sonar sailboat racing

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2024 Sonar World Championship

September 9 - september 15.

The preliminary schedule for the 2024 Sonar Words at Noroton Yacht Club, Darien, CT, are as follows:

Monday, Sept 9  early registration/measurement

Tuesday, Sept 10 early registration and measurement

Wednesday, Sept 11 registration in the morning

             Practice race in the afternoon (3pm)

 Thursday – Sunday, Sept 12 thru 15th racing

 No racing after 1400 on Sept 15.

Notice of Race, Information, and Registration HERE .

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Life Jacket Study

What kind of sailboat is a Sonar , and what are the features of this boat?

Sonars are a triple handed keelboat raced by both adaptive and able bodied sailors. The Sonar is used by sailors who enjoy a team mentality, who are often interested in racing in addition to cruising. The Sonar has a mileu of possible adaptions. Several are described below.

The video below shows both a transfer bench and an swiveling adapted Sonar seat (although the sound quality is poor),

The Sip and Puff joystick steering system is an option that helps individuals with limited mobility steer the Sonar. Find information on what a Sip and Puff system is, and where to purchase one.

Other adaptions include Stability bars and drop in seats are also used in tandem in the Sonar to help crew and skipper move from side to side as the boat sails.

Sonars also have different seating options, including:

• Mid-Boat Seat : This seat is installed towards the center of the Sonar and is designed to accomodate individuals using Sip and Puff systems. The seat can be positioned from side to side using cleats.
• Gimbaled Mid-Boat Seat : The gimbaled seat sits lower in the boat and swivels to keep the Skipper upright as the boat heels.
• For general information, and to purchase a Sonar, visit Rondar Raceboats .
• Other possible adaptions include changing the main sheet purchase and the location of the mainsheet block. Purchase adjustments are covered on page 50 of US Sailing's Adaptive Sailing Resource Manual .

Categories: Adaptive Resource Library Types of Boats

• Adaptive Resource Library
• Example Adaptions
• Sitting in the Sailboat
• Steering the Sailboat
• Transfering Into the Sailboat
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Let us know if you have questions, or if a question has gone unanswered! We will endeavor to find an answer for you and your program.

Clagett Sailing

231 Indian Avenue, Portsmouth, RI 02871 Phone: (401) 846-4470 Email:   [email protected]  

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Rondar Sonar Now a World Sailing Class!

• Sparkling Performance
• Self draining cockpit
• Deep keel for stability
• Deep rudder for control in all weather
• 75% fractional rig, Dacron Sails
• Slipway Launch
• Easy launch, easy tow, easy trailed
• All the family can sail and race
• Ideal for sail and race training
• Low maintenance
• Easily adaptable for all disabled sailors
• Sail and storage bow cuddy
• Race competitively with three or four crew.
• The Sonar surfs and planes readily downwind.
• Well-balanced, inboard rudder.
• Faster than a J/24 in windy conditions.
• Strict one-design rules.
• Clean and uncluttered cockpit.
• Small jib can be handled by nearly any size crew member.
• Single jib, main, and spinnaker.
• 7'10" beam for easy trailering.
• 11'6" cockpit seats 8 comfortably.
• Full-length molded bench seats with angled backs.
• Self-bailing cockpit.
• Lockable cuddy under the foredeck holds gear, or an outboard motor, even a small Porta Potti.
• 900 lb. keel keeps the boat stable and dry.

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SONAR TUNING GUIDE

This comprehensive tuning guide will give you the key information needed to stay in the front of the Sonar fleet, whether you are sailing at the local or national level. Our sails are designed with proven technology in cloth as well as shape to insure durability and speed on the race course. Our sails are also designed to keep things simple in order to give you the confidence that is needed to keep your head out of the boat while sailing in close One Design competition.

