2023 Sunfish Sailboat Review | Barcă din Campionatul Mondial de Lacul Garda

9 thoughts on “2023 Sunfish Sailboat Review | Barcă din Campionatul Mondial de Lacul Garda”

1. I like to say the same thing about boats as I do for motorcycles: the biggest competition a new Harley has is, …all the old Harleys still out there. Some guy out there grabbed old Sunfish molds and added an extension plug to lengthen them a tad, called it a whole new model of boat with a new name… nobody was buying that line. Was it worth that much extra money, over a slightly used real Sunfish? Most folks said; "no".

   Sunfish are rugged and uniform and fixable and they are darn near immortal, and good used ones are always going to be serious competition vs. new. The top quality difference I see in the Guarda boats is the air bags vs. foam blocks for weight but… the foam blocks also added stiffness to the hull, if installed well and kept tight. The air bags can't add any stiffening internally, so, did they add some other stiffening under the deck and along the hulls inside, at the factory, to keep the boat from oil-canning and flexing? Flexing hulls lose energy in racing. If they did add stiffeners, then that's a long term significant advantage. Most of the other features of the Guarda boats, frankly, IMO, while nice, you can put on your own current old used fish by making a few orders from Vela or the other vendors, and be dollars ahead, with parity performance.

   The thing that makes Sunfish racing so successful is that you really can't buy a win, just by upgrading the boat, very much; the Association keeps the boats fair across a wide range pf years so, as you say in your comments, Lee, it's not the boat; it's the sailor's skill that ultimately makes a win. And that's exactly how it should be, and what keeps the Sunfish -or any class – alive. I do get your comment about high end "racing" car owners who never go anywhere but shopping or work in their Porches and BMW's. My sense of it is, the great majority of Sunfish owners aren't that type. But I don't begrudge their existence; they keep the factory building new boats, after all, 🙂

2. Good review, but how many bags of gold for a Garda sunfish? I once had a, gentley used, ex world class boat , from another class. It was nice with plenty of bells and whistles. It didn't make me any faster, only experience and smarter sailing did. Could be a good investment if you plan to race in the class for a while. However, for the average racer, a good used hull with new sails, hardware and lines makes more sense.

3. Thanks Lee. I actually have ordered one of the boats. I originally owned a 1976 Phillips starfish but it was very heavy and turning to powder. I am excited to get my first Sunfish. Great to hear the end caps will be replaced from my vendor. Excellent review with good information.

4. Nice job Lee! How are the boats holding up after lots of hard racing? Have there been any issues with the hulls becoming soft?

5. We are very proud of your accomplishments.

6. Thanks for the info, Lee! I was wondering who got the new boats after watching your coverage of the world championships.

7. I received my 2023 Sunfish two weeks ago from Sunfish Direct . I have the original end caps , not the 3D .

8. Great, unbiased review Lee. I wonder what 3D filament was used on those end caps? For load-bearing parts we would have used PETG with fibers for strength. But on a mass-produced boat we would have paid the money for injection-molded parts. Do you think that shipping costs will affect the prices on the 2023 boats after Worlds in Ecuador? I sure would like one of these World's boats.

9. My performance goal for 2023 is to be SO GOOD that the weight of the ink on my sail is my final frontier. "If ONLY I had a pure white sail!!!"

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