NAWILIWILI — Fast Company took the final race of the Nawiliwili Yacht Club shoreline Rum Series race, Thursday, and dedicated the series win to Jim Saylor’s father, Dick Saylor, who was an avid sailor before passing away at 92 years old earlier this year.
With seven races, all won by Fast Company, in the series with one throw-out, Jim Saylor had clinched the series during last week’s race.
Fast Company topped the field of four boats, flying to an elapsed sail of 1 hour, 5 minutes and 41 seconds and correcting to 1:06:05 PHRF for the victory over the three-leg 6.03-mile course.
“Fewer boats participated in this final race,” said John Ross of the Nawiliwili Yacht Club. “Sailors of Weatherly and Double Expresso were on Oahu attending Sailing Instructor Certification classes, and the absent competitors were missed at racing.
But the community will benefit from the additional instructors available for teaching sailing classes with the Kauai Sailing Association.”
During the race, Papa A‘u was first off the start line, but Fast Company wrestled the lead and guarded it through most of the three legs.
“Bonjolea II caught up and passed them on the last downwind leg when Fast Company held off setting its spinnaker,” Ross said. “But Bonjolea’s lead was not enough to overcome the PHRF handicap.”
Papa A‘a (1:10:35 elapsed, 1:07:52 PHRF), Bonjolea II (1:04:38 elapsed, 1:08:52 PHRF), and Speedy (1:13:17 elapsed, 1:13:44 PHRF) filled in the fleet finish.
Speedy also corrected to 1:04:43 Club to take top honors in that class.
With the Thursday victory, Fast Company tops the PHRF series with six points followed by Kato ending with 13 points, and Papa A‘a filling in third place on 19 points.
Club class results had OZone filling in the top spot on 29 points followed two points back by Bonjolea II at 31 points. Weatherly secured the third spot in the class with 33 points after tying Speedy on points, but scoring higher on the tie-breaking calculations.
The NYC fleet returns to Nawiliwili Harbor on May 30 when it hosts a series of racing where each boat is required to have an invited guest on board to help expose more people to sailboat racing.
The public is invited to view the competition when the first flags fly at 5 p.m.
