The Sonar is a one design trailerable racing sailboat that was designed by Canadian naval architect Bruce Kirby and first built in 1980.Sherwood, Richard M.: ''A Field Guide to Sailboats of North America, Second Edition'', pages 120-121.

Houghton Mifflin Company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Boston Financ ...

, 1994. The design was initiated as a commission from the members of the Noroton Yacht Club of Darien, Connecticut, United States. The Sonar was inducted into the

American Sailboat Hall of Fame The American Sailboat Hall of Fame is a defunct hall of fame honoring 26 production sailboats built-in the United States. The hall of fame was established in 1994 by Sail America, a trade association for the U.S. sailing industry, to recognize ing ...

in 2004. The design was developed into the more cruising-oriented Blazer 23, using the same hull, but a larger cabin.

Production

The design was first built by Seidelmann Yachts in

Berlin, New Jersey Berlin is a borough in Camden County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 7,588,C. E. Ryder C. or c. may refer to: * Century, sometimes abbreviated as ''c.'' or ''C.'', a period of 100 years * Cent (currency), abbreviated ''c.'' or ''¢'', a monetary unit that equals of the basic unit of many currencies * Caius or Gaius, abbreviated as ...

and Shumway Marine in the US, as well as

Ontario Yachts Ontario Yachts is a Canadian boat builder at one time based in Oakville, Ontario, then Hamilton, Ontario and more recently in Burlington, Ontario. The company specializes in the manufacture and repair of fiberglass sailboats. The company was f ...

and DS Yachts in Canada, with a few built by

Carbon Index Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent—its atom making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. Carbon makes up ...

in the United Kingdom. Since 2015 the boat has been built by

Rondar Raceboats Oxazepam is a short-to-intermediate-acting benzodiazepine. Oxazepam is used for the treatment of anxiety and insomnia and in the control of symptoms of alcohol withdrawal syndrome. It is a metabolite of diazepam, prazepam, and temazepam, and has ...

in the UK and distributed in North America by Shumway Marine. A total of 860 boats have been built.

Design

Advantage Boating Sonar sailboat 3's Company 3932

The Sonar is a recreational keelboat, built predominantly of fibreglass, with wood trim. It has a fractional

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

rig with aluminum spars, including a tapered

boom Boom may refer to: Objects * Boom (containment), a temporary floating barrier used to contain an oil spill * Boom (navigational barrier), an obstacle used to control or block marine navigation * Boom (sailing), a sailboat part * Boom (windsurfi ...

, a raked stem, a reverse transom, an internally mounted spade-type rudder controlled by a tiller with an extension and a fixed fin keel. It displaces and carries of lead ballast. The boat has a draft of with the standard keel. The design has a cockpit long, with space for eight people. It has a small cuddy cabin that is used for stowage and can also house a portable

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...

. The cuddy can also be fitted with two berths for sleeping accommodation. The boat can plane downwind. For sailing the design is equipped with internal boom slab reefing, a 4;1 mechanical advantage mainsheet block, a backstay and a boom vang. Hiking is not permitted under the class sailing rules. The design has a Portsmouth Yardstick DP-N racing average handicap of 82.5 and is normally raced with a crew of two to three sailors.

Operational history

231000 - Sailing sonar Jamie Dunross Noel Robins Graeme Martin action 4 - 3b - 2000 Sydney race photo

The Sonar is used for sail training as well as racing. The Sonar is an accepted World Sailing international class and was selected for Paralympic sailing at the 1996

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

and has remained a Paralympic class since then. The boat is supported by an active class club that organizes racing events, the ''Sonar Class Association''. In a 1994 review Richard Sherwood wrote, "the Sonar was designed for the same market as the Etchells 22, Soling, Tempest, and Ensign. The basic concept was generated by a committee of the Noroton Yacht Club (Connecticut), then designed by Bruce Kirby. The cockpit is huge ... Only three sails are allowed — main, jib, and spinnaker." The boat was inducted into the

in 2004. The citation noted, "the brainchild of Bruce Kirby (who also designed the Laser, which was inducted into the American Sailboat Hall of Fame in 1997), the Sonar was designed to a specific set of parameters determined through a survey of club sailors. All were looking for the same thing—a boat that was exciting to race, easy to handle by sailors of varying ages and abilities, trailerable, self-bailing and reasonably comfortable. Basically, Kirby said, "we wanted a boat that could be sailed without breaking your neck." "I think it’s the best boat I ever designed in that it met all the criteria," Kirby said."

Events

References

External links