NAWILIWILI — Bonjolea II pushed hard after climbing out of the starting point jam during the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Eric Wing Memorial Series, Race No. 7, the final race of the series.
Similarly, Fast Company settled back from the start line traffic that appeared to give OZone the best start in the 15- to 18-knot winds blowing out of the northeast.
“OZone felt like it was windier, and they were the only boat to put a reef in their main, and they used their small heavy-duty spinnaker,” said Chris Jordan, skipper of the Olson 30 that finished the final race of the series in fourth place. “OZone appeared to have the best start at the pin end on starboard tack.”
Fast Company worked the 6-mile, three-leg course to take the Kalapaki buoy first followed by Bonjolea II with OZone, Kato, Speedy, Papa A‘u, and Weatherly lining the short inside lap.
Bonjolea II made the move on Fast Company on the upwind leg of the first two long legs to the Ninini Point Lighthouse buoy.
“Kato was catching up, and OZone tried hard to keep ahead and to weather of them to give them bad air,” Jordan said. “But on the downwind leg under spinnaker, Kato easily passed them, and OZone’s skipper was kicking himself for not shaking out the reef in the mainsail, and for not putting up the larger spinnaker.”
Bonnie Tiffany, behind the wheel of Bonjolea II, continued to hold position and kept pushing to increase its lead on the pack with Jim Saylor and crew aboard Fast Company in full control of the No. 2 position.
Bonjolea II took line honors after sounding the finish horn on an elapsed sail of 1 hour, no minutes, and 41 seconds, and corrected to 1:05:18 PHRF for second place honors by a mere 11 seconds after Saylor tripped the finish horn on a 1:04:43 elapsed sail and corrected to 1:05:07 PHRF.
“Fast Company has shown everyone how fast she is by having three first-place finishes, and three second-place finished in the series,” Jordan said. “They only had one third-place finish which was their ‘throw-out’ for a total of nine points, overall. No wonder OZone and Weatherly are buying new sails.”
Speedy returned to the water for the final race of the NYC Eric Wing Memorial Series and tripped the clocks on a 1:09:30 elapsed sail, correcting to 1:00:53 Club for top honors in that class. She was followed by Weatherly (1:07:00 elapsed, 1:02:34 Club), and Papa A‘u (1:11:09 elapsed, 1:04:03 Club).
“The new young racers aboard Double Espresso were about 10 minutes behind the winning boat which is not bad for their second race, ever,” Jordan said. “They weren’t even lapped, this time. We expect them to get better with every race.”
The Nawiliwili Yacht Club will break on the shoreline series this week in preparation for the Around the Island Race that starts on May 29 to Hanalei, Port Allen, and returning, Monday to Nawiliwili.
•••
Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
