Bonjolea II easily wins the second Gene Wells Race

The start of the second race of the Gene Wells Memorial Series on 8/15/19 was exciting as 9 sailboats jockeyed for position. Ozone, Papa Au and Kato crossed the starting line just as the starting gun went off. Papa Au with Jeff steering the boat would have forced Bonjolea II over the starting line early so that Bonjolea II had to circle around and restart behind the other boats in bad air. This didn’t seem to slow skipper Bonnie Tiffany on the helm of Bonjolea II down much as they gained on every leg of the 3 laps over the 6.12 mile course. Usually this boat does better in heavier air but they ended up passing all the other boats in the 9-12 knot lighter air. Perhaps it was Doug Tiffany, Bonnie’s husband, on the main that made the difference. They do make a great team. Ozone stayed in front of the other 5 Olson 30’s for the race, but it wasn’t easy. When they gybed the spinnaker at the Kalapaki buoy it went inside the headstay messing things up. In the process of correcting this problem Ozone’s guest foredeck Ted Thompson from California broke his braces on the boat. This allowed Kato and Fast Company to close dramatically. Kato and Fast Company traded positions throughout the race in a great battle, but when Fast Company had halyard issues it allowed Kato to pass them. Fast Company was skippered by Dr. Bill Evslin while their usual skipper Jim Saylor was on the mainland. To protect himself from another concussion, Bill wore Jim’s crash helmet so that at a distance he almost looked like Jim (although a much quieter version…)

Speedy was skippered by Janice Portillo with only 3 other crew members (Shaun, Kriistina and the relatively new Gregory) so they wisely didn’t use their spinnaker. They also fouled the Beneteau 41 Iwa who was on starboard and had to avoid contact and so Speedy had to do two 360 degree penalty turns. Both of these issues slowed them down.On Double Espresso it was Carl Andersson on the helm while Charlie was on the mainland. It was good to see Carl back on the water. He has been letting the young sailors race use his Olson 30 Weatherly for quite some time.

At the finish line it was Bonjolea II doing a horizon job on the fleet, finishing almost 6 minutes before the next boat. Taking into consideration the handicap system, Bonjolea II finished first in the PHRF Class with a corrected time of 1:13:33 with Ozone second at 1:15:25 and an amazing and quite unusual tie for third with Papa Au and Kato finishing at 1:17:33. That means they each get 3.5 points. This made Ozone very happy as they now lead Kato in the series by 0.5 points (but with 8 more races!!!). In the Club Class it was Weatherly in first, Fast Company in second and Double Espresso in third.

A delicious chile dinner was prepared by the crew of Kato (I even had seconds!).

The 3rd race in the 10 race Gene Wells Memorial Series will take place on Thursday 8/22/19 with a 5 pm start. The public is invited to watch the races from the Nawiliwili mole parking area.

-Chris Jordan

Click the links for complete results on the racing page and for more photos from Charlotte and Pam. Click the blue Series Summary link on the racing page for the current series points summary.