FAST COMPANY WINS GENE WELLS RACE #4

The Gene Wells Race #4 was held on 9/5/19 with 7 sailboats doing 3 laps over the 4.51 mile race. The wind was blowing 12-16 knots more out of the north than our usual easterly trade winds. Double Espresso with a reefed main boldly started on port tack with no right of way over the mostly starboard tack boats. This move paid off as Double Espresso led the fleet off the starting line. Bonjolea II was the other boat to start on port tack but they were a little late and had to duck behind the starboard tackers. But when Bonjolea II got to the breakwater they tacked onto a lift and with their faster boat speed they quickly passed the other boats heading out to the lighthouse buoy. Shortly after the start Double Espresso did a nice lee bow maneuver in front of Fast Company which gave them bad air. Fast Company therefore tacked away but they also had to duck behind Ozone. When they met again Ozone was able to clear Fast Company on port tack and then tacked back onto starboard to cover them upwind. This made it so Fast Company could not tack back out to the lighthouse buoy until Ozone did, otherwise they would collide. This brought out a few loud remarks from the skipper on Fast Company. When the sailboats reached the Ninini lighthouse buoy it was Bonjolea II leading the pack, followed by Double Espresso, Ozone and Fast Company. Speedy, Iwa and Papa Au followed soon after. Papa Au with Bill Petersen on the helm only had 3 crew and so they had to race conservatively.

On the downwind spinnaker run Fast Company went so low that Ozone didn’t think that they could make it back up to get inside the breakwater. But somehow Jim Saylor was able to do that resulting in some unrepeatable muttering by Ozone’s skipper Chris Jordan. Ozone had a halyard sky and they broke the outhaul which allowed Jordan an excuse when Fast Company cleverly passed them on the inside at the G-11 buoy. Fast Company never looked back and finished first overall in the PHRF Class with a corrected time of 51:49. Ozone was second at 52:28. Bonjolea II although again getting line honors and finishing a minute and 18 seconds in front of Fast Company had to settle for third place on a corrected time of 53:30 due to their handicap rating.

In the Club Class it was the beautiful Beneteau 41 Iwa in first place, Speedy in second and Double Espresso in third. Kato and Weatherly didn’t race.

A delicious dinner of beef stroganoff was prepared by the crew of Speedy and four interesting guests from Molokai joined in the festivities.

The fifth race of the Gene Wells Memorial Series will be held on Thursday 9/12/19 with a 5 pm start. The public is invited to watch the race and to socialize with the race committee from the Nawiliwili mole parking lot.

-Chris Jordan

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