News

US Sailing’s Adult Director Betsy Alison was on hand for Saturday’s dinner at the 2024 Sonar World Championship at Noroton Yacht Club in Darien, CT. After dinner, Betsy gave this special presentation:

I join you tonight to celebrate not only the high caliber of sailing at this Sonar World Championship, but to honor a long-standing member of the class and supporter of sailors and teams within the class.  I am here on behalf of the President of US Sailing, Rich Jepsen, to make a special presentation.

The President’s Award is a special one.  It is given by the Board President to people who have made exceptional contributions to the sport of sailing and US Sailing. The Board President has discretion in who receives the award.

In your midst, you have an individual who has dedicated countless hours to ensuring that all sailors are able to get out on the water and compete at a high level. In the early days of Paralympic Sailing, he started creating adaptations that enabled sailors to maximize their abilities on the water, so that they could compete on an equal footing with able bodied counterparts. Fondly known as the “Grandfather of Disabled Sailing,” he has spent more than 30 years fine tuning equipment, moving boats and equipment around the country and the world, jumping on board boats with sailors in need of a great teammate, and doing what needed to be done to support sailors at events at home and abroad.  As a class measurer, he has worked tirelessly to ensure that the rules are followed for fair competition and worked with the Sonar class on the development of Appendix B in the Sonar class rules to accommodate the equipment needed by sailors with a disability to be able to regularly participate in the open sonar class events.  On any given day, you might find Gene trailering boats up and down the coast, on a flight to Ireland to sail in Cork week or acting as bosun at an adaptive regatta anywhere in the country.

In US Sailing President Rich Jepsen’s words: “Gene Hinkel has lived a life of service for the sport we all love.  His professional and volunteer careers are legendary, and he is universally loved and respected for his unselfish devotion to enabling all, regardless of physical ability, to compete. He is a perfect role model for all service minded sailors.  And, after 80 years on this planet, Gene is still going strong.

On behalf of US Sailing and sailors of all capacities throughout the US, I hereby award Gene Hinkel the President’s Award for long, illustrious, and meritorious service to Para sailing.”

The International Sonar Class Association held its 2024 World Championship at Noroton Yacht Club, Darien, CT, September 12-15 on the Long Island Sound. Thirty-one boats competed from across the USA, Canada, and Ireland.

Long Island Sound is known for its hot summer days, but nobody would have expected those conditions to extend until mid-September. On day one, despite her best efforts, PRO Shannon Bush couldn’t conjure up enough breeze to send out the fleet. Day two started the same way, but after an extended shoreside postponement, the fleet went out and got in one light-air race before the wind disappeared again. With only one race in the books and four races required for the Championship, it was hoped that the third day would hold the key. On Saturday the fleet got in two more relatively light-air races. All eyes turned towards the final day, with forecast models hoping that the 8-12 knot easterly would materialize.

On the Sunday, the first warning was moved up to 0930 in hopes of running four more races. In the end, it turned out to be a spectacular day with four races in the forecast breeze and everyone came ashore with big smiles on their faces.

Local Noroton Yacht Club sailor Morgan Connor and his crew won the Championship. The team’s consistency ultimately led to their victory, with finishes of 2-3-1-3-7-2 with a UFD in the seventh and final race being their dropped score. Their 17 net points gave them a 6-point margin over Gavin Pace in second (23 points) and TK Kinney in third (36 points).

While the first three days had light conditions, Sunday’s 10-12 easterly working against an ebbing current made for a challenging racing in the confused sea state. Drew Buttner, sailing as Connor’s tactician, said they set the jib cars differently when sailing into vs. across the waves and event co-chairs Janet Grapengeter and Michael Rudnick, who were also racing, noted they were constantly trimming their jib and main in the wave and breeze conditions.

Connor also noted that the competition was tough throughout the Championship, with race wins spread across top competitors and 15 of the 31 boats scoring at least one top-5 finish. However, perhaps the most interesting aspect of Connor’s win was the composition of his crew. Sailing for the first time since college with Drew Buttner, Morgan also had his 16-year-old son, Wells, doing bow. On top of that, Jan Raymond, the boat’s owner, became the oldest sailor to win a Sonar (and perhaps any) major one-design World Championship at 81 years young.

The International Sonar Class Association would like to thank Noroton Yacht Club for its hospitality, Commodore Katie Mitchell who was there to cheer the boats all weekend, and Class President Paul Steinborn who sailed on his own boat with Gavin Pace at the helm finishing second.

The 2026 Sonar Class World Championship will be held in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Of Note: At Saturday’s dinner, US Sailing’s Betsy Allison presented US Sailing’s President’s Award to longtime Sonar Class member and measurer Gene Henkel recognizing his contributions to the Class and, in particular, his leadership in adapting Sonars and other classes for Paralympic sailing.

Full Results: https://norotonyc.org/regatta/IWnyVTfMaq/results

Contact: Ed “Buttons” Padin, Sonar Class Administrator

Sailing photo credit: ©2024, courtesy of Noroton YC and Rick Bannerot, Ontheflyphoto.net

Wayzata Sailing Club hosted North American Championship

Wayzata, MN, September 18, 2023 – Wayzata Yacht Club hosted the Annual 2023 Sonar North American Championship Sailing Regatta on Sep. 14-17, on Lake Minnetonka – originally planned for 2020. There were 17 Sonar boats with approximately 68 sailors competing from as far away as New Hampshire and Vancouver, BC, in a pinnacle end-of-the-season regatta.

