FAST COMPANY WINS AGAIN!

The second race of the Phil Tanner Memorial Series was held on 2/18/21 in very gusty air which made for an exciting day compared to our last 2 races in very light air. The wind was up to 18 knots out of the Northeast with occasional gusts outside the harbor that were even higher. The course A-B-E had 2 laps out to the lighthouse buoy and one inside the harbor lap around the Kalapaki buoy for a distance of 4.93 miles.

Kato and Weatherly had the best starts with boats listening carefully on their radios to be sure that no one was over early. Bonjolea II was in bad air and tacked early towards the breakwater which really seemed to help them a lot. Speedy then did the same, followed by all the other boats who were getting headed as they went further towards Kalapaki. Bonjolea II on starboard now passed ahead of all the boats until they tacked towards the lighthouse just before they encountered Kato. Fast Company passed so close to the end of the breakwater that we were sure that they would hit a rock. Fortunately they passed unscathed. Ozone followed behind Fast Company in bad air and lost ground.

Bonjolea II rounded the lighthouse buoy ahead of Weatherly who appeared to be leading on corrected time. Kato, Fast Company, Ozone, Papa Au and Speedy followed. But Bonjolea II had issues after rounding the lighthouse buoy and parked it for awhile allowing all the other boats to pass them. On the downwind spinnaker run most of the boats were having spinnaker issues trying to keep things under control in the gusty air. Fast Company made a move in very tight quarters to go between Weatherly and Kato and this can be seen on Jim Saylor’s YouTube video. Weatherly was having spinnaker problems and maintained their course rather than risk coming up to try to squeeze Fast Company out. Ozone was watching and hoping that Kato would drive down in front of Fast Company before any overlap to make Fast Company go above them. But Fast Company was able to take the lead followed by Kato, Weatherly and Papa Au (who at that point was probably leading on handicap).

Unfortunately at the G-11 buoy by the Coast Guard station Kato, while rounding to go upwind, blew out their headsail foil and so they retired from the race as they were unable to put up their jib. The gusty winds affected many of the boats with the trimaran Trinity apparently unable to tack to the Ninini buoy and they headed off towards the lighthouse shore costing them time. Trinity later retired but it was great to see her out again on the race course and at times she looked like a rocket ship in the heavy air. Ozone had a spinnaker roundup and there is a nice picture of this by Charlotte in the photo gallery. Weatherly had spinnaker issues allowing Fast Company to pass them or the race results might have been different. And Kato had the damaged headset foil causing them to retire from the race.

At the finish line it was again Fast Company taking first place for the second race in a row (nice driving Jim!) with Papa Au only 49 seconds behind them on corrected time. Weatherly finished in third place and if they had new sails instead of those 7 year old ones who knows how those young sailors would have finished!

The third race of the Phil Tanner Memorial Series will be held on 2/25/2021 with a 5 pm start. The public is invited to watch the races from the Nawiliwili mole parking area.

-Chris

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