It was a lovely day with lighter wins out of the Northeast at 10-11 knots. The 4.62 mile course was D-A-D. Speedy had the best start near the pin end. Ozone was barging and just stayed clear of Bonjolea II. Shortly after the start Bonjolea II tacked behind Ozone towards the breakwater and Ozone decided to tack to cover them. At the breakwater Bonjolea II called for room to tack at an obstruction and Ozone said “You tack” which they did. Ozone then tacked into a lee bow position. As the boats headed upwind to the Kalapaki buoy for the first mark rounding Speedy, who had been in the lead, now had to pinch up a lot to make it around. This slowed them down enough that Ozone took over the lead and rounded first, followed by Bonjolea II, Speedy and Double Espresso. The downwind legs to the G-7 and then G-11 buoy by the Coast Guard Station were rounded in the same order.
Heading upwind now towards the cruise ship, Bonjolea II tacked towards the breakwater and Ozone tacked to cover them. Speedy continued on and this definitely paid off. When the boats met up again Bonjolea II passed Ozone and Speedy was coming on so fast that Ozone’s crew asked “Where did they come from?”
Heading out of the harbor Ozone tacked first towards the Ninini Lighthouse buoy as Speedy passed close behind their stern. Bonjolea II went in further towards the Kukui Lighthouse before tacking which is often a good move. Ozone and Speedy got a nice lift towards the buoy and stayed fairly close to Bonjolea II as she rounded the Ninini Lighthouse buoy first, followed by Ozone, Speedy and Double Espresso.
As they came back under spinnaker to enter the harbor Ozone was close enough to Bonjolea II that they tried to give them bad air. Bonjolea II needed to gybe to keep their faster reaching angles and so they had to duck Ozone who was on starboard. Ozone then gybed and sailed deep downwind towards the G-11 buoy while Bonjolea II was reaching up and then gybing back again towards G-11 by the Coast Guard Station. And Bonjolea II once again took the lead.
And on the next upwind leg heading towards the cruise ship, Bonjolea II appeared to take a header and they tacked back towards the breakwater. But having seen what Speedy did to them on the previous upwind leg, Ozone decided to continue on a lot further before tacking. And Speedy close behind went even further. And when the boats reached the Kalapaki buoy rounding it was Bonjolea II in the lead followed by Ozone and
Speedy who were close enough to Bonjolea II that they both had visions of beating her with her handicap rating. And after rounding the G-7 and G-11 buoys to head to the finish line it was Bonjolea II taking line honors by 37 seconds over Ozone. But with the handicap applied it was Ozone taking first place with a time of 59:25 and Speedy took second place with a time of 1:01:33. Bonjolea II finished in third place with a handicap time of 102:15 and Double Espresso rounded out the fleet at 1:04:00.
The 4th race in the Gene Wells Memorial Series will be held on Thursday 9/26/24 with a 5 pm start. The public is invited to watch the races from the Nawiliwili mole parking area with the race committee.
-Chris
Click here for complete results and the
Club Racing page.