TOOLS NEEDED

• 50 Foot Tape Measure
• Shims (At mast partners)
• Electrical Tape
• Screw Driver
• Mast Blocks (six 1/2″ blocks)
• Indelible Marker
• Adjustable Wrench
• Model “A” Loos gauge

Before Stepping the Mast

• Forestay should be 25′ 11″ when measured from the bearing point of the Tee fitting aloft to the center of the turnbuckle clevis pin.
• Clean and lubricate turnbuckles.
• Spreader angle: set deflection at 2 3/4 — 3″.

**To get proper deflection measure from the back face of the mast to a line extending between the holes in the spreader tips. This distance should be 2 3/4 — 3″.

After Stepping the Mast

• Adjust partner to fit snugly side to side (so mast is centered).
• Mast step: Measure the distance from the aft face of the mast where it meets the step casting to the gel-coat edge of the center of the cabin opening lip near the floor. This should be set between 28 1/4″ and 28 3/4″. (Ontario boats only.)
• Next, measure the distance from the forward edge of the mast partner opening to the center of the headstay anchor point. The class rule limits this dance to 7′-11.5″.

Fine Tuning the Rig

• Center the mast laterally using a tape measure on the jib halyard to a common spot on the port and starboard rails.
• Remove any mast blocks as well as the lower shrouds from the chainplates.
• Remove the slack from the backstay until the headstay just becomes taut (no mast bend.) Place a mark on the deck abeam of the aft face of the mast. This is your reference point in the relaxed state.
• Now pre-bend your mast at the deck with mast blocks on the aft side until you have moved the mast 1″ forward of the mark. Make a new mark and erase the old. This is the new “Neutral” position.
• Next, you want to tension your upper shrouds in equal increments on both sides to between 230-260 pounds using a “LOOS-Model A” tension gauge (cable size is 5/32″ or equivalent.) Check the mast laterally again by repeating step #l.
• Finally you want to attach the lower shrouds and adjust them so that you can make 8 to 10” circles with them at shoulder height. This requires some guess work but loose lowers are required to keep the tip of the mast in column when you are sailing. Minor adjustments should be made to you’re lowers when you first go sailing by sighting up the mast track and tightening or loosening the lowers to keep the rig straight. Now you have a great starting point and adjustments will be made from and relative to this position depending on different wind strengths and sea conditions.

Trimming Your Sails

It’s important to mark all your shrouds, sheets, tracks, outhaul, backstay, etc. Keep records of your tuning set-ups for different conditions in order to be able to reproduce settings when you know the boat was going fast.

You want to make six 1/2″ wide plastic blocks from the template shown below, this will give you the proper amount of blocks to take up the extra space and allow you to block the mast according to our chart. **Blocking measured from aft face of mast relative to the neutral position.

Blocking Positions:

Light Air/Flat Water: 1″ in front of neutral

Light Air/Lump:1/2″in front of neutral

Medium Air/Flat Water: Neutral

Medium Air / Lump: Neutral

Heavy Air/Flat Water: 1/2″ behind neutral

Heavy Air/Lump: 1″ behind neutral

Mast blocking has two profound effects. First, the more blocks you put behind the mast the less headstay tension you will have and the more the headstay will sag. This results in a deeper and more powerful jib for light and lumpy conditions.

Secondly, blocking in front of the mast will create more headstay tension thus a flatter jib for windy conditions. The second effect is relative draft position of the lower part of the main. In lighter air blocking to induce pre-bend (behind the mast), will remove forward draft and decrease the depth of the sail. In heavy conditions, you will want to block in front of the mast in order to power up the bottom part of the main in order to help you through rougher seas. Remember blocking in front also give you more tension on the headstay for a flatter jib.

Trim the mainsheet hard enough to make the top batten parallel to the boom.

