OZone dogged Bonjolea II through the final leg of the two-leg race and — despite relinquishing first to finish honors to the Sydney 36 — topped the race following the PHRF correction Thursday. The action took place during the sixth
OZone dogged Bonjolea II through the final leg of the two-leg race and — despite relinquishing first to finish honors to the Sydney 36 — topped the race following the PHRF correction Thursday.
The action took place during the sixth race of the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Gene Wells Memorial Series at Nawiliwili Harbor.
The cooling evening aggravated the already inconsistent trade winds which blew in the 5 to 15 mph range from the northeast and ebbed and flowed, pushing skippers to sharpen their skills on tack strategy.
“The start of this Race No. 6 was a classic,” said NYC Rear Commodore Fred Styer.
Fast Company took the low road early on, battling with Weatherly.
But Bonjolea II unleashed its full spinnaker on the down-wind to take control of the field. OZone stayed close to the ship skippered by Bonnie Tiffany.
Bonjolea II slipped across the finish line on an elapsed sail of 46 minutes, 5 seconds over the 3.71-mile course, but could not overcome OZone’s dogged challenge, settling for second place after correcting to 49:06 PHRF. OZone was 38 seconds behind Bonjolea II, crossing with an elapsed sail of 46:43 and corrected to 46:47 PHRF for top honors.
Papaau bided her time in the fleet, crossing on a 52:21 elapsed sail and corrected to 50:07 PHRF for third place, nearly 50 seconds ahead of Fast Company, which crossed on an elapsed sail of 50:52 and corrected to 50:57 PHRF for fourth place.
Weatherly (54:41 elapsed, 54:46 PHRF), Speedy (55:55 elapsed, 56:00 PHRF), Coyote (1:00:15 elapsed, 56:26 PHRF), and Trinity (51:16 elapsed, 58:22 PHRF).
Trinity corrected to 45:48 Club for top honors in that class followed by Coyote (47:21 Club) and Speedy (48:30 Club).
The final race of the NYC Gene Wells Memorial Series will get underway starting at 5 p.m. Thursday when first flags fly.
