Sunfish Worlds 1971

By Pete Smyth

The ubiquitous Sunfish has the popular image of being a simple-minded sort of boat that almost anyone can get aborad and sail. That much is true. Hoverver, getting aboard one of the 75k plus Sunfish and sailing it well is something else again. This was made clear at the Second World’s championship of the Sunfish class, held in mid-february on the sun-soaked and windswept coast of venezuela.

Dick Lawson, a member of gretet II’s crew who happened to be on vacation in the Caribbean was invited to become an impromptu representative of his country in the championship. I asked him if he was getting the hang of making a Sunfish go. He replied: “I haven’t a clue! It’s harder than it looks”.