You can check this by sighting from underneath the boom on a vertical plane. Once the boat has accelerated and you want to point higher, trim harder (2-3″) to cock the top batten slightly to weather. If the mainsheet is too tight (top batten hooking to weather), you will slow down. In light air and choppy water, the top batten should be parallel or twist off slightly. You may want to mark your mainsheet somewhere in the middle so you have a nice reference point for mark roundings and upwind sailing. Pull the traveler car to windward until the boom is on centerline. To check this, have your crew sight aft along the boom and line up the center of the boom with the eye that attaches the backstay to boat (this should be in the center of the transom). Keep the boom on centerline up to 12 knots and gradually drop the traveler to keep helm and heeling under control as wind speed increases. The lens foot allows the sail to act as a loose-footed sail. Upwind the lens foot should not be fully open. To set your outhaul properly, use the following guide:

**This chart is based on settings relative to the black band

**On reaches and runs the outhaul is eased 1 – 2″.

The cunningham is used to position the draft in the main. Your goal should be to keep the maximum draft position 50% back in the sail or just slightly forward of this. In a new sail, we use no cunningham up to 6 knots, enough to remove most of the wrinkles in 7 – 14 knots and progressively tighter in higher winds so there are no wrinkles. Pull the cunningham very hard above 18 knots to move the draft forward in the top of the sail. Under most circumstances, you do not need much backstay tension.

The exception would be in breezy, extremely puffy conditions, particularly when combined with flat water. In these conditions, you can use the backstay as a power control. Pulling the backstay reduces the power in the mainsail up high by opening the leech, thus reducing heel and weather helm. Remember, backstay has a large effect on luff sag. A tighter backstay equals less luff sag. More luff sag makes the jib entry fuller and moves the point of maximum draft back. This is best in light air and flat water. As the breeze freshens, a straighter jib luff produces a flatter jib entry. Use the boom vang downwind and on the reaches to control the amount of twist in the mainsail. The twist should be the least amount that still permits attached flow at the upper batten telltale and stalling is unavoidable. From 100 degrees or so to a dead run set, the vang so the top batten is parallel to the boom. Your main sail is equipped with a leech cord. The primary function of the leech cord is to prevent the leech from fluttering. In windy conditions, tension the leech cord to prevent the leech from fluttering. In light to moderate conditions, pull it just tight enough to eliminate flutter.

Your North Sonar jib does not have a wire in it. Therefore, luff sag is controlled by headstay tension (see blocking and backstay section of tuning guide). Luff sag is measured as an offset from the center of the jib luff to a straight line between the head and tack of the jib. To trim the jib correctly, you must have the lead in the proper fore and aft position. This is accomplished by moving the lead forward or backwards until all three telltales on your jib lift at the same time as you begin to pinch the boat above a close hauled course. If you find that the windward telltale on the top of the sail lifts before the ones lower down, this is an indication that the lead is so far aft and should be moved forward. Conversely, should the windward telltale on the bottom of the sail lift before those higher, then you should move the lead aft. After experimenting in say 8 to 12 knots and you have your central lead position, you may want to move the lead forward a little in very light air and aft a bit when the breeze is above 15 knots. The most critical adjustment you will make with your jib is the sheet tension. The best way to gauge this is to pull the sheet is when you are going upwind until the upper batten is parallel to the center line of the boat at the back end, or perhaps points just to leeward from parallel. In no instance do you want the upper batten pointing to windward towards the mainsail. This will create backwinding and stall the boat which will slow you down.

Spinnaker and Downwind Sailing

Set the vang so the top batten is parallel to the boom. Ease cunningham, outhaul and backstay. Trim the spinnaker so there is 6″ to 8″ of curl in the luff. Keep pole perpendicular to apparent wind. Keep outboard end of the pole even with the free clew. On runs you may want to use some leeward tweeker to keep the leeward leech from opening too much.** Remember, over trimming the spinnaker (never allowing the luff to curl) chokes down the slot between spinnaker, leech, and main. The result is a boat driven sideways instead of forward.

