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Sonata Sailing

National One-design Cruiser/Racer

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Sonata versus rush 69

26th June 2003

drb

26th June 2003 at 9:44 PM

Heh, might be the wrong place to ask, but which boat is the better one, the sonata or the rush 69 ?

I’m thinking of buying a sonata, but saw a 10 years newer rush 69 for sale at the same prize, am I a nutcase to go for the sonata ? It had a bit more equipment, and had been epoxied(the sonata) and in my opinion it looks better as well, but does anybody know which boat sails better ?

Bear in mind that I want the boat for daysailing mainly, but also some cruising. I’m not planning to race, and if I do both boats will have few similar opponents here in norway..

(go ahead, convince me to buy the Sonata)

arni

29th June 2003 at 8:28 AM

I rarely race, so maybe I van give you some opinions which are not purely speed-based.

The Sonata sails better than any boat I have ever sailed. How’s that?

I take mine out single-handed almost every weekend, and I often go off for several days. I have been in all sorts of conditions, and I have always found the boat sweet and cooperative. I do have my trusty Autohelm to make life easier though!

Arni

150

29th June 2003 at 10:28 AM

The Better Boat Is the

Sonata, Sonata,Sonata,Sonata,Sonata, and you could also try the Sonata.

drb

30th June 2003 at 7:38 PM

Have as good as bought it now, with autohelm :-)… REALLY looking forward to some sweet sailing…

Previous owners have fitted extra backstays, the kind were you have to loosen and tighten on each side when you tack. Maybe I’ll just take it off, as it seems to be the original rig, the ordinary backstay should be strong enough, and less work to handle…. I’m not planning to push the boat to the limit anyway, if it’s really blowing, the spinnaker will stay under deck :-)…

Administrator

2nd July 2003 at 2:14 PM

I suspect that the things that look like runners or extra backstays are what the rules refer to as ‘checkstays’. They are intended for going downwind not upwind and in fact the rules prohibit their use upwind when racing. They are entirely optional but some owners have fitted them to give extra support to the mast when running under spinnaker in scary conditions. You can remove them if you wish but there’s really no need to remove them since you can just clip them down near the shroud base out of the way and they’ll be there if you ever feel you need them.

Good sailing with your Sonata and if you ever feel like writing a short article on sailing a Sonata in Norway then I’m sure we could find a place for it on our Internet site.

Jack Hardie (Webmaster)

drb

3rd July 2003 at 10:37 PM

About the checkstays as you were kind enough to inform me they’re called, they’re prohibited to use upwind in regatta you say. Is this because of any security issues ? Have heard of people tightening their rigs so hard that the forestay come out of the deck…

Or is it just prohibited because the checkstays would give an unfair advantage upwind compared to those boats that don’t have them ?

Administrator

6th July 2003 at 8:50 PM

The reason the checkstays cannot be used upwind while racing is for fairness and to keep to the one-design philosophy, not for security. The Sonata was designed so that the forestay is tensioned only by a single backstay and by the mainsheet acting via the mainsail (see Steve Goacher’s racing tips in the Hints and Tips sestion of this site). This gives a simple, safe rig that can be handled by a small crew. Adding any kind of checkstay or runner for use upwind might have made the boat go faster but it would have changed the whole character of the boat, so it was banned.

On the other hand, using checkstays downwind doesn’t make you go any faster but some people think it gives more security to the rig so it was allowed in the rules as an option.

Jack

Filed Under: Archives, Forum Archive, IPB Archive

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