Fast Company takes series

NAWILIWILI — Jim Saylor topped the pony phase of the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Horse and Pony Shoreline Series, Race No. 2 to clinch the overall win Thursday at the Nawiliwili Harbor.

Sailing Fast Company under winds of 15 to 18 mph out of the north northeast, Saylor earlier overcame the excitement of the U.S. Coast Guard hauling in the Red No. 2 can in for servicing and created his own brand of excitement by beating OZone by a scant 2 seconds for the win in the horse phase of the race.

Bonjolea II faced its handicap of trying to build a big enough lead to overcome its PHRF correction by building a lead against the efforts of Trinity, an F-28 trimaran, coming back from the first leg to Ninini. By the close of the second leg, Bonjolea II had built on its opening leg, but not enough to overcome the PHRF correction, and crossed the finish line on a sail of 47 minutes and 1 second for first overall honors. Bonjolea II corrected to 50:06 PHRF, a mere five ticks behind OZone for third place in the horse phase.

Mike Armstrong piloted the Laser (pony) to a third place finish to give the Sydney 36 an overall third place.

Fast Company, with Saylor at the stick, pushed ahead of OZone on an elapsed sail of 49:44, 9 seconds ahead of OZone (49:56), correcting to 49:49 PHRF for a 2-second lead ahead of OZone (50:01 PHRF). Saylor iced the win on a first finish aboard his Laser in the pony phase of the race.

Papaau (52:43 elapsed, 50:28 PHRF), Speedy (53:04 elapsed, 53:09 PHRF) and Trinity (47:22 elapsed, 53:55 PHRF) rounded out the field. Speedy corrected to 46:02 Club for top honors in that class.

The Horse and Pony series continues Thursday and the public is invited to view the competition with the NYC Race Committee from the jetty area and the ramp area of the Nawiliwili Small Boat Harbor when the first flags fly at the jetty area at 5 p.m.