Steering Technique

The Sonar has a very big main, therefore, it is very important to balance the boat for different wind strengths. If your boat is not balanced, you will feel it in the helm. In heavy conditions you want to de-power the main in order to reduce windward helm. Since hiking is limited in the Sonar class, it is a good idea to sail with four people, you can use these people to your advantage by moving them around in the boat. Use crew weight to help steer the boat upwind as well as downwind. In light air, keep the crew weight low and forward in the boat as the wind freshens moves the crew weight to the windward rail and forward and close together. In all conditions playing the mainsheet, traveler and backstay will keep you in close tune with the helm. Remember, steering fast is a function of concentration and balance of your boat.

This tuning guide has provided the numbers and know-how to balance your boat. Now it is time to get out and practice and enjoy the upcoming racing season.

Your new main and jib are made from stiff resinated cloth. With just a little extra care, they will perform at top speed longer than softer materials. Both main and jib come in tube bags. They should be rolled starting at the head straight down the leech so that the battens remain parallel. The spinnaker should be flaked so that the leech tapes do not get wrinkled. The spinnaker should not be stored wet for long periods of time — some bleeding of colors may occur and this is not covered by warranty. All sails should be rinsed periodically to remove salt and should be dry when rolled up. Diligence in these areas will dramatically extend the life of your sails.

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Racing a Sonar Under PHRF

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I am interested in everyone''s opinion on how a sonar would do racing PHRF on Long Island Sound. There is a local Sonar Fleet, but they race on every weekend, and that is not viable for me. I want to do the Wed night beer can races. I don''t need to win every race, but I don''t want to be lapped either. The rest of the boats are much larger: Pearson Flyer, X99, CC99, Olsen 30 and a J24.  

I do not see a PHRF rating for the Sonar on LIS. Some regions have minimum accommodation standards and boats like the Sonar and a One design equipped J-22 might not meet that standard and so are not rated. I am saying that is definitely the case with LIS and the Sonar. Otherwise a Sonar should do about as well as a J-22 or J-24 under PHRF. Jeff  

It''s there, the rating is 174. The same as a J-24.  

My experience is that one-designs can do fine in PHRF and the Sonar would seem like an excellent choice for Wednesday nights - very comfortable for a gang, small jib, easy to handle. That said, if you want to do well, get yourself on a Sonar that wins on the weekends and soak up everything about how they make the boat go. One-design racing has the benefits of pushing the performance of the boat and the tactics of the crew to their peak - if you can figure out how make the boat perform well and win in one-design, then you should be able to clean up in PHRF.  

We had a Sonar race in our fleet on Long Island Sound on Wednesday nights. Since the PHRF fleet raced sans spinnaker (to make it simpler for more people to race on the bigger boats), the Sonar couldn''t sail to its rating. The long courses made for extremely late finishes for the Sonar - when they didn''t have to paddle in from having the wind die on them after the rest of the fleet had finished. It was an extremely frustrating experience for the owner, who sold the boat. In a different fleet, with boats like J/24''s more closely matched to the Sonar''s rating, with it might work out better.  

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• Sailboat Guide

Sonar is a 22 ′ 11 ″ / 7 m monohull sailboat designed by Bruce Kirby and built by Rondar Raceboats, Shumway Marine, Seidelmann Yachts, Ontario Yachts, C. E. Ryder, and DS Yachts (Schwill Yachts) starting in 1980.

Rig and Sails

Auxilary power, accomodations, calculations.

The theoretical maximum speed that a displacement hull can move efficiently through the water is determined by it's waterline length and displacement. It may be unable to reach this speed if the boat is underpowered or heavily loaded, though it may exceed this speed given enough power. Read more.

Classic hull speed formula:

Hull Speed = 1.34 x √LWL

Max Speed/Length ratio = 8.26 ÷ Displacement/Length ratio .311 Hull Speed = Max Speed/Length ratio x √LWL

Sail Area / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the power of the sails relative to the weight of the boat. The higher the number, the higher the performance, but the harder the boat will be to handle. This ratio is a "non-dimensional" value that facilitates comparisons between boats of different types and sizes. Read more.

