The course was A-A-D over 5.91 miles for this 3rd race in the series. The wind was 11-12 knots out of the Northeast. The start had Janice Portillo on Speedy and Victoria Aiu on Fast Company crossing the line at the same time with Fast Company a little more to weather. Ozone had Sj Lehoven trying out the helm while Bonjolea II had their regular Bonnie Tiffany steering and both boats were a little back of the other two starters. (Ozone’s owner had forgotten to put on RaceQ’s so not much will be said about them as they don’t show up on the computer). Bonjolea II tacked back towards the breakwater as soon as they crossed the starting line. Fast Company soon tacked to follow them and then Speedy tacked as well. Speedy on port tack subsequently had to duck the very fast Bonjolea II’s stern. When Bonjolea II tacked to get out of the harbor, Fast Company tacked just in front of them. The fractional rigged Bonjolea II was outpointing the Olson 30’s and gained to weather. And Speedy later outpointed Fast Company.
At the Ninini Lighthouse buoy rounding it was Bonjolea II leading followed by Fast Company as Speedy had to duck their stern. And when Speedy tacked back onto starboard towards the buoy, Ozone on port had to crash duck their stern.
The boat positions stayed fairly the same until the final lap around the Kalapaki buoy. Speedy was close on Fast Company’s stern, but at the buoy rounding they had some trouble that slowed them down as they tried to get around. And Ozone was now in front of Speedy and gaining on Fast Company.
Bonjolea II had rounded the G-11 buoy by the Coast Guard Station well in the lead and they were racing to the finish line. But as Ozone was trying to catch Fast Company disaster struck at this mark rounding. Their jib sheets got all tangled up in the spinnaker when they took the spinnaker down and now they couldn’t trim in their jib. And after clearing the lines and putting the pole away Speedy had caught up and was right next to them moving quickly. And when Speedy tacked towards the finish line, Ozone tacked right on top of them to cover. And it was now a horse race to the finish line with Sj Lehoven on Ozone and Janice Portillo on Speedy jockeying for position.
And at the finish line it was Bonjolea II taking line honors and first place over Fast Company in second place by 44 seconds on handicap. And Fast Company was about a minute ahead of Ozone who took third place. And Speedy was only 21 seconds behind Ozone. Great job wahines!
The 4th race in the Wahine Series will have to wait until 7/11/24 due to the planned race to Hanalei over July 4th.
The public is invited to watch the races from the Nawiliwili mole parking area with a 5 pm start.
-Chris
Click for results and the RaceQs replay on the
Club Racing page.