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See also: Regatta Reports 2004-2007 | Regatta Reports 2001 - 2003
Sonar Sails
Report by Brian Hayes Sonar Long Island Sound Championships- Noroton Yacht Club, Darien, CT (26 boats) I thought I had stumbled into the wrong event when I arrived at the Sonar LIS Championships as the parking lot was full of sailors that are familiar to many but not to Sonar sailors. Strolling about were Pete McChessney, Russ Silvestri, Ed Adams and a host of other top sailors who all came to Noroton to get in some Sonar practice for the upcoming NYYC qualification series for their fall invitational. Add to these names the likes of Sonar greats Peter Galloway, Steve Shepstone, Skip Shumway and a list of many others and the event was looking to shape up to quite a battle. The visitors did not disappoint as McChessney and Silvestri found themselves in the top 2 spots on Saturday evening with a 1,2 and a 2,3 respectively. However, our team of Craig Sinclair, Peter Wilson, Carolyn Wilson and myself were right on their heels with a 5,1. After a long wait for breeze Sunday the NYC committee was able to squeeze in 2 challenging races. With McChesney finding some difficulty finding open lanes in the tight fleet and Silvestri out of the picture as an early withdraw due to time constraints our team posted a 3,1 to win the event by 18 points. In 2nd was Pete McChessney followed by North customer Ed Sweeney, who sailed an awesome series as well with 3 top 4 finishes. North 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th!!! For complete information on North Sonar sails contact our Experts.
Sonar Sails
Report by Brian Hayes This past weekend I attended the Sonar Tappan Zee Challenge held at Nyack Boat Club on the Hudson River. The conditions were as good as can be hoped for on the Hudson in May for the 19 teams with moderate temps and a strong, shifty NW all weekend that kept teams on their toes and featured a few wipeouts downwind and sail flogging upwind. I was presented a unique opportunity for this regatta to crew for 2 different teams, one on Saturday and another on Sunday. While I had hoped to drive my own boat with my own team I decided instead to take advantage of this offer as it presented a fun challenge for me. My Saturday team consisted of 3 sixteen year olds from the Nyack Boat Club. The Nyack Fleet is hoping to establish a stronger youth base of sailors and the team I was with on Saturday is the start of this plan. Dan, Brandon and Alexandra greeted me on the dock Saturday morning next to Dan’s pride and joy. Sonar #102 (using sail #7) is, shall we say, a classic. An older boat built by the long defunct Ryder Boat Co. with an original mast and, close to, original sails (although the spinnaker may have been original!). Dan’s dad Mike “rescued” the boat from a yard just before they were going to cut it up. While the boat was the oldest in the fleet by several years the crew was excited to learn and so we pushed off the dock towards the river in a very puffy, shifty NW breeze. Dan, my skipper, was the most experienced with a few seasons of frostbiting and some natural ability. While not a product of any sailing program Dan loves to sailboat race. Brandon, our bow, is still getting wet behind the ears but a terrific kid and enjoys being on the water. Alexandra was our 4th and, while she had some big boat experience in her homeland of Denmark, her time on dinghies was very limited/non-existent. We spent the first part of our sail out discussing who was doing what. As we were greeted with the 1st 20 knot puff Dan mentioned, “You’ll fly the spinnaker, right? We don’t really have much practice with that.” Gulp! The plan was start clear of everyone and work on making old #102 go as fast as possible while teaching the kids some/all of the nuances of Sonar sailing. After a clear start we headed left and worked on driving, feathering, working the traveler, feathering, looking for puffs, feathering, trimming, feathering, etc.. A tack onto port and a nice lift and the kids find themselves in 6th at the top mark! Excitement, joy and pride beamed from Dan’s face. A challenging run finds us losing a few boats and a good 2nd beat finds us passing a few to round the final weather mark in 3rd. Ahead of World, North American, area and fleet champions! ½ way down the run the 2nd place boat wiped out and lost a crew (or skipper) overboard and the team on #102 finds themselves in 2nd place with only a few hundred yards to the finish but the fleet is charging in from behind with a big puff. Trying to protect the left, then the right finds us cross the line in 4th. A high point of the weekend for my teenage team. Smiles, laughs and a general feeling of accomplishment swept over the team like they had just won a Worlds and nearly every boat in the fleet sailed by to congratulate the kids and probably try to figure out how that old boat beat them! It was cool and fun to see and certainly the pure feeling of doing well, or better than you think you can, that the team felt was a sight that