SA/D = SA ÷ (D ÷ 64) 2/3

• SA : Sail area in square feet, derived by adding the mainsail area to 100% of the foretriangle area (the lateral area above the deck between the mast and the forestay).
• D : Displacement in pounds.

Ballast / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the stability of a boat's hull that suggests how well a monohull will stand up to its sails. The ballast displacement ratio indicates how much of the weight of a boat is placed for maximum stability against capsizing and is an indicator of stiffness and resistance to capsize.

Ballast / Displacement * 100

Displacement / Length Ratio

A measure of the weight of the boat relative to it's length at the waterline. The higher a boat’s D/L ratio, the more easily it will carry a load and the more comfortable its motion will be. The lower a boat's ratio is, the less power it takes to drive the boat to its nominal hull speed or beyond. Read more.

D/L = (D ÷ 2240) ÷ (0.01 x LWL)³

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds.
• LWL: Waterline length in feet

Comfort Ratio

This ratio assess how quickly and abruptly a boat’s hull reacts to waves in a significant seaway, these being the elements of a boat’s motion most likely to cause seasickness. Read more.

Comfort ratio = D ÷ (.65 x (.7 LWL + .3 LOA) x Beam 1.33 )

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds
• LOA: Length overall in feet
• Beam: Width of boat at the widest point in feet

Capsize Screening Formula

This formula attempts to indicate whether a given boat might be too wide and light to readily right itself after being overturned in extreme conditions. Read more.

CSV = Beam ÷ ³√(D / 64)

Commissioned by members of Noroton YC of Darien CT USA and first built by Seidelmann Yachts. A few were also built by Carbon Index in the UK. Current builder (2019) is Rondar Raceboats.

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1978 Sonar Restoration by Shumway Marine

1978 Sonar Sailboat – Awaiting Restoration

Late last fall we sold a 1978 Sonar to Skip Shumway of  Shumway Marine . The boat was in pretty tough shape. The blue gel coat had faded to a chalky hue. The black anodized mast had rubbed through to the bare aluminum. The rudder and keel were both a mess in each their own unique way, and the interior was pretty much shot.

We were certain that for the right buyer, though, we had a diamond in the rough. The Sonar is a great daysailer and racer, and we are glad to announce that this one is back!

Take a look at the after picture!

As the Shumway crew puts on the finishing touches, this boat is actively for sale. Interested ? Contact Shumway Marine through their contact page .

About Shumway Marine:

From delicate rowing shells to 65 foot yachts,  Shumway Marine  can repair it all. Our experienced craftsmen work with wood and fiberglass for  structural  or  cosmetic repairs .

Our  certified mechanics  work on Mercruiser, Yanmar, Westerbeke and Universal engines.   Electrical wiring  work and  custom rigging  are also available. We have two  40 ton hoists  and offer yacht loading and unloading for transport.

1978 Sonar Sailboat – After

The  Paint Shop  can accomodate up to 45′ boats. Our painters are skilled in using  Awlgrip ,  Imron , and  gelcoat  for refinishing. Blister repair, bottom painting, and doll-ups are also done through our Paint Shop.

About the Sonar Sailboat:

The 23′ Sonar one-design keelboat is a high-performance racer and also a comfortable daysailor just right for getting the entire family or friends on the water together. It was designed by Bruce Kirby and almost 700 boats have been built since 1980. The Sonar has recently achieved status as an International Class.

Performance

• Race competitively with three or four crew.
• The Sonar surfs and planes readily downwind.
• Well-balanced, inboard rudder
• Faster than a J/24 in windy conditions.
• Strict one-design rules.
• Clean and uncluttered cockpit.
• Small jib can be handled by nearly any size crew member.
• Single jib, main, and spinnaker.
• 7’10” beam for easy trailering.
• 11’6″ cockpit seats 8 comfortably.
• Full-length molded bench seats with angled backs.
• Self-bailing cockpit.
• Lockable cuddy under the foredeck holds gear, or an outboard motor, even a small Porta Potti.
• 900 lb. keel keeps the boat stable and dry.

