2017 Sonar Worlds coming to Lunenburg Yacht Club
May 9, 2017
The Sonar World Championships are headed to Nova Scotia. The races will be held September 6th– 10th in the waters of Mahone Bay hosted by the Lunenburg Yacht Club (LYC.) Club manager Mike Smith tells us LYC has received infrastructure money from government which will be used to improve their seawall and install a five-ton crane, so they will be in great shape to welcome sailors from far and wide. Keep up on developments at www.lyc.ca.
The Sonar is a 23-foot keel boat designed by Bruce Kirby of Laser fame. The class originated with the Noroton Yacht Cub which happened to be Kirby’s home club. The members were looking for a club racer which would be exciting to race, while still easy to handle for sailors of different strengths and skill. With a spacious cockpit and inherent stability, the Sonar is popular with many sailing schools. It has become the club racer for several famous organizations including the Island Sailing Club in Cowes, the Seawankaha Corinthian Yacht Club in Oyster Bay NY, the St. Petersburg Yacht Club in Florida and the New York Yacht Club’s Newport Rhode Island facility. The Sonar has also been widely adopted for use by disabled sailors for use in National competitions and in various programs. The Sonar showcased disabled sailing at the 1997 Paralympics and has been used in every subsequent Paralympics.
The first Sonar was launched in 1980. The boats were originally built by Ontario Yachts in Oakville ON and then by Shumway Marine in Rochester NY. Today they are made under license by RondarRaceboats in the UK and Shumway Marine remains the North American distributor.
Sonar Class Association: www.sonar.org Distributor: www.shumwaymarine.com
Aside from racing, the event will also feature a North Sails tuning seminar, and a visit from the Bluenose II. To find out more about visit http://www.lyc.ca/sonar-worlds-2017.com.
photos Sonar, sonar drawing, courtesy Shumway Marine
photo LYC, courtesy of LYC
