Making a sonata a better 'single handed sailer'

gunman

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I went down to the boat today to sort out what sails I actually had, the sail wardrobe consists of the following:

Mainsail (very good, with sail numbers)
No.1 Genoa (match of the above mainsail)
No.1 Genoa (lighter material, possible original sail)
No.2 Genoa (marked 115%, has reefing point which makes it the same size as the working jib, slight damage which needs repair. also has sewn in battens:confused: )
Working Jib ( good, match of no.1 and no.2 genoa)

There are also 2 spinnakers which I didn't pay too much attention to. The No.1 genoa on the sonata is apparently a 150% genoa. I think it may be way too big to keep on roller reefing. I am actually now swaying towards leaving the roller reefing off (for this year at least) and just getting the no.2 repaired and sailing with the hanked on jibs. I actually didn't know I had the No.2 and working jib as they were in a sail bag underneath the spinny:eek:.

All the foresails (except the match of the mainsail) have no luffrope but are all fitted with hanks and slides. The slides are too big for my foil and are also the wrong shape being D shaped where I need round.

I honestly think the No.1 will be too much of a handfull for leisure sailing in anything other than light puff.
 

Quandary

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I think you are right to stick with what you have until you have worked out what is best for you. The 115% sail will be fine most of the time but there will be nice light sunny days when the 150% sail will give you that bit of extra power, particularly if you have a long broad reach or run home and you are not going to use the kite. These days we use a blade jib with vertical battens for cruising and only use our 150% genny for the odd race but then we have a gennaker to take us downwind when cruising. If you are going to be mainly single handed make sure that all you halyard sheaves run sweetly so that hoisting and lowering sail is fast and easy, if they are just rope and have got stiff it might be worth slipping them in to the washing machine or giving them a squirt with a power washer. Might be worth considering a bit of netting on the lifelines to give your young novice crew a feeling of security at first and to keep your sails in the boat when you drop them. Some of my experience was with the Puppeteer 22 which has many of the sailing characteristics of the Sonata but a slightly more flat run under the hull.
 

William_H

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I went down to the boat today to sort out what sails I actually had, the sail wardrobe consists of the following:

Mainsail (very good, with sail numbers)
No.1 Genoa (match of the above mainsail)
No.1 Genoa (lighter material, possible original sail)
No.2 Genoa (marked 115%, has reefing point which makes it the same size as the working jib, slight damage which needs repair. also has sewn in battens:confused: )
Working Jib ( good, match of no.1 and no.2 genoa)

I think you will find you need a no 3 small jib. Trailer sailers can be very tender and don't like being over powered. A tiny jib can turn a strong wind into a pleasure. Especially with easy reefing. A small jib can even come from a largish dinghy. You should be able to find something second hand. On the other hand I have found for racing that a really good small jib (new) makes a lot of difference as you need a flat sail for stronger winds. A blown out stretched big jib doesn't matter so much for light winds.

If you are going single handed being under canvassed is better than being over powered. You should consider running a line from the top of the jib down via a pulley at the bow and back to the cockpit so that you can pull down and hold down the jib if you are overpowered.
good luck olewill
 

Quandary

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Can't say I agree with this tiny headsail idea, while Lough Erne can get breezy,the Sonata is not exactly a trailer sailor, they are stiff little boats, typical David Thomas racing hull design with a decent fin keel and a good ballast ratio, they carry their sail better than most. That is why they were so popular and why so many of them are still raced so enthusiastically, the natural progression for many Sonata sailors was the Sigma 33 from the same designer with many of the same characteristics. They were designed at the time when the main drive came from a large overlapping genoa and the main is not as big as it would be on a similar boat today. I think the 115% headsail will be all right for breezy days and if it blows up you just need to pull in a reef in the main. I would not consider anything below 105% as functional except as a storm jib. It is rare to see a Sonata carrying anything smaller.
Donald Mclaren who runs CYCAs rating office raced a sonata for years before becoming UK Sigma 33 champion, he is in their office in the mornings and I am sure would be happy to answer questions, my son is one of his crew so I will try to get you some feedback on setting up the boat.
 
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gunman

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Can't say I agree with this tiny headsail idea, while Lough Erne can get breezy,the Sonata is not exactly a trailer sailor, they are stiff little boats, typical David Thomas racing hull design with a decent fin keel and a good ballast ratio, they carry their sail better than most. That is why they were so popular and why so many of them are still raced so enthusiastically, the natural progression for many Sonata sailors was the Sigma 33 from the same designer with many of the same characteristics. They were designed at the time when the main drive came from a large overlapping genoa and the main is not as big as it would be on a similar boat today. I think the 115% headsail will be all right for breezy days and if it blows up you just need to pull in a reef in the main. I would not consider anything below 105% as functional except as a storm jib. It is rare to see a Sonata carrying anything smaller.
Donald Mclaren who runs CYCAs rating office raced a sonata for years before becoming UK Sigma 33 champion, he is in their office in the mornings and I am sure would be happy to answer questions, my son is one of his crew so I will try to get you some feedback on setting up the boat.

That would be excellent, thanks. The 115% headsail has reef points too although I don't see why I would need them as the reefing makes it roughly the same dimensions as the working jib (I laid it on top of the genoa). I have been advised before that you need a large headsail for the sonata. Just need to get my no.2 genoa repaired now.

You're right, Lough Erne can be 'Gusty' and the wind will change direction in various parts of the lake because of the islands etc. It is actually a challenging enough sail and sailors who are used to the sea don't tend to like it, but in my opinion it's very scenic and relaxing.
 

Quandary

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The idea of a reefing No2. was not uncommon, our Sigma 33 had this too. The working jib was only put on if a gale was already blowing so it was used less than once a year. It it blows up hard and you do not want to spend time on the foredeck it is much quicker to first tie on a spare sheet on the upper leach cringle then slacken the halyard, nip forward to pull the sail down to the second luff cringle, tighten up and carry on. You will have some cloth lying on the deck but you will be on your way in less than a minute. It is even better if you have a spare set of forward cars on the track for this switch or if your cars have rollers big enough for two sheets and can be let forward on a control line rather than fiddling about with plungers.
An awful lot faster than a complete headsail change.
My experience of Lough Erne was only in a Mirror dinghy or a week on a hire cruiser, but I know what you mean about gusty.
 
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