NAWILIWILI — Lily Briones-Flynn broke a stalemate for the lead of the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Wahine Series when she piloted Weatherly to a squeaking finish over OZone during the third series race Thursday.
Racing in 10-to-14-knot winds out of the northeast, Weatherly suffered on its port tack at the start, where Double Espresso, breaking water on the same port tack, was called “over early,” but not before enabling OZone to beat Weatherly to the straight line to the harbor’s entrance.
“OZone had a pretty good start at the pin end on starboard tack, and Fast Company soon followed,” said Chris Jordan, crewing aboard OZone. “At the Ninini lighthouse buoy rounding, it was OZone in the lead, slightly ahead of Weatherly. Downwind, OZone had their smaller, heavy-air spinnaker up, and Weatherly easily gained on them with their larger spinnaker.”
“On the last leg around the Ninini Lighthouse buoy, Weatherly and OZone were neck and neck,” Jordan said. “But downwind, under spinnaker, OZone rounded up as they approached the Kalapaki buoy, which allowed Weatherly to pass them.”
This gave Weatherly line honors at 1 hour, 11 minutes, and 4 seconds for the 6-mile course. Weatherly corrected and took the race at 1:11:11 PHRF, a mere 30 ticks ahead of OZone, which crossed at 1:11:34 elapsed time and corrected to 1:11:41 PHRF.
“Lily Briones-Flynn did an outstanding job driving the boat,” Jordan said. “Taking second place 30 seconds later was OZone, with Alison Fonari on the helm.”
Fast Company, with Kara Winter at the stick, stayed ahead of Double Espresso to nail third place on a 1:14:12 elapsed time and correcting top 1:14:19 PHRF — just four ticks ahead of Double Espresso with Dasha Allyn on the helm.
Double Expresso corrected to 1:07:31 Club for top honors in that class, followed by Speedy (1:10:26 Club) and Papa A‘u (1:15:42 Club).
The fourth race of the five-race series is Thursday, when the first flags fly at 5 p.m. at Nawiliwili Harbor.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
