BONJOLEA II WINS!!!

The 4th Gene Wells Memorial Race saw Bonjolea II beating the seemingly invincible Fast Company by a corrected time of 1 minute and 31 seconds. Congratulations to Bonnie and Doug Tiffany and crew. This breaks Fast Company’s winning streak of 3 in a row for this series (and many before that).

Thursday August 27th was a beautiful day for sailing with winds at 10-12 knots out of the North Northeast. The course was A-D-A for 2 outside laps and one inside the harbor over 5.91 miles. Weatherly started with their large #1 sail but later changed to the smaller #3 which Fast Company was also using. Ozone tried staying in the middle with their #2.

A new unofficial addition to the racing fleet was Dr. Daniel Judd’s Cal 2-30 called “Keiki Mano” (Baby Shark!) which he recently purchased. Dr. Judd
usually does foredeck on Ozone but with the new 5 person per recreational vessel rule imposed by DOBOR four of Ozone’s usual 9 crew sailed on the “Baby Shark”. His boat is set up for some heavy cruising so the boat’s rating which I think is usually 180 should probably be increased to allow for all the extra weight. It looked to me like Keiki Mano was first across the starting line, although they started far down towards the race committee undoubtedly to avoid the crowded pin end. You don’t want a collision with that heavy sea anchor on the bow!

Ozone started up by the pin with Papa Au a little further down and Fast Company below them. But Fast Company being a faster boat got into a lee bow position giving Tim Perry who was driving Papa Au bad air. Papa Au tacked away towards the breakwater to get clear air ducking Ozone in the process. Ozone tried to keep their position on Fast Company hoping to drive them down into the flukey light air region of Kalapaki Bay. But Jim Saylor was to have none of that and he tacked Fast Company towards the breakwater, ducking Ozone in the process. Meanwhile Bonjolea II appeared to have a late start that skipper Bonnie Tiffany more than made up for later to seize the victory.

Heading out of the harbor Bonjolea II took the lead. Halfway out to the Ninini lighthouse buoy Fast Company tacked back to the beach and Ozone followed. Ozone did not appear to be pointing as well with their #2 sail and Weatherly and Papa Au were definitely gaining. Speedy, Iwa and Keiki Mano followed. Bonjolea II just seemed to be gaining throughout the race. Ozone was trying to catch Fast Company but kept falling further and further behind. With a couple of spinnaker wraps on Ozone the teenage crew on Weatherly took advantage (again) and they sailed on by gleefully (Vince on Ozone should never have made that face when Ozone passed them last week…)

At the finish line it was Bonjolea II placing first in the PHRF class as well as getting line honors. Fast Company was second followed by Weatherly in third. In the Club Class it was Ozone in first, Speedy in second and Papa Au in third. The usually very competitive Olson 30 Kato did not race.

The new DOBOR rule of 5 people on a boat makes it more difficult and challenging for the racing crews. NYC will undoubtedly have an addendum to the sailing instructions to let everyone know about this new rule. Papa Au says you should be disqualified if you have more than 5! The 5th race in the Gene Wells Memorial Series will not be held until October 8th. This break is in order to have the Wahine Series which starts Thursday 9/3/20 with a 5pm start.

There is a correction to the offshore race to Hanalei dates on the racing page which will actually start Saturday 9/5/20 (not Friday).

The public is invited to watch these races from the Nawiliwili mole parking area.

-Chris

Click here for complete results and the RaceQs replay on the racing page. We sure are missing Charlotte and Pam, our race photographers!