Anthony Adshead
Hi, I’m a newbie here. I’m thinking of a Sonata as a first boat. I want something a bit nippy but also want to cruise the Irish sea.
Anyway, today I went to look at a Sonata for sale locally. It’s for sale for
Robert Davis
The top of the keel does not look any worse than some that I have seen, my own boat included when I bought her. There is a horizontal flange at the top of the keel that bolts into a recess in the hull. The rust is marking the outline of this. I cleared out all the gunge in this area and refilled it with Sikaflex and it appears to be fine now. About
James Dargie
Is this the ‘Frank’ Sonata at Port Dinorwic on the Menai Straits, or is there more than one Frank?
Antony Adshead
Is this the ‘Frank’ Sonata at Port Dinorwic on the Menai Straits, or is there more than one Frank?
Don’t know. It’s not there any more.
Appalling name
nickdawson
I’d be a bit wary about that cradle though – you can see daylight through the aft hull supports so the hull is effectively sitting on the top of two struts, not spreading the load like it should. It looks like it was built for an IOR style hull, though it could obviously be adapted as its roughly the right dimesnions.
The hull-keel joint doesn’t look too bad, its just around the edge of the keel plate where it bolts to the hull. To fix it cut a narrow channel (5mm wide ish) right around the keel around on the rust line, and about 15mm deep and fill the channel with sikaflex. It will allow slight movement without cracking and letting water to the keel plate which is causing the rust.
regards, Nick
Catherine Hartley
Hi Anthony
If you are interested in a new cradle we have one for sale – if you would like some pictures i can send them to you – any resonable offer considered.
catherine
George Jack
Hi there Antony,
A Sonata would certainly make a great first boat.
I have recently restored a very neglected Sonata to racing condition, so have a good idea of the costs involved in renewing equipment required. I got my hull very cheep but would of still been cheeper if I had purchased a boat that was already in good condition.
The value of any boat will depend on things like condition of mast and boom, sails, cradle, trailer, etc, etc, so it is difficult to quantify with the information you have given.
From what I understand most Sonatas suffer from a rusty keel/hull joint to a certain degree, and mine was no different. It is fixable but ultimitely will cost money to do, so needs to be accounted for.
To put a fair value on the boat, I would get a feel for market value of a good boat from this website, work out what needs to be replaced on the boat you are looking at and subtract the cost from the value of the good boat price.
There is a lot of information on this website with guidance on what to look for when buying a Sonata.
I hope this helps you,
Regards,
George Jack.