A FINELY TUNED KATO WINS!

The 4th race of the Phil Tanner Memorial Series was held on 3/4/21 with more Northerly winds at about 10-15 knots. The course C-A-D had 2 laps out to the lighthouse buoy and one inside lap to the Kalapaki buoy. It was a cold and wet day. Even in the rain the Kato crew was seen to be tuning their shrouds with some equipment borrowed from Jim Saylor. They are serious hard core sailors! It was great to see Sharon and Doug Gibson watching with the race committee. NYC owes so much to them. The start was interesting with half the fleet on port tack by the race committee (Fast Company, Weatherly, Ozone, and Kato) and the other half by the pin end on starboard (Bonjolea II, Papa Au, Speedy and Iwa). The port tackers were all able to clear the starboard tackers so it looked like they had made the correct decision. However, when the starboard tackers next tacked they were able to make it out of the harbor so they saved a tack and they gained. At the lighthouse buoy it was Bonjolea II rounding first but Speedy was next and they looked great rounding ahead of the other 4 Olson 30’s. Fast Company, Kato, Weatherly, Ozone and Papa Au followed. Jeff Olsen who was helming Papa Au suffered from a reaction to his second Covid vaccination but he was able to keep the boat in the mix all day. Victoria Aiu was back on Papa Au’s foredeck after a neck injury and she was outstanding with their spinnaker sets while Andy Evans trimmed the sheet. Jan trimmed their main. Downwind to the Kalapaki Buoy Fast Company had a spinnaker wrap and lost ground. Ozone was able to pass them and Weatherly while using their small 1.5 ounce spinnaker (but not for long). Kato took the Olson 30 lead behind Bonjolea II. On the G-7 to G-11 leg Fast Company passed Ozone by getting inside them at the mark. Ozone then went too far towards the cruise ship dock in the northerly wind before tacking (tangled jib sheet) and they gave up a lot of distance. At the second rounding of the lighthouse buoy it was again Bonjolea II in the lead with Kato, Fast Company, Weatherly, Papa Au, Ozone, and Speedy following. Fast Company again had a spinnaker wrap in the shape of an hourglass which slowed them down. In retrospect Jim Saylor wondered if it would have been faster to just leave it up rather than to take it down. At the Kalapaki buoy Weatherly with the junior sailors rounded slightly in front of Ozone. Papa Au followed. But on the downwind leg Ozone and

Papa Au lost some distance and Weatherly gained. Papa Au lost a lot of distance on the last leg of the race. At the finish line it was Bonjolea II taking line honors but correcting to 4th place. Trinity, at times showing great bursts of speed with Walt driving, was 24 seconds behind Bonjolea II. But it was the finely tuned Kato taking the win on corrected time 46 seconds ahead of Fast Company in second place. Papa Au took third less than a minute behind Fast Company. In the club class it was Iwa in first, Trinity in second and Speedy in third. On returning to the dock, Ozone came in too fast and rammed the concrete taking a big chunk out of the bow. Ozone’s skipper Chris Jordan is about ready to fire himself! After the race, the Kauai Sailing Association sponsored a community dinner of Chinese food at the clubhouse and a rules seminar was held for educational purposes. A lilikoi birthday cake for dessert was for it being Alison Fornari’s birthday. Many thanks to Jim Saylor and the crew of Fast Company as well as Fred Styer and Roger Cable for their donations. It was also nice to see Kristiina Chapman and John Sawyer just back from from Tahiti on their new boat. We hope to get some stories and pictures from them for one of our future dinner talks.

Dick Olsen will be providing his famous corn beef and cabbage dinner to celebrate St Patrick’s Day on 3/11/21. RSVP to cjordan@wilcoxhealth.org as we can only have 25 people in the building.

The 5th race of the Phil Tanner Memorial Series will be held on 3/11/21 with a 5 pm start at the Nawiliwili mole parking area. The public is invited to watch the race and join in the festivities.

-Chris

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