KATO WINS, SPEEDY AND TRINITY COLLIDE

A collision between the Olson 30 Speedy on port tack after rounding the lighthouse buoy and Trinity, the F-28R trimaran on starboard marred the 5th race of the Phil Tanner Memorial series on 3/11/21. There was significant damage to both boats but fortunately no one was hurt.

The wind was more out of the Southeast at about 6-12 knots so the start was in the opposite direction than usual, heading first towards the mountain. The pin end was placed way over towards the cruise ship dock which made for an interesting start. As boats jockeyed for position, Ozone thought that they had the best start. Papa Au was right there too. But it looked like the boats would be low of the G-7 buoy heading upwind and so Bonjolea II, Iwa and then Fast Company tacked away onto port to make the buoy. Later Kato also tacked away followed by Papa Au. But Ozone somehow caught a miracle lift and made it around the G-7 buoy followed by Weatherly in the tight 25 foot space between the buoy and the 45 foot anchored trimaran Meshach. But Ozone’s skipper had the spinnaker set up on the wrong side so they didn’t fly it and that slowed them down. Kato and Fast Company came roaring down and Papa Au was right there in the mix and in fact they took the lead for awhile. Papa Au was short of crew when Andy Evans got stuck at work and so they didn’t fly their spinnaker. Helmsman Jeff Olsen also trimmed the main and he gets credit for the drag race he essentially had with the other Olson 30’s and in particular with Weatherly. Kato took the lead followed by Ozone, Papa Au, Weatherly and Fast Company while Bonjolea II was coming on strong. Bonjolea II gained to the point where they were the 3rd boat around the lighthouse buoy behind Kato and Ozone. Fast Company, Papa
Au and Weatherly followed.

Both the leg out to the lighthouse buoy and back into the harbor turned out to be upwind legs, without our usual spinnaker run as the wind was more from the Southeast. At about 18 minutes into the race a very loud crunching sound was heard throughout the fleet. The Olson 30 Speedy had rounded the lighthouse buoy and was now on port tack. They apparently didn’t see the F-28R trimaran Trinity coming up fast on starboard tack. The boats collided and they were stuck together for awhile. It looked like Speedy’s bow pulpit was crunched and folded downwards and their port stanchion was bent. I didn’t get a chance to see Trinity up close to describe the damage which I suspect was significant. Both Speedy and Trinity retired from the race after the collision.

Weatherly, with their junior sailor crew, heard the crunching sound and immediately turned around to provide assistance followed shortly thereafter by Papa Au and then Fast Company. Trinity and Speedy were able to separate themselves and fortunately no one appeared to be hurt. The 3 boats that turned back to provide assistance appeared to me to get back quickly to their turning point on RaceQ’s in about a minute and 45 seconds by my calculations. The race committee will be giving them redress on their times for providing assistance.

For the rest of the race the positions stayed essentially the same. Ozone occasionally threatened Kato’s lead but without success. Kato finished first, followed by Ozone and then Bonjolea II. Fast company finished next and should correct over Bonjolea II to third place. Papa Au and Weatherly finished essentially side by side so on corrected time the 3 foot shorter Papa Au does better and takes their drag race. The redress time correction for providing assistance has not been determined yet so these results are tentative.

The sixth race of the Phil Tanner Memorial Series will be held on Thursday 3/18/21 with a 5pm start. The public is invited to join the race committee to talk story and to watch the race from the Nawiliwili mole parking area.

-Chris

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