FAST COMPANY WINS THE PHIL TANNER RACE #6 AND TAKES THE SERIES

The 6th and final race of the Phil Tanner Memorial Race Series was held on 3/18/21. It was a remarkably wet and cold day and I shivered the entire race. I could have sworn I was back in Seattle!

The course was A-B with 2 laps out to the lighthouse buoy. The 4.92 mile coarse had 5-20 knot winds mostly out of the Northeast. Many of the boats chose a port tack start with Kato, Fast Company, Papa Au, and Ozone heading off in that direction. Weatherly started on starboard and all the port tack boats had to duck them. Bonjolea II tacked onto starboard at the G-5 buoy and quickly took the lead. When Weatherly tacked back onto port however she had fallen behind Fast Company and Ozone. Fast Company lead the Olson 30’s out towards the lighthouse. When Kato tacked back towards the beach near the Timbers resort, Fast Company tacked to cover them. Later Weatherly also tacked that way while Ozone kept going straight. Bonjolea II rounded the lighthouse buoy first followed by Fast Company, Kato, Ozone, Weatherly, Papa Au and Iwa. (Speedy and Trinity were not racing since their collision and they were missed).

Spinnakers were set downwind and Fast Company and Kato could be seen messing with each other. This allowed Ozone and Weatherly to catch up some. At the G-11 buoy rounding by the Coast Guard Station it was Bonjolea II, Kato, Fast Company and Ozone. Ozone had no overlap and went wide to avoid the continuing battle between Kato and Fast Company. Fast Company tacked away to get clear air and Kato and Ozone later tacked to do a loose cover. But Ozone wasn’t pointing well and fell into Kato’s bad air which slowed them down. Kato subsequently tacked on top of Fast Company to stay ahead and to give them bad air. Ozone did the same thing to Weatherly. Kato was leading until they came in low to the Kalapaki buoy where they hit some light and flukey air. Fast Company now came roaring down from higher up and rounded ahead. Similarly Weatherly was able to speed down and get inside Ozone and Kato at the Kalapaki buoy and they went ahead. Kato, struggling in the lighter fickle air, tacked back but they touched the buoy. They did their 360 degree penalty turn which cost them even more time. It had to be painful for them.

Bonjolea II again rounded the lighthouse buoy first, but on handicap Fast Company was leading. The downwind run was very windy and gusty and Ozone didn’t put up their spinnaker as their 2 usual foredeck crew were missing. However, Kato wanted to catch up and they did bravely fly their chute for a wild ride and they were able to pass Ozone. They subsequently had to take down their spinnaker and put up a jib in order to make it into the harbor. Once they got inside the breakwater they were still gaining. But at the finish line it was Bonjolea II taking line honors closely followed by Fast Company who easily corrected on handicap to first place. Fast Company also wins the series with 4 firsts and a second (with one throwout). Congratulations! Weatherly with the junior sailors took second place for this race only 26 seconds behind and Kato was third.

The Eric Wing Memorial Rum Race Series of 7 races starts on 4/1/21 at 5 pm (after a week off) and the public is invited to watch the race from the Nawiliwili mole parking area and to join in the festivities. Eric was a well known and well liked sailor on the Express 27 Papa Au for many years. His son Kevin Millet owns and races the Olson 30 Kato.

The Kauai Sailing Association will have an educational event after the 4/1/21 race at 6:45 pm with a Mexican dinner provided by Amaize Catering (Marcie) that includes a chicken fajita taco salad, a vegetarian chili bowl, and a mix of cookies for dessert, all for $15. Please RSVP to cjordan@wilcoxhealth.org as we can only have 25 people as we are following the Tier 4 protocol.

-Chris

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