NAWILIWILI — The wind, or lack thereof, was a big factor in the final race of the Nawiliwili Yacht Club’s Rum Series, Thursday. As the fleet of nine boats languished in the near glass conditions of the harbor due to
NAWILIWILI — The wind, or lack thereof, was a big factor in the final race of the Nawiliwili Yacht Club’s Rum Series, Thursday.
As the fleet of nine boats languished in the near glass conditions of the harbor due to the lack of winds, comments of how long the race was going to take took the forefront of afternoon conversation among the spectators.
“Fast Company has already locked up the series,” said Sharon Gibson, the NYC scorekeeper. “I was doing the tallies before the race, and she doesn’t even need to be in the race to win. But, there is a battle for second, third and fourth places.”
As the fleet piled toward the mountain, jockeying for best position in the whisper of a wind, Lelele took the high road, opting to get close to the jetty wall.
That course brought her in the middle of Speedy and Papa‘au as the three leaders crept out of the harbor, eyeing the far turnaround at the Ninini Point Lighthouse.
“The longer the race takes, these boats have an advantage on the PHRF corrections,” said one spectator, drawing agreement from others.
Fast Company, buried in the pack below the leaders, managed to cross the finish line on an elapsed sail of 1:36.33 for the first overall finish, but with the PHRF correction, relegated the lead to Papa‘au on a 1:36.42 PHRF to Papa‘au’s 1:33.53 PHRF (1:38.03 elapsed for second overall).
Speedy (1:39.53 PHRF), Lelele (1:41.09 PHRF), and OZone (1:42.01 PHRF) rounded out the leader board, Lelele beating out OZone by about 30 seconds in the non-wind conditions.
With the results of the race, Fast Company picked up top honors in the PHRF Open and PHRF Monohull standings with 8 and 7 points, respectively.
She was followed by Papa‘au and Lelele in second and third place in the PHRF Open Class, Lelele getting third by just one point over Malihini who finished sixth in the final race on a 1:46.45 PHRF sail. OZone finished the series tied with Malihini, both boats drawing 22-point totals.
In the PHRF Monohull class, Papa‘au was followed by a tie between OZone and Lelele for third place, both boats drawing 19 points.
Speedy finished the series tops in the Club Open class with 20 points followed by Malihini at 22 points and Coyote, finishing the final race in seventh on a 1:49.03 CLUB sail, ending the series with 31 points.
Gibson said the next event on the NYC calendar is an around-the-island race taking place during the Memorial Day weekend.
That will be followed by the start of the Junior Series starting June 4.
For more information, visit www.nawiliwiliyachtclub.org.
