SONAR

GENERAL
• The Sonar is a 23 foot (6.9 m), 2100 pound (945k) sloop designed by Bruce Kirby (designer of the Laser). It was designed specifically for one design fleet racing with a wide range of suitable crew weight. The St. Petersburg Yacht Club Sonars are only two years old and are very evenly matched. You should not find significant difference in speed among the boats.

• All boats will be set up to be as closely matched as possible. The rig will look looser than you may be used to. You may not alter forestay length, shroud tension, mast blocking, etc. during this event.

• Do NOT vang the sheet, the vang is not designed for it. The traveller has enough scope.

• The rudder is big and hard to stall so you can maneuver quickly, at the risk of oversteering.

• The spinnaker pole is normally stored on the boom with the foreguy and topping lift attached. In light air, it can be stored, disconnected, in the cuddy.

• The spinnaker is usually stored on the port seat locker. It may also be stored in the cuddy.

BASIC SAIL TRIM
• Trim the jib so that the leech telltales stream. Do not overtrim the jib. The Sonar has a tubby hull form and needs power to get through chop.

• Bring the boom up to centerline. Trim the mainsheet until the top batten is parallel with the boom. In most conditions, the upper telltale will stream 50% and stall 50%. If you have speed, you can stall the upper telltale to gain point.

• Because the Sonar mast is so flexible, the mainsheet will pull the mast aft as you trim. The backstay is not used in light to moderate conditions. Play the traveller to stay in the groove up wind. As the breeze builds, drop the traveller to control weather helm. Once you have dropped the traveller a foot or more below centerline, begin using the backstay. Unless your crew is very light, you will not use backstay under 15 knots of breeze.

• The outhaul is usually set fairly hard, light air, 2 inches from band, moderate air 1inch, and maxed out in a breeze while the cunningham and jib halyard are set to put some small scallops in the sails.

• Downwind, weather heel gains some exposure for the spinnaker and is effective in moderate and heavier condi tions. In light air, you must let the pole forward when there is chop.