I have not had the good fortune to witness in quite a while. The rest of Saturday was more challenging. The more seasoned teams began to shake the rust off and sharper crew work and newer equipment began to rise to the top. We made mistakes and did 720’s, hit a few marks (3 to be exact along with hooking one on the rudder) and, while the results weren’t bad (11,11,16) the first race glory was not to be repeated and Team 102 found themselves solidly entrenched in 9th place after day 1. Sunday brought a perfect day with warmer temperatures, a bit less breeze and a far more “seasoned” team. My crewmates on Sunday were to be Dan’s dad Mike, his boat partner Jack and their crew Nancy. My team was now (at least) 3 time older than Saturdays (probably closer to 4 times!). My Sunday team was far more experienced and the Nyack Sonar fleet defending Champs. Mike is a former Thistle sailor who just got back into sailing a few years ago when he moved back to the NYC area with his family and has experience and drives well. Jack is a longtime Sonar sailor and fleet sparkplug at Nyack. He partnered with Mike a few years back to form a good solid team. Nancy is a longtime Nyack sailor who Mike has known for decades. Together they make up a team that is, perhaps, more Odd Couple (or Odd Triplets) than Alignhi but a nicer group of people you’ll never meet. Like Saturday our best race for the team was the 1st one on Sunday where Mike kept the boat going fast, driving good lines and avoiding “slow down” situations. The last run found us in 5th but a favorable shift and some good driving on a few waves found us surge past 2 boats (including a past World Champion!) to finish 3rd. Less luck in the next few races had the “veteran” team take a 6,8 to finish the regatta in 7th overall. Mike and his team were thrilled to be the top Nyack boat but perhaps even more excited that Dan and team #102 held on to finish 11th and end up as the 2nd place Nyack boat while just missing beating out several USMMA teams that featured USMMA sailing team members. Overall the results showed Skip Shumway winning the 2010 Tappan Zee Challenge followed closely by runner-up Lee Morrison of Noroton with North customer Alex Meleney in 3rd. Steve Shepstone followed in 4th and US Paralympic Team member and North customer Ric Doerr rounded out the top 5. All in all a fun and challenging weekend. The kids did great considering the condition of the equipment they are using and the “veterans” showed that experience trumps youth. The challenges of using older sails becomes very apparent when sailing against teams newer sails and this point was not lost by my teammates. It was great to support the local Nyack fleet and I hope to be back later this summer as the fleet has asked about a speed clinic now that they saw what we could do with old #102.
For complete information on North Sonar sails contact our Experts. Sonar Sails
Report by Brian Hayes Finally a perfect spring weather weekend!! With temperatures in the 70’s and pleasant 6-15mph breezes 21 teams descended upon the Manhasset Bay Yacht Club in Prot Washington, NY for great racing and superb hospitality. PRO Judy Hanlon was able to run 4 races on Saturday and 3 on Sunday to the delight of all the sailors. Saturday forecast was for a light NE breeze, shifting west throughout the day. The incoming tide and shifty breeze jumbled the results throughout the day as only Peter Galloway and his team were able to stay consistent with a 1,4,4,2. The rest of the fleet struggled with at least one mid-fleet race which put Galloway in the lead for the party on Saturday night. After rehashing the day’s events on the terrace over a cold beverage the competitors were treated to a “Ask the Experts” panel discussion. Top performers of the day, including Peter Galloway, Eric Goethert, Scott Harrison and Ric Doerr, shared their thoughts on tuning, course management and other Sonar tips. After the round table and dinner a raffle of many great items was held including North Sails backpacks, shirts and NorthU educational books and CD’s. Congratulations to the winners. Sunday morning brought a calm, glassy bay but, with breeze forecast PRO Hanlon sent the fleet out after a short postponement. Nearly perfect timing as the breeze filled on the way out to Long Island Sound and 3 great races were sailed. With a throwout in play Team Galloway had their work cut out for them as they had no bad races yet still found themselves tied going into the 7th and final race with Bill Lynn from Marblehead. Team Galloway were able to keep the team from Marblehead behind them throughout the race and convincingly won the 2009 Sonar ACCs. Congratulations to Peter and his crew Ched Proctor and Paul Steinborn. Results can be found at: http://www.manhassetbayyc.org/Files/2009SonarACC_Sonar_Overall.htm Lastly, many thanks to the group at Manhasset Bay YC as well as the staff from the United States Merchant Marine Academy for helping set courses and for the use of their support boats. All their effort made for a very fun weekend of Sonar sailing.
