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See also: Sonar News 2001 - 2003 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.
Sonar Sails
Report by Brian Hayes North Sails used by all competitors at Sonar US Paralympic Trials It seemed to be the theme of the US Trials for Olympic and Paralympic berths for China. Close racing, protests and evenly matched, highly skilled teams. This could not be any truer than in choosing the representatives in the Sonar Class for the 2008 Paralympic Games in China. With 5 teams having a legitimate chance to win the berth and represent the US, racing was tight and positions were swapped on a minute by minute basis. Dr. Ric Doerr, with Tim Angle and Bill Donahue, fresh off their win at the IFDS World Championship, held off 5 other legitimate contenders, both on the water and in the room, to secure his 1st Paralympic berth and will represent the US in China. As at the IFDS Worlds, Ric and his team were pressed by several equally talented and deserving teams. Paul Callahan, the 2000 representative, came in to the fold this spring with the talented team of Tom Brown and Roger Cleworth, to finish runner-up to Team Doerr in both the Worlds and Trials. Callahan's team was within 1 race of a trip to China but lost a close protest decision in race #15 which cost the team a 1st palce finish. In 3rd was the Midwest team of Bert Foster, David Burdett and Jim Thweatt. Leading the Trials at the mid-point Team "Captain Hook" scored 4 bullets throughout the series. In 4th was the Florida based team of Jen French, Brad Kendall and Mike Hersey. Team 777 had 6 2nds and a 1st and missed winning the event by a mere 7 points after 16 races!!! Rounding out the top 5 was the seasoned team of David Scroeder, Keith Burhans and Jon Pucillo. North Sails would like to congratulate all the teams who dedicated themselves to competing in the trials and pushing each other perfection. With 7 points separating the top 4 teams it is clear of the wealth of depth and talent of the US Paralympic Team. All the teams used North Sails for all the races.. Results here. For complete information on North Sonar sails contact our Experts.
Sonar Sails
Report by Brian Hayes The Sperry Top-Sider Sonar Worlds, sailed out of the Eastern Yacht Club in Marblehead, MA, produced a new champion who is used to winning major Sonar events. Sailing in primarily light to moderate breezes Bill Lynn and his team pulled victory from the grasp of defeat with an aggressive and daring port tack approach to the weather mark in the final race. Lynn said, it was all or nothing going into the mark and they were able to barely clear a group of 20+ starboard tackers going into the first mark of the penultimate race to round 4th. "If we didn't get in there we were in bad shape. We had to try and it worked." Holding that position throughout the final race Lynn covered regatta leader Peter Galloway, pushing Team Galloway further back into a close pack to secure the title. Galloway and team, who led by two points going into the final race, tried desperately to break out of the pack only to fall to 17th in the race and 4th overall losing the title by only 11 points. Greg Anthony, sailing what he claims is his final Sonar event for a few years, sailed a solid consistent series to finish 2nd. King's Point Sailing Director Rick Dominique, who led for much of the series was 4th. Ontario Yachts Dirk Knuelman rounded out the top 5.
