OZone, with Sawyer Judd as its qualifying Junior, picked up its second win Thursday during the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Junior Invitational Series, Race No. 2 at the Nawiliwili Harbor. “The second race of the NYC Junior Invitational started with a
OZone, with Sawyer Judd as its qualifying Junior, picked up its second win Thursday during the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Junior Invitational Series, Race No. 2 at the Nawiliwili Harbor.
“The second race of the NYC Junior Invitational started with a bang,” said NYC Rear Commodore Kevin Arndt. “Well, almost a bang as the port tack Bonjolea II converged on the starboard tack Papa a‘u. Bonjolea II tacked over, but not before the skipper of Papa a‘u felt collision was immenent and made a course change, a red protest flag sprouting from Papa a‘u’s rigging, signaling its intent on filing a formal protest following the race with the NYC Race Committee.”
The action only slightly distracted spectators from the race under 10 to 17-knot winds out of the north over the 5.92-mile course spanning three legs.
“The opening leg sent the boats to the Ninini Point Lighthouse buoy where the racers felt the power of the north wind,” Arndt said. “After rounding the outside mark, some skippers elected to set their spinnakers in the open seaway beyond Ninini. This thrilled the juniors aboard the boats and the shorebound spectators as the boats struggled to maintain control under a full suit of sail area.”
When the spray settled, Trinity, an F-28 trimaran, slipped first across the finish line as spray flew from her lee bow barely visible above the water’s surface and stopped the clock at an elapsed sail of 1 hour, 3 minutes, and 42 seconds.
Despite the first overall finish, the PHRF correction put the trimaran in seventh place on a 1:12:30 PHRF correction. OZone, coming in third overall on a 1:06:47 elapsed sail, corrected to 1:06:53 PHRF for top honors for the second straight week. Papa a‘u, with its red protest flag flying, crossed on a 1:10:18 elapsed sail, fourth overall, but corrected to 1:07:17 PHRF for second place honors.
Bonjolea II, with Nick Collins as its Junior, crossed on a 1:04:20 elapsed sail — second overall — and corrected to 1:08:33 PHRF for a tie with Fast Company (1:08:27 elapsed) for third place.
Weatherly (1:10:21 elapsed, 1:10:27 PHRF), Coyote (1:17:03 elapsed, 1:12:09 PHRF), Trinity, and Speedy (1:13:38 elapsed, 1:13:44 PHRF) rounded out the fleet.
Trinity corrected to 59:39 Club for top honors in that class followed by Coyote (1:01:09 Club) and Weatherly (1:07:12 Club) rounding out the class leaderboard.
The third race of the four-race series takes place Thursday when the first flags fly at 5 p.m.
