The 4.26 mile course was A-H-E with the crew having to look up the rarely used course “H” which goes around the Kalapaki buoy and then it leaves the G-9 buoy to starboard. The wind was 16-21 knots out of the Northeast and several boats had reefs in their mainsails, including Fiasco and Speedy.
The start had the pin end favored and Fiasco nailed it while Bonjolea II was next and coming on strong. Speedy and Ozone had gybed around just before the start instead of tacking and this slowed them down. And Speedy cleared the starting line before Ozone.
Fiasco tacked early towards the breakwater and Ozone tacked to cover them. When Fiasco tacked back onto starboard near the breakwater, Ozone tacked into a lee bow position to give them bad air. As soon as Fiasco could clear the buoy at the end of the breakwater they tacked out of the harbor. And Ozone tacked a little to weather to cover them. Speedy also tacked at about the same line while Bonjolea II kept going to about the middle of the harbor entrance before tacking out, which usually pays off.
On the way out to the lighthouse buoy Ozone was able to outpoint the other boats and they gained quite a bit. Bonjolea II decided to come from above and go below Ozone about 3/4’s of the way out to the buoy. Ozone tacked on the layline to the Ninini Lighthouse buoy to round it. Being further away downwind, both Bonjolea II and Fiasco took it a little further beyond the layline just to be sure to make it around. And at the rounding it was Ozone leading followed by Bonjolea II, Fiasco, Speedy and Kato. (Double Espresso didn’t race).
Downwind Fiasco, while under the beautiful Jim Saylor spinnaker, could be seen gaining on Bonjolea II. And when Fiasco pulled their spinnaker pole way back to sail more directly downwind they were able to pass Bonjolea II who was in their reaching mode. The boats rounded the downwind G-11 buoy by the Coast Guard Station and the upwind Kalapaki buoy in the same positions with Ozone in first, Fiasco next, followed by Bonjolea II, Speedy and Kato.
Now heading downwind to the rarely used G-9 buoy the boats rounded it to starboard in the same order. And for the 3rd and final lap they went upwind to the Kalapaki buoy. But the leading 3 boats all tacked early below the layline to the buoy. Ozone at the last minute was able to go head to wind and “shoot it” as they ghosted around the buoy. But Fiasco and Bonjolea II were both lower down and they now had to throw in 2 additional tacks to make it around the buoy which slowed them down some.
And downwind to the G-11 buoy by the Coast Guard Station and back up to the finish line the positions stayed the same. Ozone took first place with a time of 48:57. Fiasco was second at 49:56 and Bonjolea II was third at 53:23. Speedy was next at 54:16 and Kato.
Click for complete results and the RaceQs replay on the
Club Racing page.