Dennis Fujimoto
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NAWILIWILI — Fast Company overcame bouts with a blustery rain squall and a departing cruise ship to top the opening race of the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Paul Pond Memorial Series, Thursday at the Nawiliwili Harbor.

The Paul Pond Series race is the first race in the shoreline series following a winter break enjoyed by the NYC Race Committee and attracted a lot of visitors, including people from Oakland, Petaluma and Santa Rosa, California, and some from Canada, said Sharon Gibson, the NYC Race Committee scorekeeper.

Preceding the Thursday shoreline series, NYC hosted a three-race Opening Day round, Saturday, a race where Fast Company was able to garner a second place overall in the PHRF Open and PHRF Monohull classes, dropping the lead to its perennial competitor OZone who picked up top honors in the PHRF Open and PHRF Monohull classes with top finishes in two of the three races, Fast Company ending with just one first finish in the second race.

Bonjolea, topping the Club Open class in the Saturday races, jumped out to an early lead, Thursday after being positioned in the right place following the juggling of the start line due to the impending departure of the “Ocean Princess” cruise liner in the harbor.

The fleet-footed Fast Company, with Jim Saylor at the stick, soon overtook Bonjolea and was at the lead coming in from the Ninini Point leg of the race, the return coinciding with the arrival of a rain squal and the bellowing departure of the cruise ship.

Working the spinnaker in 10- to 15-knot winds out of the East-Northeast and enhanced by the arrival of the squall, Fast Company maintained its lead over OZone, eventually crossing on a 56:37 sail and correcting to PHRF 56:42 for the lead, less than a minute ahead of OZone (57:09 elapsed, 57:14 PHRF).

Bonjolea followed in third on a 1:00:05 elapsed and correcting to 57:46 PHRF in a close battle for the lead.

Speedy, running afoul of an intended improvised start line, crossed fourth on a 1:01:20 elapsed sail, correcting to 1:01:26 PHRF. Mapuana (1:05:12 elapsed, 1:02:03 PHRF) and Papa‘au (1:08:33 elapsed, 1:05:37 PHRF) rounded out the field as Karanja, a Bystadt 29, recorded a “Did Not Finish.”

The series continues Thursday with the public invited to view the competition of the six-race Paul Pond Memorial Series from the Nawiliwili Harbor jetty wall area.

Visit www.nawiliwiliyachtclub.org for more information.

• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@ thegardenisland.com.