The winds were strong and gusty and several boats were seen to put their reefing lines in place in case they had to reef their
mainsails. And the waves outside the harbor were some of the biggest ones we have ever seen there. A few were breaking even
at the lighthouse buoy.
The course was D-C-E with an outside lap squeezed between two inside laps over a distance of 4.71 miles. The winds were out
of the East at 15 knots with stronger gusts. Fast Company had the best start, going head to wind to keep Ozone from barging at the pin end. Ozone had to spin around and that put them way back. Weatherly was looking good too. Bonjolea II came down the line on port tack and tacked onto starboard just below Ozone. Bonjolea II is faster than Ozone and was outpointing them so Ozone had to tack away, even though they were on the lay line to the Kalapaki buoy. Ozone thus over stood the mark and this cost them a fair amount of distance.
Weatherly was below the lay line and tacked onto port and then onto starboard just below Ozone. But this slowed Weatherly down enough that Ozone was able to get clear ahead at the Kalapaki buoy rounding. Speedy was still ahead of them and Fast Company was in the lead with Bonjolea II coming on quickly behind them. On this first downwind leg Ozone was the only boat to put up a spinnaker. On the upwind leg Bonjolea II was able to pass Fast Company by the breakwater. The upwind leg out of the harbor to the lighthouse buoy was a rock and roll event with very large waves. At the lighthouse buoy a particularly large wave (10 feet?) broke just as Ozone went over the top and they came crashing down on the other side. Needless to say the crews were getting wet.
The boats continued downwind all under spinnaker in the same fleet positions. It looked like Weatherly got a little too close to shore approaching the Ninini lighthouse rocks area and they slowed down quite a bit. At the finish line it was Bonjolea II taking line honors with Bonnie Tiffany on the helm. But it was Fast Company with Jim Saylor driving who corrected to first place on handicap in the PHRF Class. Bonjolea II was second and Ozone was third. Speedy and Weatherly followed with Speedy first in Club Class and Weatherly second.
At the KSA building afterwards a community educational event was held and Sean gave a very interesting detailed talk about
how he prepared his boat in order to sail from Sausalito, California to Hawaii. He replaced every wire and pretty much every screw in the boat amongst other things. His next plans are to head off to the Marquesas and the Tuamotos. Bento boxes were obtained by John Sawyer and available to the public for $15.
The 4th race in the Jerry McKenna Memorial Series will be held on Thursday March 2nd with a 5pm start. The public is invited to
watch the races from the Nawiliwili mole parking area.
-Chris
Click the link to the
Club Racing for complete results and the raceQs replay.