Sonar Class Association Newsletter, March 5, 2012

LET'S GET CAUGHT UP...

The Rolex Miami OCR:

The OCR was held January 22-28. 10 Sonars, representing eight countries, competed in a preview to the paralympics later this year in London.

Udo Hessels/ Marcel van de Veen/ Mischa Rossen (NED) secured a gold medal with a 1-2 on the final day, for a five-point margin over silver medalists John Robertson/ Hannah Stodel/ Steve Thomas (GBR).  Taking the bronze was Aleksander Wang-Hansen/ Marie Solberg/Per Eugen Kristiansen (NOR).

For the US, Rick Doerr finished with 41 points, two ahead of Paul Callahan. Unfortunately for Rick, this wasn't enough. When factoring in the IFDS World Championships, Callahan earned the right to represent the US in London by virtue of his 6, 6 finishes to Doerr's 9, 5. Congratulation's Paul!

For complete results: http://rmocr.ussailing.org/results/sonar/

The ST. Petersburg NOOD:

The first NOOD regatta of 2012 was held on Feb 18-19. With 10 boats competing, the Sonar class had the third highest turn-out of the one design classes. The regatta was a tale of to very different days. Saturday being light air and a stronger breeze on Sunday.

Rick Doerr began the regatta with two guns on Saturday. Unfortunately, he finished with a bang, literally, on Sunday.

From Rick: "Dismasted in 20-25 knts at the St. Pete NOOD. Were looking good with 3-4 swells, great start, tacked on to port when we got a 35+ puff. First bang was the port upper failing and within seconds the mast failing at the spreader. Ouch indeed!

Click to enlarge

In the end, Rachael Silverstein from St. Petersburg won the regatta with nine points, two points ahead of Bruce Millar of Canada and eight points ahead of third place finisher Noel Clinard from Richmond, VA.

For full results: http://tinyurl.com/78qw478

2012 CALENDAR:

Mark your calendars, make your plans. The following are the fleet and team racing calendars for 2012 (SCA sanctioned regattas are in red):

Fleet Racing:

	May 19 - 20	2012 Tappan Zee Challenge  Nyack Boat Club	Michael Leinweber
	June 23 - 24	2012 Atlantic Coast Championships  Eastern YC	Larry Ehrhardt
	July 27 - 29	Marblehead NOOD  Marblehead, MA	Larry Ehrhardt
	August 4 - 5	2012 New England Champs  Falmouth YC, Falmouth MA	Joe Voci
	August 24-26	2012 North American Championships  Rochester YC	Eric Voss
	Sep 29-30	2012 LIS Championships  Noroton YC	Bruce McArthur

Team Racing:

	March 24-25	2012 Texas Team Race Challenge  TCYC, Kemah, TX.	Tony Smythe
	April 14 - 15	2012 Jackson Cup Invitational  Boston YC
	May 5-6	2012 Oyster Bay Challenge (Masters)  Seawanhaka YC	Mark Swanson
	August 11 - 12	2012 Morgan Cup  New York YC, Newport, RI
	August 18 - 19	2012 Hinman Masters  New York YC, Newport RI
	August 25 - 26	2012 Grand Masters Invitational  New York YC, Newport, RI
	Sept. 15 - 16	2012 Kirby Cup Team Race  Noroton YC	Lee Morrison
	October 6 - 7	2012 Lee Trophy  Seawanhaka YC	Al Constants
	October 27-28	2012 Halloween Regatta  Eastern YC	Larry Ehrhardt

MEMBERSHIP:

As most of you know, we have changed our membership policy. We now offer one level for a reduced price of only $50.

We operate on a calendar year so all 2011 memberships expired at 12 midnight on December 31. To renew, simply go to the class website (http://www.sonar.org/) and in the Membership tab, select Renew.

We offer a generous grace period of three months after which access to the Member's Only area of the website will be turned off. That grace period ends at the end of this month so renew today!

COMMUNICATIONS:

We now have lots of ways to stay in touch with the class and our members.

We have a website which includes a forums area in the Member's Only section:

http://www.sonar.org/

We have a Facebook page we encourage you to "Like.":

http://www.facebook.com/sonarclass

A Twitter page for you to "follow.":

https://twitter.com/SonarClass

Plus this newsletter is posted, allowing you to comment or see past issues, here:

http://sonarclass.blogspot.com/


Speaking of communicating, this might be a good time to begin introducing you to all the great information available to Sonar sailors on the SCA website. Going forward, we will highlight one item/section/document you might find helpful. We'll call it...

DID YOU KNOW?

The polars for the Sonar can be found on the SCA website. To access them, from the homepage, select Library -> Literature. It's easy. Check it out, there is a ton of great information included with this document.