NAWILIWILI — Bonjolea II, skippered by Bonnie Tiffany, picked up its third consecutive win in the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Invitational Series Thursday. The third win puts Bonjolea II in good position to take the four-race series that ends with this Thursday’s race at Nawiliwili Harbor.
Racing in light winds of 6 to 12 knots out of the northeast to east northeast, Tiffany positioned the Sydney 36 for a good start, and according to Doug Tiffany, “shutting out OZone, who had to fall off at the last second to come behind mere inches from Bonjolea II’s stern.”
“Bonjolea II, OZone and Weatherly raced neck and neck to the Kalapaki No. 2 can, which was the next rounding off the start,” Doug Tiffany said. “Bonjolea II overstood that mark by three to four boat lengths before turning out towards the windward mark in first place.”
From that point, Bonjolea II built a lead, and nursed it through the race despite adding an extra turn at the Kalapaki buoy coming inland from the first leg to the Ninini Point buoy.
“That extra turn shouldn’t penalize her,” said Sharon Gibson of the NYC. “But Bonjolea II had a huge handicap to keep an eye on. She needs to finish with such a great amount of time to make up for that handicap.”
Bonjolea II picked up line honors, sounding the horn on an elapsed time of one hour, 6 minutes, 59 seconds, and corrected to 1:20:17 PHRF for top honors in the PHRF class.
Weatherly posted a 1:23:17 PHRF time for second place with OZone finishing with a 1:23:32 PHRF.
The final race of the series starts Thursday when the first flags fly at 5 p.m., with best viewing from the Nawiliwili jetty area parking lot.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