Sonar Sails
Report by Brian Hayes Dr. Ric Doerr (USA) and his teammates Tim Angle and Bill Donahue had a game plan and intended to stick to it. After the first few days of racing at the IFDS Worlds, hosted by the Rochester Yacht Club in Rochester, NY, Ric and his team were mired in the middle of the top pack with decent but not great finishes. The last 2 days of the event, while many of the other top teams struggled for consistency the USA team kept plugging along and scored a 1,5,1,1,3,7 which enabled them to pass USA teammate Paul Callahan, GBR's reigning World Champion John Robertson, Germanys past World Champ Jens Kroker and past World Champion from Isreal, Dror Cohen to win their 1st World Championship and take home the Gold medal. This is the first step towards many of the top Paralympic teams quest towards the Paralympic Games to be held in China next summer. For complete information on North Sonar sails contact our Experts. Sonar Sails
Report by Brian Hayes The 2007 SPYC Disabled/Open Midwinters were held this past weekend at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club. 11 Sonar teams from the USA, Canada and Ireland were treated to moderate temperatures, solid breezes and the standard Tampa Bay chop. PRO Bob Johnson was able to run 8 terrific races over the 3 days to all the competitors delight. US Paralympic team members Dave Schroeder, Keith Burhans and John Pucillo, using a North SuperMain and AP++ Jib, had a 1,2 on Sunday to cap a tremendous comeback to win the event by a single point over past Paralympic Bronze medalist Paul Callahan with Tom Brown and Roger Cleworth. Callahan's team, using a brand new North SuperMain and AP++ jib they ordered only 5 days before the event, had built a 6 point lead going into Sundays final races but some tough starts put the regatta leaders trying to claw their way back through the fleet. After stringing together 6 top 3 finishes on Friday and Saturday Callahans team had a 7,9 on Sunday to allow Schroeder/Burhans/Pucillo to grab victory with their final day heroics. In 3rd was IRL's Paul McCarthy with Paul Ryan & Richard Whealey. McCarthy's team was constantly in the top 3 with several 2nd place finishes and all top 5's making what started out as a bad situation and turning it into a great finish. You see, Paul and his team arrived in St.Petersburg ready to race but their jib ended up in England! A quick call to NSOD and within 12 hours, and on the morning of the first race, McCarthy's team had a brand new AP++ jib in hand. Congratulations to Paul and his team!! In 4th was the top US Paralympic team led by Rick Doerr. Rick, with his regular team attending to other matters (like work) had Robin Roberts & Brian Tabler step in and team up to bring home a solid 4th place finish. North results:
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Sonar Sails
Report by Brian Hayes The St. Petersburg Yacht Club was once again host to all three featured classes for the Paralympic Games during the annual America's Regatta on November 30-December 3, 2006. The 2.4M (13 boats), Skud-18 (6 boats) and Sonar (7 boats) classes featured representation from 3 different countries in this lead in event to the Miami OCR in January. Rick Doerr (USA) and his team won the Sonar division with a comfortable 5 point gap over Ken Kelly (CAN) and his team. While Rick's win may have seemed easy on the scorecard it was clear that the field was well-balanced as 5 different teams won at least one race in the 6 race series. Rick said "It was important to be patient as the racing was quite tight. We lost 5 boats in one race due to our lack of patience and going for the "big win". We'll try not to make that mistake again as we move forward towards the trials and the games". In the 2.4M class Bruce Millar (CAN) traded top 2 finishes with North rep Stellan Berlin (SWE) in the first 3 races. An unfortunate 6th place finish by Stellan in put Bruce's focus on staying near Stellan in the final race which he accomplished finishing 4th behind Stellan's 3rd to earn a 1 point win. North notes: In the Sonar: In the 2.4M: For complete information on North Sonar or 2.4mR sails contact our Experts.
Sonar Sails
Report by Brian Hayes The Paralympic pre-trials were held in Newport, RI on October 12-14. Many teams were positioning themselves in this staging event for a run at the Paralympic Games in China in 2008. Ric Doerr and his team dominated the 4 boat Sonar field counting all 1st place finishes and showing themselves as the early team to beat for the US spot. Competition got tighter as the week went on as Dave Schroeder team began to gel and Bert Fosters team got more confident in their brand new boat. All the Sonar teams used North Sails in this 2-sail competition. In the 2.4 Meter class Tom Brown came out after a long layover to win this division over Bruce Millar (CAN) and 9 other competitors. Tom dusted of a set of his North Sails and reeled off 5 wins in 7 races to cruise to victory. Results at: For complete information on North Sonar or 2.4mR sails contact our Experts.
By Ched Proctor
Peter Galloway won the Sonar NAs in Rochester NY. 27 Boats sailed. Bill Lynn, who won the last two NAs ended up second, Dave Curtis third, and Dru Slattery 4th. Here's the top 10:
Full results are at http://www.rochesteryc.com/files/sonarAfter10.pdf North facts..
I sailed with Peter Galloway along with Mike Ludwig. Conditions were primarily light, until the last race.