Origin of the Sonar:

“The Sonar may well be the best boat I’ve ever designed.” – Bruce Kirby

It started when Bruce Kirby’s home club (Noroton Yacht Club, Darien, CT USA) couldn’t find the right boat to get their members involved in club racing; fewer and fewer of its members were participating.

They studied a great many existing classes of boats but all were considered too expensive, too slow, too demanding to sail, or just plain uncomfortable. So Bruce was asked to design a new boat specifically to meet the requirements of a club racing one-design keelboat fleet.

The result was the Sonar. The Noroton Yacht Club got every thing they wanted and more. And the Sonar has been greeted with enthusiasm by individuals and clubs all over the world.

We buy boats:

Shoreline Sailboats always has an interest in buying used sailboats. If you have a boat for sale, contact us using the form below:

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Florida divers go deep with sonar to find sunken cars, solve cold-case mysteries

• Lane DeGregory Times staff

TAMPA — There’s a car down there, deep in the muck of the Hillsborough River. Maybe a motorcycle.

They found it the other day, out on their little boat with their fancy fish finder: a shadow on the sonar with a golden blob in the center.

Now, on a warm winter afternoon, they’re wriggling into wetsuits below the 40th Street bridge, about to dive for a license plate.

“Could be stolen,” says John Martin, 55.

“Could be a homicide,” says Mike Sullivan, 44. “You never know. There could be a body in the trunk.”

In the last two years, the half-brothers who own Sunshine State Sonar have found more than 350 cars in canals, ponds and waterways across Florida.

Weekend fishermen turned amateur underwater detectives, the true-crime junkies dive into cold cases, searching for the disappeared. Sometimes, they choose the cases themselves, following threads online. Other times, law enforcement asks for their help.

They have discovered remains of 11 missing people inside cars, giving answers to relatives who had spent years agonizing.

One family, who thought their mom had left them, learned that she had driven off the road. Relatives of a missing teacher suspected his girlfriend — then found out he had been submerged in a canal for three years. And the son of a young mother who thought she had been murdered was relieved when her death proved a watery accident.

“You good?” Sullivan asks Martin, who is checking his air supply. Martin gives a thumbs-up.

They shove off, motoring toward a bobbing red buoy where they had marked the spot days before.

Sullivan splashes into the gray-green water, sinking through silt so thick he can’t see, feeling his way through the dark.

Martin owns a pool cleaning company in Lakeland. Sullivan, the leader, runs an auto parts business from his Gulfport home.

They both speak excitedly, spewing staccato sentences with thick Boston accents that haven’t ebbed after two decades in Florida.

“It all started with YouTube,” Sullivan says. “I kinda got obsessed.”

A couple of years ago, he got into bingeing Adventures with Purpose , videos of a volunteer dive team in Oregon that searches for missing people.

“Florida has so much water!” he told his wife. “I really need to do this.”

Sullivan has always owned fishing boats, loved catching king mackerel. He raced personal watercraft, flew airplanes, learned to read complicated instruments to navigate through the dark. A former mechanic, he knows car makes and models, can recognize hubcaps and bumpers.

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And he doesn’t just watch true crime, says his wife, Johanna. “He has to go to the scene to see for himself, if it’s in Florida. He just has to be there, especially for missing people.”

He didn’t know how to scuba dive. He’d never longed to float through crystal water or over schools of colorful fish. But he got certified so he could swim through muddy channels and search waterlogged crime scenes.

He bought a shallow-draft boat and outboard motor, rigged it with the latest fish-finding technology: a Lowrance SideScan sonar, a DownScan imaging device and a Garmin LiveScope. The machines send sound waves pulsing through the water, then record them as they bounce back to create a blurry image on a monitor — like a sonogram.

It’s similar technology to what authorities are using to scour the waters off of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, where search crews were able to detect at least five submerged vehicles.

