Alcort Sunfish

Lateen · Daggerboard · 1952–present

Specifications

Dimensions

Weights

Rig & sail area

Rig

Lateen

Ratios

SA / displacement

47.0

Displacement / length

26.2

Comfort ratio

2.3

Capsize screening

3.25

Hull speed

4.8 kn

Pounds / inch immersion

190

Hull

Hull type

Daggerboard

Construction

Fiberglass

Production

Years built

1952–present

Units built

300000

Designer

Alexander Bryan, Cortland Heyniger, Carl Meinart

Builder

Alcort, AMF, Vanguard

Design & history

The Sunfish, first introduced as a fiberglass boat in 1960, became the most popular recreational sailboat in history, with many imitators. It has been built by a succession of builders from Alcort, Inc. through to current licensees.

Class · ISCA class legal boats built by Zim Sailing (2024 onward); SERO Innovation boats (2025) are not ISCA class legal.

Notable features

Originally offered as wood kits before fiberglass productionChange in class rules permitted a new, slightly deeper daggerboard in the mid-1990s

Variants

ZIM ISCA
SUNFISH (SERO Innovation)

Design

Earliest models were built of wood and offered as kits; the fiberglass version was first introduced in 1960.

Production

Builder chronology: 1952-1969 Alcort, Inc. (founded 1945); 1969-1986 AMF; 1986-1988 Loveless & DeGarmo dba Alcort Sailboats Inc.; 1988-1991 Pearson Yacht Co.; 1991-1997 Sunfish/Laser, Inc.; 1997-2007 Vanguard; 2007-2023 LaserPerformance; 2024 Zim Sailing licensed to build the only ISCA class legal Sunfish (ZIM ISCA); 2025 SERO Innovation licenses the Sunfish trademark and logo and exclusive rights to build the SUNFISH from LaserPerformance, though these boats are not ISCA class legal.

Curated reference notes

Not yet featured in any indexed video.