NAWILIWILI — Heading into the final race of the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Wahine Series, there is a bottleneck for the lead of the series.
Emily Martin piloted Kato to victory under blustery 18- to 20-knots winds blowing out of the east northeast.
“There was even more excitement when the Race Committee results sheets of the 6.0-mile race blew off into the ocean,” said Chris Jordan, helping Allison Forinari aboard OZone. “A kind fisherman tried to snag them without success. Fortunately, the Beneteau 41 Iwa with Karen Cole on the helm saved the day by rescuing the results. The page is laminated and written in wax pencil so we didn’t lose the results.”
Following three races, Papa A‘u and Kato are tied for first place honors with seven points each after Kato recovered from a spinnaker-in-the-water situation and pulled ahead of Fast Company by a mere 10 ticks between the horn soundings.
“Meanwhile, downwind inside the harbor, Bonjolea II lost steering after building a good-sized lead,” Jordan said. “Apparently, one of the cables to the steering wheel failed while they were over by the G-7 buoy…heart attack time for skipper Bonnie Tiffany! But they dropped anchor as their spinnaker sailed off the top of their mast like a flag.”
“NYC rear commodore John Ross got to celebrate on his birthday by diving into the water three times to retrieve the spinnaker, make sure the prop wasn’t fouled, and to unsnap the anchor from an old harbor mooring,” Jordan said. “They were able to get the boat back into their slip using an emergency tiller. Thankfully, everyone was okay, but they did lose a spinnaker sheet.”
Under the umbrella of the blustery wind excitement, Kato had a tighter mark rounding and got inside Fast Company.
Emily Martin, at the helm of Kato, claimed line honors after sounding the finish horn on an elapsed sail of 1 hour, 5 minutes, and 42 seconds, and corrected to 1:06:25 PHRF — just 10 seconds ahead of Fast Company and Jakki Nelson (1:06:10 elapsed sail) who finalized at 1:06:35 PHRF. Bonjolea II suffered a “DNF” due to its steering mishap, and Victoria Aiu moved Papa A‘u across the finish line on a 1:11:06 elapsed sail, and corrected to 1:08:22 PHRF for third place, and a share of the overall series lead.
Christine moved Speedy across the line on a 1:13:12 elapsed sail and corrected to 1:04:07 Club for top honors in that class followed by Weatherly (1:13:48 elapsed) 1:08:43 Club, and OZone (1:16:04 elapsed) at 1:13:41 Club.
The final race of the NYC Wahine Series takes place, Thursday when the first flags fly at 5 p.m. at the Nawiliwili Harbor.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
