Kato Wins by a Huge Lead

The second race of the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Louie Abrams Memorial Series began with nine boats on the start line. Half the fleet needed to sail parallel to the start line for a few moments prior to the horn so they wouldn’t cross over early. Kato, with Fast Company close behind, lead the tightly grouped pack. A few of the skippers, finding that they were sailing in the bad air from the boats in front of them, tacked over in search of clearer wind.

The course took the boats up to the Kalapaki buoy before rounding on the first spinnaker run. Bonjolea II passed Fast Company at the “G7” jibe mark putting them in second with Kato in the lead. On the first tack, after rounding the leeward mark, Fast Company covered Bonjolea II while OZone tacked up the middle of the harbor. This was a wise choice for OZone because a nice lift gave them advantage over Bonjolea II on the second tack. All through this Kato’s lead was growing and it became apparent that this was a race for second place.

The leg out to the Lighthouse buoy had real choppy seas with light winds. The boats plowed through the chop while crews struggled to setup for the next downwind leg. With a sizable lead, Kato rounded first and up went their spinnaker. Then down came their spinnaker! It gently floated down onto the lee side after the halyard shackle failed. If the sail filled with water it could have turned into a disaster, but before you could say “Holy Chute, Batman!” the crew had the sail hoisted up on the spare halyard.

They didn’t lose much ground with the rapid recovery, and they finished first with an elapsed time of 0:47:58 (0:48:02 PHRF corrected). Fast Company finished second with a 0:50:01 PHRF corrected and Papa a’u finished third with 0:50:42 PHRF corrected.

Club Class had Weatherly finishing first with a corrected time of 0:49:35 followed by OZone at second place with a corrected time of 0:50:29. Bonjolea II finished third with a corrected time of 0:51:38.

Kevin Arndt

Click here for photos by Charlotte Ross