NAWILIWILI — The return of normal trades in the 10 to 15-knot range out of the northeast brought sanity back onto the waters of Nawiliwili Harbor when the Nawiliwili Yacht Club hosted the Horse and Pony Series, Race No. 3,
NAWILIWILI — The return of normal trades in the 10 to 15-knot range out of the northeast brought sanity back onto the waters of Nawiliwili Harbor when the Nawiliwili Yacht Club hosted the Horse and Pony Series, Race No. 3, Thursday.
The sailing activity appeared tame in comparison with the races of the previous weeks when the wind played havoc with the boats, but the excitement brewed on the scoreboards when Papa‘au finished first by virtue of its corrected times and Pony finish.
In the Horse and Pony Series, there are basically two races: the yacht portion, or Horse, and a one-man sailing race, the Pony, following the completion of the Horse race, the eventual results based on the combined results.
Fast Company, skippered by Jim Saylor whose dad watched with the jetty wall crowd, slipped into an early lead on the Horse phase and held onto that lead with a 28:22 elapsed sail, correcting to 28:25 PHRF and 27:49 Club.
The correction played havoc with the Saylor crew as Papa‘au, with Louis Abrams at the stick, crossed second overall on a 29:27 elapsed sail and corrected to 28:12 PHRF and 26:03 Club.
Those corrections pushed Papa‘au into first place for both the PHRF class and the Club Open class, and combined with a first finish in the Pony race, finished with two points, ahead of Fast Company.
Fast Company’s adjustments put it in second place of the PHRF class and third place in the Club class. Combining with a second finish in the Pony, Fast Company settled for second place with four points, placing it second overall by three points below Papa‘au with one race remaining in the series.
Bonjolea, suffering through spinnaker woes on the return from the Ninini Point turnaround, crossed fifth overall at 33:16 elapsed, but corrected to 31:59 PHRF and 27:48 Club, putting her fourth in the PHRF class, but second in the Club class. Combining her third finish in the Pony, Bonjolea finished third with seven points, tying with OZone.
OZone, whose Chris Jordan is involved with the Trans Pacific race, finished with a 30:24 elapsed sail and corrected to 30:27 PHRF and 29:46 Club for third place in the PHRF class and fifth in the Club class, combining with its fourth place Pony finish for the seven points and tie with Bonjolea.
Speedy, who grabbed the lead off a good start, ended with a 32:52 elapsed sail and corrected to 32:55 PHRF and 30:13 Club for fifth in the PHRF class and sixth in the Club class. Its fifth finish in the Pony race gave its team 10 points, beating out Coyote’s 12 points.
The Coyote crew returned to the Nawiliwili waters for the first time in the third race of the series and finished with a 36:22 elapsed sail as the C&C 38 tripped the finish horn, correcting to 34:04 PHRF and 29:33 Club. Its crew did not race a Pony.
Everything goes on the line Thursday when the NYC Race Committee hosts the final race of the four-race series and the public is invited to view the excitement at no charge from the jetty wall viewing area.
First flags fly at 5 p.m.
Visit www.nawiliwiliyachtclub.org for more information.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@ thegardenisland.com.
