NAWILIWILI — Reese Whetsel said his daughter Risa, a freshman at Island School, was on the stick for Weatherly on Thursday afternoon when the Nawiliwili Yacht Club’s Ken Dorland Memorial Series, Race No. 5 got underway. “She’s just 14 years
NAWILIWILI — Reese Whetsel said his daughter Risa, a freshman at Island School, was on the stick for Weatherly on Thursday afternoon when the Nawiliwili Yacht Club’s Ken Dorland Memorial Series, Race No. 5 got underway.
“She’s just 14 years old,” Reese said. “Last week, she was on the stick for the entire race and the crew finished second (in Club class). She’s been in five or six races, but has always been relieved. She’s trying to go the distance, again.”
The 14-year-old’s hand held true, sailing the Olson 30 to a course running close to the Nawiliwili sea wall before tacking to an outside course to attack the Red Nun 11 can.
“Sending the boats to No. 11 is going to be interesting because of the wind,” said NYC Vice Commodore Ken Martinez. “If the winds stay true north, they’ll be in dead air.”
Racing in winds of 15 to 20 mph out of the north, northeast, peppered with a misting rain, Risa’s hand guided Weatherly to an overall third finish on an elapsed sail of 1 hour, 15 minutes, 37 seconds. The PHRF correction put the Olson 30 at third place on a 1:15:44 PHRF, below Fast Company (1:08:52 PHRF) and Rebel (1:12:26 PHRF).
Fast Company picked up its third first-place finish in the series to control the PHRF class with just one race remaining. Overall, First Company was second over the line with a 1:08:46 elapsed sail, nearly two minutes back of Trinity, an F-28 trimaran, who topped the fleet on a 1:06:42 elapsed sail.
The PHRF correction put Trinity in fourth place at 1:15:56 PHRF, 12 seconds behind Weatherly. A Club class correction put the trimaran first in that class on a 59:36 Club sail.
Speedy, an Olson 30, (1:24:34 elapsed, 1:24:42 PHRF) and Coyote (1:33:33 elapsed, 1:27:37 PHRF) got late starts in the race.
The public is invited to view the competition when the NYC Race Committee hosts its final race of the Ken Dorland Memorial Series Thursday at the Nawiliwili Harbor jetty wall with the first flags flying at 5 p.m.
