BONJOLEA II ACES THE FLEET!

“The feeling was indescribable” said Bonnie Tiffany, the skipper of Bonjolea II. “When we gybed around the Kalapaki Buoy and hardened up towards the lighthouse buoy she took off like an amazing race horse breaking out of the gate!!!” And Bonjolea II never had to look back as they crossed the finish line first by more than 6 minutes over the next boat.

The 7th and final race of the Gene Wells Memorial Series was held on 10/22/20 with a shorter 3.3 mile course (K-T) in order to finish before dark (sunset 6:08pm). The 4-6 knot winds out of the Southwest would intermittently gust to much stronger winds. These Kona winds again had the fleet headed in the opposite direction compared to usual. The upwind start went first to the G-11 buoy near the Coast Guard Station. The entire starting line was used with 6 of the 8 boats spread out and hitting the starting line at essentially the same time. At the G-11 weather mark it was Bonjolea II in the lead followed by Weatherly, Papa Au, Fast Company, Speedy, Ozone, Kato and Iwa.

Weatherly was looking great with their teenage crew and Astrid Andersson on the helm as they were leading the other 4 Olson 30’s. And just as Bonnie Tiffany had described it, Bonjolea II took off like a rocket when they gybed around the Kalapaki Buoy. Fast Company and Kato rounded this buoy more tightly than Ozone who went wider. (This resulted in Ozone having the pole down low and the chute in tight more like a jib in order to get to the lighthouse buoy and it was harder to control).

Similarly, Papa Au was having some spinnaker issues which resulted in some unexpected excitement. About halfway out to the Ninini Lighthouse buoy Ray Woolard, foredeck on Papa Au, lost his balance and went overboard! But on his way overboard he was able to catch a guy line and he pulled himself back to the stern of the boat where skipper Andy Evans was able to pull him back aboard. Good thing too as as they needed all 4 of their crew members to take the spinnaker down (in addition to the fact that you have to finish the race with the same number of crew who started). On RaceQ’s one can see where this happened as Papa Au takes a brief jog towards the mountain about half way out to the lighthouse. Ray has a contusion on his right forearm but says that he is none the worse for wear. Ray is a very seasoned sailor who sailed in the Whitbread around the world race many years ago.

At the lighthouse buoy under tight spinnakers it was Kato, Weatherly and Ozone converging. Ozone had trouble taking down their spinnaker and fell a little behind. But when Ozone tacked onto port to go upwind they were slow and when Fast Company came barreling down on starboard with rights, Ozone was forced to tack quickly which backwinded the jib and put them in irons. As Fast Company sped away and Speedy caught up, Ozone’s skipper Chris Jordan was kicking himself for his two (or more?) mistakes.

Meanwhile, Kato and Weatherly were having a nice battle upwind as they headed towards the breakwater in order to get to the G-7 buoy. At the G-7 buoy most of the boats rounded and put their spinnakers up on the port side in order to get back to the Kalapaki buoy. Ozone put their spinnaker up on starboard and fell further behind once again.

At the downwind Kalapaki buoy Kato was able to round inside of Fast Company. Then on the upwind leg to to the finish line Kato, Fast Company and Weatherly tacked towards the breakwater. Ozone kept going straight towards the mole and gained remarkably. When the boats met up again it was Fast Company on port passing just clear ahead in front of Ozone on starboard. Fast Company tacked on top of Ozone to cover them and at the finish line Fast Company beat Ozone by 3 seconds (while both of them were behind Bonjolea II and Kato.

At the finish line it was the “racehorse” Bonjolea II taking line honors and first place in the PHRF Class by a wide margin over Kato in second. And 2 seconds behind them in third place was Fast Company. In the Club Class it was Weatherly in first followed by Speedy and Papa Au.

For the entire Gene Wells Memorial 7 Race Series it was Fast Company taking first place overall quite handily. Congratulations to skipper Jim Saylor and his awesome crew.

The Halloween Race is the final race of the year and this will be held on Thursday 10/29/20 with a 5pm start. Costumes this year are encouraged but optional (think about getting out last year’s costumes and make it easy).

The public is invited to watch the race from the Nawiliwili mole parking area and they are encouraged to wear costumes as well.

-Chris

Click the link for access to complete results and the RaceQs replay on the racing page as well as more photos by Charlotte and Pam.