Sonar sloop

Listees: Have any others out there ever sailed a Sonar, the 23' boat designed by Bruce Kirby? Here's a link to his site: http://www.brucekirbymarine.com/sonar.html My old boss from long ago runs a sailing school connected with a community college in Bay City, MI. They use Sonars as training boats. They're open-cockpit keelboats with a tiny cuddy for PFDs and stuff. I helped him on Sunday with some video for promo and instructional use. There was a good breeze and we sailed with a double reef. The boat was fast and fun. His son, a chemical engineer for Gougeon Bros., was skipper and two of us crewed. The old boss really likes those boats for teaching purposes and I thought they are fine for fun purposes, too. I haven't sailed a boat like that for quite a while. We tacked back into the river (to the dismay of a few power boaters), doing a bunch of short tacks at interesting angles of heel--whee!!! I usually don't sail into that river unless I've got crew. Small boats are big on fun. The boat seemed sturdy, too. It's been used for teaching for quite a few years, maybe 20 at this point, and showed no evidence of problems. Chris Campbell

Never sailed in one, but the disable sailing association here in Vistoria has one they use so it would imply a stable platform. We see it out on race days and seems to have a good turn of speed. Neil Victoria --- In Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com, Chris Campbell <clcampbell@...> wrote: > > Listees: > > Have any others out there ever sailed a Sonar, the 23' boat designed by > Bruce Kirby? Here's a link to his site: > > http://www.brucekirbymarine.com/sonar.html > > My old boss from long ago runs a sailing school connected with a > community college in Bay City, MI. They use Sonars as training boats. > They're open-cockpit keelboats with a tiny cuddy for PFDs and stuff. I > helped him on Sunday with some video for promo and instructional use. > There was a good breeze and we sailed with a double reef. The boat was > fast and fun. His son, a chemical engineer for Gougeon Bros., was > skipper and two of us crewed. The old boss really likes those boats for > teaching purposes and I thought they are fine for fun purposes, too. I > haven't sailed a boat like that for quite a while. We tacked back into > the river (to the dismay of a few power boaters), doing a bunch of short > tacks at interesting angles of heel--whee!!! I usually don't sail into > that river unless I've got crew. Small boats are big on fun. The boat > seemed sturdy, too. It's been used for teaching for quite a few years, > maybe 20 at this point, and showed no evidence of problems. > > Chris Campbell >