Design and Early History
Sailfish as a trade name for a board boat appeared in 1945, and the design was the work of Alcort, Inc., a company whose name joined the founders Alex Bryan and Cortlandt Heyniger. Early boats were offered as plans for the backyard builder or as fully assembled boats from the Alcort shop. In those first years a do-it-yourself builder crafted every piece, formed hardware from raw stock, and even sewed a sail. Shop-built boats instead received a sail through Old Town Canoe Co. made by Ratsey & Lapthorn; Alcort later had that sailmaker produce a Sailfish-specific sail and kept them as provider until 1979. Not long after introduction the company broadened reach with a kit containing pre-cut pieces, sail, and hardware.
Construction and Models
The line spanned two lengths: the 11' 7½" Standard Sailfish and the 13' 7" Super Sailfish. Wooden hulls were planked with A-A exterior Douglas fir plywood or Harborite marine plywood, the latter a plastic-surfaced fir plywood developed as an improvement on plain plywood. In 1959 Alcort advanced the hollow-body concept with the fiberglass Super Sailfish, named the MK-II, which became the most popular model and the one most sailors simply recall as the "Sailfish." The MK-II added an aluminum mast and spars, and its deck came in red, white, blue, green, and yellow with a five-panel Dacron sail in alternating colors to match. The extra inch of its 13' 8" length came from the flange bonding deck and hull bottom as one. Alcort dropped factory-assembled wood models soon after the fiberglass boat arrived.
Rig and Sailing Character
The Sailfish carries a shallow-draft, sit-upon hull with a distinctive low-aspect-ratio lateen sail on an un-stayed mast, giving it a squat look beside modern Bermuda-rig boats. That lateen rig shifts the advantage to light air and also gives good downwind characteristics. With only two lines of rigging and the lateen sail, it was one of the easiest boats to learn fundamentals on. Early spars were Sitka spruce with silk sails; historic photos show sails with up to ten panels and small battens, lashed by marlin hitch rather than later plastic clips. By the late 1950s buyers could choose nylon or Dacron in red or blue alongside white. A patented rudder release automatically laid the blade horizontal for beaching.
Accommodations and Use
There are no cabins or berths; the Sailfish is a sit-upon board boat with minimal freeboard. That low freeboard earns it the "wet boat" label, as the sailor is often splashed by spray moving across water. It is a single-sailor trainer and day boat rather than a cruiser, and its simplicity is the point.
Known Issues and Later Changes
Little changed in the six years after the MK-II except a 1972 rudder-blade reshape to the streamlined Sunfish profile; the bronze rudder hardware of the waning Sailfish stayed as before while Sunfish got new hardware. AMF bought Alcort in 1969, kept the name for its boat division, and discontinued the Sailfish in 1975.
The Verdict
The Sailfish is a pure expression of learn-to-sail simplicity: a lateen-rigged board boat whose light-air and downwind manners, two-line rigging, and automatic beaching rudder made it a benchmark trainer. Its wooden and fiberglass variants chart a neat arc from backyard kits to molded color-matched production.
Pros
- Un-stayed lateen rig with two-line setup ideal for beginners
- Strong light-air and downwind performance for a board boat
- Patented rudder release eases beaching
- Available as plans, kit, or assembled boat across its early run
Cons
- Minimal freeboard keeps the sailor wet in spray
- Bronze rudder hardware not updated when blade was reshaped in 1972
- No accommodations; strictly a sit-upon day boat
