Changing Horses in Mid-Series

Bonjolea II had the best combined score of 3 points leading into the second race of the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Horse and Pony series with 2nd place in the horse race and 1st place in the pony race. Nine boats (horses) were at the start line with their crews biting at the bit, holding back but rarin’ to go just moments before the sound of the horn. Most of the fleet was lined up on the starboard end of the start line, but one boat was positioned at the port end. Papa a’u wanted to capitalize on the northern wind direction plus the fact that the first mark was Kalapaki Buoy giving them a slightly shorter distance to sail.

At the horn it was OZone, Kato, and Bonjolea II to across the line first on starboard, with Papa a’u converging on port. Papa a’u stayed on port skillfully threading through the fleet, zigging and zagging between boats and reaching the other side of the harbor before tacking to the Kalapaki Buoy. However, it was OZone rounding the buoy first and heading off to the next buoy in full gallop with Bonjolea II right on her tail. By the time the leaders made it out to the Lighthouse Buoy, Bonjolea II was leading the way and set their spinnaker for the downwind leg. The gusty trade winds made controlling the boats that were flying their spinnakers a challenge and some boats were on the verge of rounding up.

At the leeward mark, as they were dousing the spinnaker, Bonjolea II wrapped their jib on the forestay giving OZone the opportunity to take the lead. By the time Bonjolea II had everything squared away they were at the back of the fast moving fleet.
OZone crossed the finish line first with a corrected time of 39:21 and Fast Company was behind them by 41 seconds finishing second with a corrected time of 40:02. Kato finished third with a corrected time 40:54.

The pony race followed and the winds were now gusting up to 15 knots at the small boat harbor entrance. The Topper, a single-handed 11 foot boat with a plastic injection molded hull, can be very nimble and buck the crew off into the water very easily in these conditions. The course was up to the R6 buoy rounding it to starboard and back through the finish line. As he did in race #1 Doug Moore (Bonjolea II) finished first, followed by Jim Saylor (Fast Company) in second, then Ed Tschupp (Papa a’u) in third.
With 2 more Horse and Pony races left in the series Fast Company is in the PHRF lead with 10 total points, Bonjolea II is in second place with a total 11 points, and Papa a’u is in third with 13 points.

Club Class currently has Speedy in first place with a total of 16 points, Weatherly in second place with 17 points, and Trinity in third place with 19 points.

The third NYC Horse and Pony race starts at 5:05 p.m. on July 13th in the Nawiliwili Harbor and the public is invited to view the excitement from the Kalapaki wall parking lot.

-Kevin Arndt

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