The extremely light Kona winds out of the West made it hard for the 4 Olson 30’s without engines to get out of their slips and out to the starting line. Paddles came out to assist. Fortunately Bonjolea II was kind enough to tow the stragglers out to the start.
The initial course was “T” which heads towards the mountains, opposite from our usual starts. But the race committee wisely postponed the start until the easterly trade winds came in a little and they put up course “F”. This rarely used 0.8 mile course goes around the Kalapaki buoy and then around G-7 and on to the finish line. The winds were at the most 6 knots out of the East all day.
Speedy and Ozone converged at the starting buoy with Ozone yelling “barging” and Speedy saying “no overlap”. And while they were messing with each other, Fiasco came in from behind and rolled both boats to weather and took the lead.
Jim Saylor spent countless hours working on his new Olson 30 Fiasco and it is in pristine condition. And this was readily apparent as Fiasco pulled away from the fleet and rounded the Kalapaki buoy in the lead. Speedy was next, followed by Ozone, Bonjolea II and Double Espresso. On the downwind leg Ozone was able to pass Speedy. And at the finish line it was Fiasco taking first place followed by Ozone in second and Speedy in third. Double Espresso and Bonjolea II rounded out the fleet.
Race 2 was the 2.6 mile course “C” out to the Ninini Lighthouse buoy and back around the Kalapaki buoy, G-7 and G-11. It was actually shortened from “C-E” by the race committee during the race due to the lighter winds and time constraints for the awards banquet.
Speedy had a great start and took the lead. Ozone was way back starting down the line. Nearing the Kukui Lighthouse Double Espresso was ahead of Ozone but to leeward in a position where they couldn’t tack. The rocks were coming up as an obstruction and Ozone tacked, quickly followed by Double Espresso.
On the upwind leg to the Ninini lighthouse buoy Speedy decided to tack back to the beach by the Timbers Resort (which often pays off) and they passed ahead of Ozone. Ozone thought they were gaining on Fiasco and so kept going instead of tacking. And when Ozone finally tacked, Fiasco tacked immediately to cover them. And when the boats met up with
Speedy who was now on port tack, Speedy now had to duck Ozone’s stern.
Fiasco tacked back to lay the Ninini Lighthouse buoy but they appeared to be too early and they had to do 2 more tacks which slowed them down. Ozone saw this and went further before tacking and they gained more on Fiasco. Downwind under spinnaker Ozone tried to take Fiasco’s air and they gained some. And at the Kalapaki buoy Ozone was close to Fiasco’s stern.
Fiasco downwind after gybing appeared to have some issues and went to their jib. Ozone kept their spinnaker up and they were now able to pass Fiasco and they were clear ahead at the G-7 buoy before gybing to G-11. And it was an upwind horse race to the finish line where Ozone took first place by 21 seconds over Fiasco in second. Speedy took third followed by Double Espresso and Bonjolea II. Bonjolea II obviously did not like the light air.
So Fiasco and Ozone were tied with a first and second place each, but because Ozone won the last race they won the opening day series overall. Fiasco was second and Speedy third.
The after race awards banquet and luncheon with champagne was held at the Puakea Golf Course Grill. Very nice trophies for the 2024 season were handed out. Doug Tiffany our past commodore and Bonnie Tiffany our present commodore did a fantastic job orchestrating this event. On top of that it looked to me like their boat Bonjolea II won the most races last year and in particular they won the prestigious Kauai Channel Race overall.
The Spring Shakedown Series of 6 races begins 2/13/25 with a 5pm start. After the race everyone is invited to the Nawiliwili Bar and Lounge (the old Nawiliwili Tavern) at 3490 Paena Loop, across from Harbor Mall.
-Chris
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