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By Brian Hayes St. Petersburg Yacht Club- St. Petersburg, FL February 14-16, 2006 Let's start with the bad news first. The attendance for the 2006 Sonar Midwinters was low.. Really low..Other than that everything else about this years event at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club was terrific. Although only 7 teams could find the time to participate in this Tues-Thurs, mid-week event all those who attended had a great time. The weather in Florida started out Tuesday very cool as a cold front had passed through over the weekend. The passing cold front left the three days of the event with a leftover east-northeasterly wind pattern that stayed through Thursday last race at noon. The breeze was as strong as 12mph (on Tuesday) and varied most of the week in the 5-8mph range with large shifts, big areas of pressure change and a lot of Tampa Bay current. Co-skippers Josh Goldman and Peter Galloway sailed a SPYC chartered Sonar to record scores of 1,1,3,3,1,1,1,2,4. The "G" brothers used the new SuperMain+ mainsail, AP++ jib and Superlite spinnaker. In 3rd was US Paralympic team member Rick Doerr. Rick and his team had finishes of 2,3,2,2,2,4,4,5,1 to narrowly miss placing 2nd in the event. Rick used a SuperMain, AP++ jib and Superlite spinnaker. Perhaps the best story of the event however was the SPYC team of Kathy Bush, PJ Summerville, Trish Birkenstock and Colin Park (affectionately known on our boat as 3 Ladies and a baby. Sorry Colin!). In only their second year of sailing together the ladies (expertly assisted by Colin) managed to improve every race including a bullet in a highly competitive race #8 and they also used a new SuperMain+, AP++ jib and North Radial spinnaker. Final results, click here. North facts.. North notes...
For more information on North Sonar Sails contact our Sonar Experts.
By Brian Hayes Sonar IFDS World Championships North Sails 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10!!
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By Brian Hayes The Sonar World Championships in Cowes, England served up plenty of breeze, sun, clouds and rain during the 5 day championship, and while the title of World Champion will remain with Steve Shepstone (USA) and his crew on "Nefarious", North Sails clients dominated the awards ceremonies taking 4 of the top 5 places and winning 7 of the 9 races held through the championship. Paul Bowen (GBR) and his team of locals on "Billy" won 3 of the 9 races to finish runner-up in their first World Championship. In 3rd was Peter Galloway's team (USA) on "Fast Forward". The "FF" team showed breakaway upwind speed all week that was the envy of many. In 4th was Dave Franzel and his team on "Spring" (USA). Franzels team started strong with 2 bullets on opening day but a few bad breaks and an OCS saw the Boston-based team slide just off the podium. 5th place was taken by "Troll" (USA), a team of US sailors, led by Tony Allott (Sonar Class President) and Rick Myers (Sonar Class Treasurer) and driven by Greg Anthony. Team "Troll" managed several solid top 5 finishes to take 5th for the event. Also, the top IFDS sailed boat was John Robertson (GBR) in 15th, just edging Avi Tzur (ISR) and Dror Cohen (ISR) for top Paralympic team. All three top Para-lympic teams used all North Sails. Kudos got to Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club as well as the event organizing committee for running a top-notch event with great conditions and even better social activities. For details on all the racing, including video and audio coverage, go to: www.uksonar.info. Sonar World facts:
For more information on North Sonar Sails contact our Sonar Experts.
By Brian Hayes The Sonar UK Nationals were held recently in Cowes and I received the following email note from Duncan Bates:
Congratulations to Duncan and his team. Some notes on their win can be found here. For more information on North Sonar Sails contact our Sonar Experts.
By Brian Hayes The first major Sonar Championship for the 2004 season took place this past weekend, June 26-27, at Noroton Yacht Club in Noroton, CT. 23 Sonars attended the 5 race New England Championships held in nearly perfect early summer conditions. While Saturdays 2 races were fair they were also very challenging as a approaching cold front brought a variety of wind speeds and directions. Sunday's conditions were much more stable with steadier 6-14 mph winds generally out of the west shifting 10-15 degrees. Peter Galloway, with Mike Ludwig, Jim Linville and Ched Proctor showed dominating speed and sound tactics to win the event with an 8,3,1,3,1. Second place went to Dave Franzel and his team from Boston (2,4,8,6,4) while Greg Anthony, also from the Boston area, and his team won 2 races and finished a strong 3rd with scores of 10,1,12,1,3. Final results:
For more information on North Sonar Sails contact our Sonar Experts.
By Brian Hayes One big success story out of the Miami OCR was the results of sailors using North Sonar sails. The top 4 teams used North Sails primarily throughout the event (the 3rd place team used a different jib on day 1). The exciting part about these results was that each team represented a different country and all 4 teams had a chance to win the event going into the last day!!! Congratulations to:
For more information on North Sonar Sails contact our Sonar Experts.
For more information on Sonar sails, contact the North Sonar experts.
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