BONJOLEA II WINS THE INVITATIONAL RACE #3

The 3rd race of the Invitational Series was held on June 10, 2021 with 8 boats competing. Each boat must have a guest on board to promote sailing and racing. Without a guest, the boat is penalized to last place plus one point. So guests are very important!

The 6 mile course was C-E-A with one lap out to the lighthouse buoy, an inside lap to the Kalapaki buoy and a final outside lap to the lighthouse buoy. The winds were out of the East-Northeast at 15-18 knots with higher gusts at times that had several of the boats put reefs in their mainsails. It looked like the Express 27 Papa Au had the best start at the pin end with Andy Evans on the helm. Weatherly may have been over early as they turned around and restarted. Shortly after the start both Bonjolea II and Weatherly tacked towards the breakwater and Speedy subsequently followed. Kato was able to pinch up nicely from below Ozone and Papa Au and when they had room, they too tacked away.

On the way out to the Ninini lighthouse buoy Papa Au fell down into Speedy’s bad air and so they tacked back towards the Timbers Resort. When the boats reached the lighthouse buoy it was Bonjolea II rounding in the lead and then Kato and Ozone. Fast Company, Weatherly, Speedy, Papa Au and Double Espresso followed. Downwind the boats had to round the Kalapaki buoy before heading to G-7 and then G-11 by the Coast Guard Station. The next lap went upwind to the Kalapaki buoy and then downwind to the G-11 buoy. The boat positions stayed pretty much the same as they turned and headed upwind on the third lap to the Ninini lighthouse buoy. Ozone shook out their reef in the mainsail on this upwind leg, which maybe they should have done sooner. Ozone’s guest was Phil Riola, an operating room technician at Wilcox who had never sailed before. And he didn’t even get seasick in the rougher conditions!

At the finish line it was Bonjolea II with skipper Bonnie Tiffany on the helm taking not only line honors but also first place in the PHRF Class (evenwith their 40 second a mile handicap over the Olson 30’s). Kato, the winner of the last 2 races, came in second place only 15 seconds behind. Ozone finished in third place. And Fast Company finished fourth. The boat seemed awfully quiet with skipper Jim Saylor on the mainland. We all missed you Jim! Weatherly with skipper Astrid Andersson and her teenage crew finished fifth, only 9 seconds behind Fast Company. They must have had a good battle but Fast Company did not have RaceQ’s on so I can’t comment. Papa Au and Speedy followed across the finish line. Carl Andersson let his boat Weatherly race without him so that he could take the youngest Kauai Sailing Association kids out on Double Espresso for their 3rd race. Although they didn’t technically sign up for the race (so they don’t get counted) they finished a little over a minute ahead of Speedy. Great job by the young sailors and Uncle Carl!

After the race the Kauai Sailing Association had a Mexican dinner with your choice of a beef or chicken burrito from Mariachi’s to go along with the educational talk given by Katie and Kevin Millett. Katie presented a terrific slide show of their 2019 Baja Ha-Ha Race to Mexico that they did on their very fast custom 50 foot catamaran Kalewa. This race had
multiple stops and parties in Mexico and it looked like a tremendous amount of fun. And not unexpectedly Katie and Kevin appeared to be the life of these parties!!! The day after their talk Kevin and Katie set sail out of Nawiliwili Harbor for their trip to Alaska and down the West Coast. They again plan to do the Baja Ha-Ha Race in November of this year. Have a great voyage you two!

The 4th and final race of the invitational series will be held on Thursday 6/17/2021 with a 5pm start. The public is invited to watch the races from the Nawiliwili mole parking area where the race committee will be located. The Kauai Sailing Association will have an educational presentation given by Dick Olsen. He will show a video of the recent Sail GP races in Italy with the very fast foiling F-50 catamarans that can speed up to 50 knots or 60 mph! A bento box dinner from Paradise Grinds will be available to the first 25 people who sign up with an RSVP to cjordan@wilcoxhealth.org

-Chris

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