The equipment cost Sullivan $21,000. It took him a year to be able to interpret the images, to tell a rock from a Volkswagen. He learned that small cars sink fast and SUVs, which have bigger air pockets, sometimes float.

“He’s always been high-energy, seeking adventure,” says Sullivan’s wife, who has been with him since they were 18. “Only now it has meaning.”

He started close to home, in Pinellas County, by reaching out to a cold-case detective. The officer told him about Robert Helphrey, 34. In 2006, after closing the Palm Harbor seafood restaurant where he worked, he went to a pub. Friends watched him drive away around 1:30 a.m., but no one ever found Helphrey or his Mitsubishi hatchback.

“He was a dad, a veteran,” Sullivan says. “He just disappeared.”

Over the next year and a half, Sullivan searched 150 bodies of water in Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties. “My friends and family thought I was crazy,” he says. “They were taunting me. One sent a Where’s Waldo? T-shirt.”

Sullivan reached out to Helphrey’s mom and daughter. Finally, last April, as the family looked on in shock, he found Helphrey’s car under 10 feet of water in a retention pond. For 17 years, his body had been submerged just a few miles from his home.

Sullivan doesn’t go fishing, ride personal watercraft or fly planes anymore. All of his free time goes toward searching.

Once a month, Sullivan, Martin and a couple of other volunteers go on expeditions, paying their own expenses. Last year, Sullivan says he spent $27,000 on Airbnb rentals across the state. Videos from their YouTube channel bring in about $100 a month.

“We’re blessed to have good income,” he says. “I just wish we could get a grant or something to do this full time.”

The car is upside down in the elbow bend of the Hillsborough River, nose-first, buried in sand up to its door handles.

Sullivan switches on a flashlight strapped to his left arm, takes out his phone in its waterproof case.

Swimming closer, 20 feet below the surface, he can make out a Cadillac, not too old, maybe black? The model: CTS.

On the back, there’s a Buccaneers plate — with a registration sticker valid until April 2024.

This can’t be the vehicle we’re looking for, Sullivan realizes.

A neighbor had called recently, concerned about an accident from 2019, where someone seemed to have gone over the guardrail.

This Cadillac’s demise must have been recent. Its windows are so caked over, it’s impossible to tell if anyone is inside.

“Could be an accident,” Martin says as their boat putters back to land. “Or insurance fraud.”

Sullivan nods. “Or suicide.”

Onshore, they peel off their wetsuits and call the cops.

The stories haunt Sullivan — those he has helped solve and those that elude him.

He thinks about missing people while he’s in the car line, waiting to pick up his kids. They keep him up at night, beside his sleeping wife.

When he finds someone, he offers their relatives a chance at closure. But he also quells whatever hope they might have left. “Calling families is the worst part,” Sullivan’s wife says. “He’s not trained to be a grief counselor.”

Every time Sullivan drives over a bridge, or around a cloverleaf with a retention pond, along every canal he crosses, he wonders: Could someone be down there?

Imagine driving along, he says, then suddenly sinking into dark water, trapped behind the wheel.

He researches newspaper archives, looks up police reports, scans maps and highway markers. In his phone, alongside family photos, Sullivan keeps pictures of the missing. He has memorized their faces and names, can recite when each person was last seen, and where they might have been driving.

Sandra Lemire was a single young mother, heading to a date at a Kissimmee Denny’s 12 years ago. She had borrowed her grandmother’s red minivan and promised to call on her way home.

Her family worried she had been kidnapped or killed.

Sullivan spent more than a year working with Orlando police as divers searched 63 bodies of water. In December, newly released cellphone records helped map Lemire’s drive. Sullivan’s sonar picked up the minivan in a retention pond off the Interstate 4 exit to Disney World. Her remains were inside.

Kareem Demarzo Tisdale, 30, disappeared from his parents’ Fort Lauderdale home 19 years ago. In January, while searching for someone else in a pond at Sawgrass Mills Mall, Sullivan and divers from Adventures with Purpose found what they think is Tisdale’s 1983 Oldsmobile. Police are testing DNA of the water-logged skeleton.

