‘Lelele’ gets second top honor

Seven seconds was the margin between first and second place at the Nawiliwili Harbor, Thursday.

That was according to Sharon Gibson, scorekeeper for the Nawiliwili Yacht Club who sponsors the weekly yacht races.

Sailing in “light air” and a relatively flat sea, “OZone,” one of three Olson 30s in the race, was beat out by “Lelele” on an elapsed time of 46:19 over “OZone’s” 46:25.

Based on the PHRF corrected times, “Lelele” picked up its second first finish in the Dick Becker Memorial Series on a 46:10 corrected time. “OZone” settled in second place at 46:29 followed by “Fast Company,” the top finishing yacht in last week’s race, at 47:13 (PHRF).

“Papa‘au,” an Express 27, filled in the fourth berth at 48:58 (PHRF) followed by “Speedy,” another of the Olson 30s, at 51:18 (PHRF).

Last week, “Speedy” finished a solid No. 4, but this week, according to Gibson, the Olson 30 was strapped with a two-turn penalty shortly following the start for committing a right-of-way foul. That set back the crew who never fully recovered.

Two of the seven boats involved in the race are described as “heavy boats” by Gibson, and following the fleet of “lighter” boats, waged its own battle.

“Bonjolea,” an X-342, crossed the finish line with an elapsed time of 1:03:27 over “Coyote,” a C&C 38, who tripped the clock at 1:04:13.

But based on the PHRF adjustments, the race was given to “Coyote” (1:00:09) over “Bonjolea” (1:01:01).

The Dick Becker Memorial Series continues with Race No. 3 of the six-race series on Thursday.

The public is invited to view the competition from the vantage of the Nawiliwili jetty wall where NYC race officials are stationed and are more than happy to bring spectators up to date on any of the boats involved in the racing.

First flag usually flies at about 4:45 p.m. with the race getting underway at 5 p.m.