Fast Company Back On Top

It was a gorgeous day on Thursday 7/9/20 when the 4th Rum Race was held. The 3 lap course A-D-C over 6.11 miles had light to gusty winds more out of the North. Sail choices showed Speedy with a large #1, Ozone with a medium #2 and Fast Company with the smaller #3. The wind was so far North that a port tack start near the race committee appeared to be favored. Bonjolea II had the best start with skipper Bonnie Tiffany driving Ozone over the starting line early. Ozone did not realize that until 35 seconds later when they heard it announced over the radio. It took Ozone a minute and a half to restart leaving them in last place. Fast Company had a good port tack start near Bonjolea II. A little over 2 minutes into the race, disaster befell Kato. After tacking on to starboard one of their starboard shrouds broke, unfortunately causing them to retire from the race.

Fast Company was first out of the harbor but Bonjolea II gained and was first around the Ninini lighthouse buoy. Meanwhile behind them, Weatherly and Ozone had a nice upwind battle side by side. But when skipper Chris Jordan on Ozone plowed into a big wave practically stopping the boat, Weatherly with skipper Carl Anderson surged ahead trying to catch Speedy who was the 3rd boat to round the buoy. Papa Au was very close behind the four Olson 30’s on the upwind leg, but on the downwind leg they had no foredeck crew available so they didn’t use their spinnaker causing them to fall back.

On the straight downwind leg to the G-11 buoy near the Coast Guard station 3 of the Olson 30’s were competing side by side. Speedy with their beautiful new crispy sounding blue spinnaker was in the middle with Ozone on the breakwater side and Weatherly on the cruise ship dock side. Ozone barely got clear ahead directly in front of Speedy before the 3 boat length circle so that they had rights to stay close inside at the buoy rounding and Ozone took their leads away. Coming back upwind one has to cross the finish line (in case the race committee has to shorten the race) and Weatherly made a very nice move to luff up just barely staying inside the #5 buoy. When Weatherly tacked back onto starboard, Ozone passed in front on port, a little too close for comfort. By going further to the breakwater before tacking Ozone gained. However, Bonjolea II and Fast Company were still way out in front.

On the final downwind leg after rounding the Kalapaki buoy, Ozone’s gybe resulted in a very tight spinnaker wrap around the headstay. Struggling to get the sail down caused a rip in the sail and so it was bagged and the #2 sail was used for the rest of the race. At the finish line it was Bonjolea II taking line honors but Fast Company regained its usual 1st place position on handicap. Ozone corrected to 2nd place (bemoaning their over early start as the time lost was essentially the same as Fast Company’s lead). So in the PHRF class it was Fast Company in first, Ozone second and Bonjolea II in third. In the Club class it was Weatherly in first, Iwa in second (with Karen Cole on the helm and Pam Zirker taking photos), and Papa Au took third. The Olson 30 Double Espresso which gave Fast Company great competition in the Hanalei Offshore series didn’t race and they were missed.

The 5th race of the 7 Rum Race Series (which has one throwout) will be held on Thursday 7/16/20 with a 5 pm start. The public is invited to watch the races from the Nawiliwili mole parking area where the race committee will be available for questions.

-Chris

Click here for complete results on the racing page and more photos by Charlotte and Pam.