NAWILIWILI — OZone picked up her second straight win to for the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Gene Wells Memorial Series lead , Thursday. The Olson 30 piloted by Chris Jordan came from behind heading into the final turn at the end
NAWILIWILI — OZone picked up her second straight win to for the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Gene Wells Memorial Series lead , Thursday.
The Olson 30 piloted by Chris Jordan came from behind heading into the final turn at the end of the first of two legs of the 3.4-mile course.
Fast Company, with Jim Saylor at the stick, played the starting horn perfectly, slipping into the lead as Papa‘au went on the can and did a penalty turn.
Coming in from the Ninini Point Lighthouse turn under North-Northeast winds in the 5 to 12 knot range, Fast Company continued to stay ahead of the 10-boat fleet.
At that point, OZone was in third place behind Bonjolea with Bonnie Tiffany at the wheel.
But rounding the turn heading to the far can, or buoy, OZone made its move, slipping past Bonjolea at the jetty point and before hitting the final turn, was ahead of Fast Company.
From that point, OZone simply stayed ahead of the challenging Fast Company, crossing the line on a 41:43 elapsed time and correcting to 41:47 PHRF for the win.
Fast Company, taking the first two races in the series, suffered more woes, crossing second overall on a 43:30 elapsed sail, but in the correction, tumbled to third place with its 43:34 PHRF correction, relinquishing to Bonjolea (45:14 elapsed) by a mere four seconds.
Papa‘au, who lost ground on the start line, finished on a 45:55 elapsed sail, correcting to 43:57 PHRF for fourth place. She corrected to 40:36 Club for top honors in that class.
Lelele (44:13 elapsed, 44:05 PHRF), Speedy (46:08 elapsed, 42:25 PHRF), Mapuana (49:42 elapsed, 43:39 PHRF), the sole Gene Wells created craft in the race, Coyote (51:18 elapsed, 48:03 PHRF), an F-24 (48:22 elapsed, 50:47 PHRF) and Trinity, an F-28 Trimaran, (50:30 elapsed, 57:29 PHRF) rounded out the field which ran under heavy cloud cover, limiting the distance before the sun went down.
The public is invited to view the competition when the Gene Wells Memorial Series continues with Race No. 5 of seven, Thursday.
First flags fly at 5 p.m. at the jetty point site.
