing is just bizarre! it sure seems like there could have been better options to start from if he was looking to make a boat like that.

    do you mind if I post one of your pictures of that boat and a link back to here on my Sunfish sailing blog?

    cheers, my2fish

    ReplyDelete
  2. TweezermanNovember 14, 2012 at 12:42 PM

    My2Fish - take whatever you need with my pleasure. I raid the Internet for content all the time and am happy to oblige one of my favorite bloggers.

    ReplyDelete
  3. my2fishNovember 14, 2012 at 1:03 PM

    Tweezerman, well thank you kindly.

    I raid the ol' net all the time, too... but I usually like to ask if it's someone I know.

    thanks again.

    ReplyDelete
  4. RupertNovember 20, 2012 at 2:17 AM

    Usually with such things the choice of boat is governed by what is lying around, rather than by logic.

    Love the thinking behind it.

    ReplyDelete