OZone wins first race of the Gene Wells Memorial Series

It was a blustery afternoon at the start of the first race of the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Gene Wells Memorial Series on Thursday, September 8. A miscue from the Race Committee had the timing of the start flags 30 seconds ahead of the horn, which lead to an interesting start. As her name suggests Speedy crossed the start line first as the red flag was lowered. Thirty seconds later, the horn sounded and the rest of the fleet took off. As Speedy didn’t have their full complement of crew and was a little light on the human ballast, the fleet soon caught up to Speedy. At the Lighthouse buoy, it was Bonjolea II in the lead of the 7 boat fleet followed by Ozone then Fast Company.

With all the variables in boat racing, it’s not unusual to have boats pass one another. A surprise wind shift can put a boat ahead of another. Unexpected gear failure can cause a boat to loose boat speed and drop a few places in the race. A tactical error can require a boat to do penalty turns costing valuable time. None of these happened today on the 5.8 mile race course. The winds were consistent, the boats and crews performed flawlessly, and the boats finished in the order as they were soon after the start.

Bonjolea II crossed the finish line first with an elapsed time of 1:01:59 but corrected out at 1:03:51 giving them second place behind the winning boat, Ozone (1:05:38 elapsed, 1:05:44 corrected). Papa a’u finished third with an elapsed time of 1:10:15 and 1:07:15 corrected. Club Class had Weatherly taking first place honors with an elapsed time of 1:09:33, 1:03:14 Club. Speedy took second place (1:13:00 elapsed, 1:04:07 Club), followed by Coyote at third place (1:21:01 elapsed, 1:04:18 Club).

This race series is dedicated to Gene Wells who was one of the NYC’s original founders and a talented local boat builder. He designed and made several boats that can be seen docked at the Nawiliwili Small Boat Harbor.

The public is invited to view the second race of the seven-race series on Thursday from the Nawiliwili Harbor jetty wall area. First flags fly (and horn should sound) at 5:00 p.m.

Kevin Arndt

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