NAWILIWILI — Bonjolea II grabbed full advantage of the northerly winds blowing at 10 to 15 knots during the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Phil Tanner Memorial Series, Race No. 4.
Building an early lead, Bonjolea II held on for first-to-finish honors on a 1 hour, 1 minute, and 33 seconds elapsed sail. Bonjolea II was challenged by Trinity, a trimaran, throughout the three-leg course measuring 6.11 miles, but slipped ahead to sound the finish horn just 24 ticks ahead of the trimaran who clocked a 1:01:57 elapsed sail.
But the first finish was not enough to overcome the handicap as the Sydney 36 finished in fourth place overall at 1:06:14 PHRF. The handicap was more punishing to Trinity who corrected to 1:10:54 PHRF for eighth place in the nine-boat fleet.
“Trinity, at times showing great bursts of speed with Walt driving, was 24 seconds behind Bonjolea II,” said Chris Jordan, the skipper aboard OZone that finished sixth (1:06:42 elapsed, 1:07:07 PHRF). “It was the finely-tuned Kato taking the overall win on corrected time (1:02:58 elapsed, 1:03:39 PHRF), just 46 seconds ahead of Fast Company (1:04:03 elapsed, 1:04:27 PHRF) in second place.”
Papa A‘u sounded the finish horn with a 1:07:59 elapsed sail, and corrected to 1:05:22 PHRF for third place, less than a minute back of Fast Company.
“Jeff Olsen who was helming Papa A‘u suffered from a reaction to his second COVID19 vaccination, but he was able to keep the Express 27 in the mix all day,” Jordan said. “Victoria Aiu was back on Papa A‘u’s foredeck following a neck injury and she was outstanding with their spinnaker sets while Andy Evans trimmed the sheet. Jan trimmed their main.”
Fast Company, winning the first three races of the series, suffered spinnaker wraps on the two downwind legs of the three-leg course.
“Despite the rain, the Kato crew was seen to be tuning their shrouds with some equipment borrowed from Jim Saylor,” Jordan said. “They are serious hard core sailors.”
Iwa, an Oceanis 41, corrected to 56:37 Club for top honors in that class, followed by Trinity correcting to 56:57 Club, just 20 seconds back of the Iwa, and Speedy correcting to 59:40 Club for the third spot in the division.
The fifth race of the Phil Tanner Memorial Series will take place, Thursday when the first flags fly at 5 p.m. at the Nawiliwili mole parking area. The public is invited to view the competition with the NYC Race Committee, and join in the festivities that include Dick Olsen, skipper aboard Speedy, providing corned beef and cabbage to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on March 11. Guests need to RSVP to cjordan@wilcoxhealth.org because the NYC facility can only have 25 people in the building.