“The one that really got me, that I went through weeks of depression over, was Karen Moore,” Sullivan says. Less than 24 hours after the Davie-area mother filed a restraining order against her husband, she failed to pick up her daughter from Girl Scout camp. Sullivan found Moore inside her white Saturn 22 years later in a pond near her house.

In January, Sullivan says, they were able to “bring five people home” in six days.

“It’s a Cadillac down there,” Sullivan says, handing the bent metal plate to an officer. Ten cops have shown up, including Tampa police divers. Beneath a grove of live oaks, they stare at the sodden riverbank and the bouncing buoy, a football field away. The earth smells like wet leaves.

The ground is too wet, the slope too steep for a tow truck, the officers decide. “We’ll have to come back,” says Chris Audet, who coordinates the dive team. “Shut down the bridge and hoist it up from there.”

Running the plate, the cops learn that the 2013 Cadillac was stolen a few months ago in Hillsborough. “Great job,” Audet tells Sullivan and Martin. “We don’t have the time to go fishing like this.”

Be careful in the water, the officer tells them. “There are lots of dinosaurs out there.”

“Only the little gators come up to us,” Sullivan says. “At least so far.”

“I wouldn’t dive these ponds for golf balls,” he went on. “But knowing that we can make such a huge difference for some of these families …” He shook his head and wiped his eyes.

A couple of weeks later, five Tampa police divers drop into the Hillsborough River. The sun is bright, the air and water both 60 degrees. Their teeth chatter.

“We don’t know what could be in there,” Sgt. Charlie Feldman tells them. “Weapons? Remains? We can’t search it without lifting it.”

Every year, Tampa police recover about a dozen cars from waterways, Feldman says. But this process is more complicated because of the shore’s steep slope.

Recovery takes three hours. Divers attach straps and air bags to each of the car’s tires, then inflate them until the vehicle floats. A police boat pulls it to the bridge, where two tow trucks are waiting.

“It’s kind of cool,” says Ashley Maggart, 38, who is filming. “But it’s sad at the same time.”

Maggart, a mother of four, had called police about the damaged guardrail near her home years ago. When they didn’t investigate, she messaged the Sunshine State Sonar crew.

A boom hoists the car 30 feet above the bridge. Black mud, oil and water drain out, staining the river with a rainbow sheen, filling what looks like a swollen bladder dangling below.

“Oh, is that a head?” Maggart cries. “What’s in there?”

She sends a video to Sullivan, who is on spring break with his kids. He can’t believe he’s missing this.

“There’s a key in the ignition, but it’s corroded,” Feldman says. “After two weeks in water, any DNA evidence would be erased.”

He checks the glove box and back seat, which stink of decay, then shines a light into the trunk: Soggy paperwork. A water bottle. Otherwise, empty.

“If someone is in that river, their loved ones deserve to have that closure,” Maggart says. “Even if it’s just someone’s stolen vehicle, they deserve to know.”

The next weekend, Sullivan and his crew find two more cars in the Tampa Bay Bypass Canal. Next up, a trip to Miami.

“We got 53 cars we’ve located just in south Florida that we haven’t been able to dive on yet,” Sullivan says. “So many cases are still unsolved.”

Like Carlton McCarthy Ireland, who disappeared after leaving his Zephyrhills home to pawn a ring in Tampa.

And Peggy Wynell Byars-Baisden, 23, a mother of three, last seen in 1965 in a parking lot in Polk County.

Then there’s Brenda Starr, 32, who vanished from Palm Harbor in 1995 after dropping her daughter off at school. Sullivan has been searching for her Mazda Protege since he started diving.

Recently, he has been talking to her 82-year-old mom. He’s promised he’ll do everything he can to bring Brenda home.

Lane DeGregory is an enterprise reporter covering the people of Tampa Bay. She can be reached at [email protected].

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