NAWILIWILI — The public is invited to view the excitement second race of the Nawiliwili Yacht Club’s Spring Shakedown Series, Thursday when the first flags by the NYC Race Committee flies at 5 p.m. During last week’s race, the Race
NAWILIWILI — The public is invited to view the excitement second race of the Nawiliwili Yacht Club’s Spring Shakedown Series, Thursday when the first flags by the NYC Race Committee flies at 5 p.m.
During last week’s race, the Race Committee, in the face of brisk 15-knot winds out of the north-northeast, unwrapped a 5.8-nautical mile course, one of the longer courses, to the fleet of nine boats taking on the challenge.
“Given the windy conditions, some crews opted to race with reduced sail area by reefing their main sails,” said NYC Rear Commodore Kevin Arndt. “Others felt they could carry a full main to the weather mark and gain a speed advantage on the long downwind legs.”
Fast Company took an early advantage off an easterly tack off the pack, holding off a challenge by OZone, coming off the middle of the pack, off the start line as its calls of “Starboard!” carried above the blowing winds.
“OZone did not have quite the boat speed to cross ahead of Fast Company,” Arndt said. “She had to tack to starboard to give the right-of-way to the leader.”
Skippered by Jim Saylor, Fast Company steered first across the finish line on an elapsed sail of 1 hour, 7 minutes, 35 seconds and corrected to 1:07:41 PHRF for overall honors in the opening race which unfolded before a nice bundled-up audience, including several visitors from the cruise ship, at the mole, or the grassy area at the end of the jetty area parking lot.
“I’ve got some visitors here,” said Jessie Castro. “Some of them are leaving tonight, but they’re on ‘Speedy,’ racing.”
OZone crossed second (1:08:36 elapsed), but following the PHRF correction, settled for third place below Papaau (1:11:15 elapsed) by 30 seconds. Papaau corrected to 1:08:12 PHRF followed by OZone at 1:08:42 PHRF.
Speedy topped the Club class on a 1:02:08 Club followed by Coyote (1:04:55 Club) and Tinity, an F-28 trimaran which crossed third overall (1:09:45) and corrected to 1:05:19 Club.
Arndt said for those who want to enjoy the races virtually from the comfort of the Internet and not getting cold and wet, the updated Nawiliwili Yacht Club has a new look.
“A crew member aboard each boat racing runs an app on their smart phone during the race,” Arndt said. “The app downloads the boat’s speed and other telemetry to the RaceQ’s server for analysis later. By clicking the ‘Racing’ tab at the NYC website, and scrolling down to the ‘RaceQ’s Replay,’ people are able to watch a race.”
