PAPA AU WINS AGAIN!

The Express 27 Papa Au, the smallest boat in the fleet, corrected to first place in the Gene Wells Series #6 held on 9/19/19. That is two bullets in a row for helmsman Jeff Olson who enjoyed giving Ozone fits with his clever pre start maneuvers. The 3 lap race over 6.03 miles got interesting when Fast Company tacked inside the G-5 buoy as required by the rules and they tore their #1 jib at the top. (Each boat is required to go through the finish line after each lap in case the race committee has to shorten the race). With this rip in their #1 jib it looked like Fast Company’s race was over. But the crew of Fast Company, with some verbal encouragement by their skipper Jim Saylor, did an amazing job of getting the torn sail down and putting up their smaller #3 sail in record time to continue the race.

Later, the flukey winds at the Kalapaki buoy on the way out to the lighthouse wreaked havoc. Ozone barely made it around without hitting the buoy and Papa Au actually ended up sailing backwards for awhile. Ozone, with a handicap of 30 seconds a mile compared to Papa Au, hoped that this slowed Papa Au down enough that they could beat them. But it was not to be. Ozone took line honors crossing the finish line 3 minutes and 20 seconds ahead of Papa Au, but on corrected time in the PHRF Class Papa Au took first place by 15 seconds with a time of 1:17:30 followed by Ozone in second with a time of 1:17:45 and a remarkable third place for Fast Company after their torn sail with a time of 1:20:27.

In the Club Class it was Weatherly in first place with Carl Andersson back on the helm. (On Race Q’s he is listed as the unknown boat and he swears that Double Espresso will be on Race Q’s soon so it will be more fun to watch the replays).
A protest/controversy is pending with two boats as Kato who would have been second in Club Class and Double Espresso in third both apparently sailed outside the G-5 buoy instead of inside as required. If they are disqualified it would move Speedy up to second and Bonjolea II to third.

After 6 of 10 races it appears that Ozone leads the series by only 0.5 points over Papa Au with lots of racing left. Close racing!

The 7th race of the Gene Wells Memorial Series will be held on Thursday 9/26/19 with a 5 pm start. The public is invited to watch the race from the Nawiliwili breakwater/mole parking area and to socialize with the race committee.

-Chris Jordan