Very creative. Not sure if you found out yet, but PVC pipe gets very brittle when exposed to sunlight. A coat of paint will slow down that process. Great job!
great DIY video. I'm in the same boat no pun intended with a rudderless sunfish. This is a great option for those of us on a tight budget. Now can you make a sail and mast from melted and shaped PVC. Just kidding. Thanks!
Thanks. Yeah the cost for even a used Sunfish rudder/tiller was pretty high. I use the boat in very protected areas so I didn't need anything overly beefy. The PVC is pretty strong although even using plywood in its place would work fine. Best of luck.
Hey! Really appreciate your video. I work for a nonprofit summer camp that runs a lot of sunfish. I was wondering if you might share your plans with me? We are tight every year on money, and I think this could really save us in the long run. Let us put more boats in the water and spend money elsewhere that needs it.
Hi Josh. I think that's great you're working with a summer camp to help people get into sailing. I wish I had some plans for you - this project was kinda just built on the fly. The measurements in the video printout were just taken from stock sunfish numbers online. There's a lot of flexibility in the design, I'm sure you could tinker with it and make it even better. If you do go forward with it let me know how it goes.
drez20001 I've started to tinker with plans of my own. There are a few things I'm thinking about altering. The first is rounding the pvc plates to allow for a bolt to pass through the rudder to which springs can be attached as per the original sunfish rudder cheek. The second spring bolt would pass through in the corner of the wooden plate aft of the two bolts holding it together. The spring setup is great for beginners because they have a tendency to run into things, and the rudder needs to pop up to prevent damage- they barely have time to pull the daggerboard up as is. Your shockcord system would work, but I want the rigging and de-rigging process identical per boat, and there is no way I'm going to replace forty of these in the short time I have before campers arrive. We moor our boats, too, so I need to alter something to allow for the rudder to come more out of the water. First thoughts were to round the top of the rudder more, and have the tiller attach a bit higher up... All conceptual so far, I haven't put anything on paper. I was also wondering how well these have held up so far? And if you didn't have a heat gun, how would you heat the PVC?
Sounds like a great start. To warm up the PVC a heat gun is nice to have. They're really cheap too. Harbor Freight sells them for around $15 or less. Might be able to use a good hair dryer on high but I haven't tried that. Having the rudders kick up easily and almost automatically makes a lot of sense for new sailors. Rounding the plates is a good idea too.
Please would you consider your construction of the dagger board, I traded for one of these Sunfish and just like you, and all's I got was hulls, thanks Johnny b.
I will say nice job BUT I have to say ,having made a few Sunfish rudders and daggerboards, that if time is worth money at all than I'd just spend my time making a nice new hardwood rudder and buy the rudder cheek assembly for 70 bucks. It will also make the boat you bought worth much more money.
Hi there, I'm making a 6'x8' raft for a summer project, using medium sized blue barrels for buoyancy. I was wondering what dimensions (i.e. how big) you think a rudder of your design should be to ensure my raft will respond adequately to the rudder. Thanks, and great video!!
Thanks. I used it for a while a few years ago, worked great, and it has been stored in my basement for a couple years. So it's still in great shape! For a fast and cheap system it's a good way to go. Thanks for your comments.
