FAST COMPANY WINS THE ERIC WING MEMORIAL RACE #7 AND TAKES THE SERIES

Fast Company has shown everyone how fast she is by having 3 first place finishes and 3 second place finishes in the series. They only had one third place finish (which was their throw out) for a total of 9 points. No wonder Ozone and Weatherly are buying new sails! Congratulations to skipper Jim Saylor and crew.

Race #7 had course E-A-C with the first lap inside to the Kalapaki Buoy and the next two laps out to the lighthouse buoy. This 6 mile course had winds out of the Northeast at 15-18 knots. Ozone felt like it was windier and they were the only boat to put a reef in their main and they used their small heavy duty spinnaker. Ozone appeared to have the best start at the pin end on starboard tack. Kato, coming down the line on port, tacked just before reaching Fast Company. Ozone and Papa Au both tacked at the same time to head back towards the breakwater. Later Fast Company and Kato tacked back too. Ozone, now on starboard, had Fast Company lee bow them and Kato ducked them while heading to the Kalapaki Buoy. Fast Company on the inside was first to round the buoy followed by Bonjolea II, Ozone, Kato, Speedy, Papa Au, and Weatherly was somewhere in the mix (use your RaceQ’s Carl!). Double Espresso rounded out the fleet with the kids who appeared to be having a blast! Kato went incredibly wide rounding the Kalapaki Buoy and in fact ended up in the surfing zone by the mole. Was that actually a surfer behind you??? Kato lost a lot of ground on the other 6 boats that were now ahead (but not for long).

On the next upwind leg Bonjolea II went ahead of Fast Company. And on the upwind leg Kato was catching up and Ozone tried hard to keep ahead and to weather of them to give them bad air. But on the downwind leg under spinnaker Kato easily passed them. Ozone’s skipper was kicking himself at this point for not shaking out the reef in the mainsail and for not putting up the larger spinnaker.

The positions stayed about the same for the rest of the race. At the finish line it was Bonjolea II taking line honors. But Fast Company again corrected to first place in the PHRF Class and easily won the series. Bonjolea II took second place and Kato took third. It was really nice to see Bonjolea II and Speedy back on the race course. Speedy took first place in the Club Class with Weatherly second and Papa Au third. The new young racers on Double Espresso were about 10 minutes behind the winning boat, which is not bad for their second race ever. And they weren’t even lapped this time! We expect them to get better with every race.

There is no race next Thursday 5/20/21. The Around The Island Race starts on Saturday 5/29/21 to Hanalei, Sunday to Port Allen and back Monday to Nawiliwili. Hope to see you there!

-Chris

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