“It was exciting to be able to host the annual Sonar championship after having to cancel back in 2020 due to COVID-19. The weather held up and with mild winds, we were able to complete seven races,” said regatta chair, Bernt Helgaas. The championship featured experienced sailors and a professional race management team. Sonars have crews of four with one of them as the skipper. Each race takes about 1 hour, depending on the wind speed. 

Conditions on the first day were the best of the three, with conditions going from 7-11 knots for Race One to 4-7 knots over the course of the day. After taking a second in Race One, Brian Doyle and Team Resonance took the next three races by, as Brian put it in the daily debrief, “By pointing your boat at the mark” better than anyone else did. The conditions on Day Two proved even more challenging, with the second race being abandoned as conditions completely shut off mid-day. That was followed by two afternoon races in light and variable conditions, with Race Seven being shortened. On Sunday, the conditions on the lake proved not raceable, so everyone enjoyed the opportunity to socialize onshore during a beautiful morning followed by an outstanding awards ceremony.

The Race Committee led by Russ Subota had their work cut out for them, with numerous adjustments and the use of 15 different flags during the regatta. The on-shore festivities hosted by Sonar Fleet 5 at Wayzata Yacht Club included food trucks, live music, and fantastic weather.

The first-place team “Resonance” came from Sunapee Yacht Club in New Hampshire [insert photo] and was led by skipper, Brian Doyle, and crew mates, Tom Kinney, Shane Wells, Kelsey Wheeler.

The second place team aboard “Allegedly” was skippered by, Bill Allen, and crew Bernie Soya, Amanda Swaggert, and Nick Swaggert. In third was team “Surly Angel” with Marty Fossen as skipper sailing with Kathy Fossen, Shelly Gooley, Karen Gilseth. The fourth place team “ Gaijin” was led by skipper Gary Applebaum with Charles Luke, Robert Goedken, Jay Lucas as crew.

The fifth-place team “Batmobile” was lead by skipper, Hans Dickel, and crew, Chandra Wobschall, Sarah Olmsted, Duane Olmsted.

Full results: https://wayzatayachtclub.theclubspot.com/regatta/weiKJM5gWG/results

Noroton Yacht Club

Sara Watters (Oxford, MD), representing St. Mary’s College as an alumna, handily won the first Susan Widmann Sinclair Women’s Championship hosted by Noroton Yacht Club (Darien, CT). Sailing in Sonars with teammates Gloria Kevliciute, Catherine Shanahan, and Sophie Taczak, Watters won the first race, regained the lead at the end of Day 2 with another win, and wrapped-up the regatta on Sunday including a third race win.

Friday’s opening day of racing was canceled after the wind died during the first attempt at Race 1 combined with an approaching thunderstorm. However, on Saturday, after PRO Shannon Bush (Houston, TX) moved the racing up by 30 minutes for Day 2, five races were sailed with Watters winning that day’s finale—putting her atop the leaderboard for good, further wining Sunday’s sixth race.

From anyone’s perspective, the weather didn’t cooperate for this Championship. After having to abort racing Friday, there was wind on Saturday but its direction ocellated routinely over a 60-degree northerly arc with wind velocity bouncing between 5-8 knots one minute and then over 25 the next. After the final Race, PRO Bush noted, “I was forewarned that conditions on Long Island Sound would challenge a Race Officer to the max…and they did.” At the awards ceremony, Bush was thanked by all the competitors for her efforts to conduct races in variable wind conditions. Sunday’s conditions also were challenging for the race committee as, after completing Race 6, which Watters won, the northerly shifted to a southerly and a final race was completed.

The pervasive wind shifts combined with significant, often sudden changes in wind speed placed an equal importance on boat handling and course management and tactics. In Race 3, when the wind peaked near 30 knots on the second downwind let, some of the crews were experienced “death rolls” while others opted to drop their spinnaker and finish under control.

Including her ninth in Race 3 and an eight in the final Race 7, Watters three race wins gave her a 5-point margin over second to become the Champion. “To say I’m thrilled to win the first Sinclair Women’s Championship would be an understatement,” said Watters. “As an alumna of St. Mary’s, where our coach Adam Werblow taught all our team to sail competitively, it was thrilling to be racing against some of the finest women sailors in the country and winning. I would like to congratulate the other women sailors and thank Noroton Yacht Club for creating this regatta that honors such an inspirational woman sailor.”

The fleet of sailors came to this regatta from both near and far. Finishing second thanks to two second-place finishes on Sunday was Noroton sailor Erin Maxwell, who won a tiebreaker for second over fellow Noroton sailor Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick . In fourth was Carmen Cowels representing Larchmont Yacht Club, who won both Race 3 and Race 7. Carmen was recently named Quantum College Woman Sailors-of-the Year and sailing with her twin and fellow All American. Also on the course were sailors from Hamilton, BDA, Lunenberg, NS, San Francisco, CA,, Houston, TX, and St. Petersburg, FL.

Event Chair Nancy Pearson worked for over a year pulling together this Championship. “Sue Sinclair was a heck of a sailor, an inspiration to women sailors at Noroton and everywhere, and a friend of mine. When Commodore Bobby Lawrence asked me to help create and then run this Championship, I was honored at being asked and daunted by the task of developing and executing something that would reflect well on our Club, women’s sailing, and Sue.”

“And that she did!” responded the Commodore. “What Nancy, her cadre of volunteers, and our Club staff did this weekend was nothing short of outstanding! I know Sue was looking down her Championship with a smile. Perhaps she could have put in a better word for us with the Weather Gods!”

The second Susan Widmann Sinclair Women’s Championship will be hosted by Noroton Yacht Club in 202x.

Contact information: Nancy Pearson  nancy.pearson@harborcrest.com

Results: https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=15609