*Partial North inventory For complete information on North Sonar sails contact our Experts.
Sonar Sails
Report by Brian Hayes The 2009 IFDS Florida Midwinters were held this past weekend at St. Pete Yacht Club. All 3 IFDS classes (Sonar, Skud 18 and 2.4) had starts. The fleets were small (as to be expected the year after the Paralympic Games) and many of the competitors were able-bodied as the event was marked as open and classification was not required (you just had to sail by the IFDS rules). In the Sonar and 2.4 all the boats in both fleets had North Sails except the last place finisher in the Sonar fleet. I was able to sail with Paul Callahan and Roger Cleworth (both classified as para-eligible due to their disabilities) and we were successful in winning the event. In 2nd was Ralf Steitz from Kings Point. John Twomey, of Ireland, was 3rd. More details at www.spyc.org 2.4. Meter:
Sonar:
For complete information on North Sonar sails contact our Experts. Sonar Sails
Report by Brian Hayes The “Fast Forward” team of Peter Galloway, Ched Proctor, Jim Linville and Paul Steinborn dominated the 2008 Sonar North Americans to score a 15 point win over 39 other competitors from around the country. Conditions throughout the 3 day event proved challenging as high pressure dominated the weekend, which made for perfect golf and apple picking conditions, but the wind struggled to top 5 or 6 mph in most of the races. After a 13 in the first race of the 6 race series, “Fast Forward” notched 5 straight top 5 finishes which seemed nearly miraculous given the unpredictable winds and strong current factor. In 2nd was Tyler Doyle from Marblehead with Jud Smith crewing. A 2,1 in the last 2 races enabled them to make a big jump in the standings. In 3rd was Andrew Crocker and his team from Marblehead. 4th was Craig Sinclair from Noroton. Sinclair was the only boat other than Galloway that could win the championship going into the final race after being able to discard their 1st race 30th. Jim Crane rounded out the top 5 while Dave Franzel finished 6th. Results can be found at: http://www.seawanhaka.org/files/Sonar%20Results%20Final.mht
**North main and jib. For complete information on North Sonar sails contact our Experts. Sonar Sails
Report by Brian Hayes The 2008 IFDS QINGDAO INTERNATIONAL REGATTA was completed on May 15, 2008 with 12 Sonars representing 11 countries. In keeping up with the pace they set in France last month the team from GBR (Robertson/Stoedel/Thomas) outlasted the team from FRA (Jourdren/Larhant/Vomont-Vicary) by 6 points to win GOLD in this pre-olympic event. In 3rd was the team from ISR (Cohen/Efrati/Vexler). Rounding out the top 5 was AUS (Harrison/Boaden/Martin) in 4th and team USA (Doerr/Angle/Donohue) in 5th. Regatta details can be found at: http://www.2008ifdsqdregatta.com/en/ Results:
For complete information on North Sonar sails contact our Experts. Sonar Sails
Report by Brian Hayes In the final European tune-up for the China Games, GBR Paralympic teammates John Robertson, Hannah Stoedel and Stephen Thomas dominated the Sonar division of the 40th Hyeres Race Week. The GBR team won 8 of the 10 races and discarded a 2nd and a DNC in the final race to post a perfect scoreboard. Up next for the Paralympic Teams is the 2008 IFDS International Regatta which starts this Sunday in Qingdao, China where many of the top teams are expected to compete. Team GBR used the North Sails One Design SuperMain+ and AP++ jib. Results from Hyeres can be found at: http://sof.ffvoile.net/results/sonar.htm For complete information on North Sonar sails contact our Experts.
For more information on Sonar sails, contact the North Sonar experts.
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