NAWILIWILI — Bonjolea II took line honors, or first-to-cross, at the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Gene Wells Memorial Series, Race No. 5, but could not overcome the time handicap to finish in second place by 32 seconds at the Nawiliwili Harbor on Sept. 29.
Racing in winds of 8- to 10-knots out of the north northeast, the traditional wind pattern, six boats took off the starting line over the 5.92-mile, three-leg course. But it was not a clean start and three boats, Speedy, Weatherly, and Bonjolea II were called “Over Early” and had to restart after the other boats, OZone, Fast Company, and Papa A‘u, had cleared the area.
Bonjolea II recovered from the restart and quickly established a lead getting out of the harbor in the second leg.Bonnie Tiffany, on the big wheel of the Sydney 36, kept the boat ahead for the remainder of the race, sounding the horn on an elapsed time of 1 hour, 10 minutes, and 58 seconds, but corrected to 1:14:53 PHRF, falling to OZone (1:14:14 elapsed, 1:14:21 PHRF) by 32 seconds.
“Bonjolea II took second place,” said Chris Jordan, aboard OZone. “If Bonjolea II had not been called ‘over early’ by the Race Committee with the restart costing them a minute and 10 seconds, the results could have been different. And Fast Company who took third place was bemoaning the fact that their large No. 1 sail used in light air had a big hole in it and couldn’t be used, or their results could have been quite different, too.”
Speedy, another of the Over Early boats, sounded the finish horn on a 1:18:37 elapsed time and corrected to 1:09:49 Club for top honors in that class. Weatherly, loaded to the brim with overflow bodies from Double Espresso who did not race because of not sufficient numbers of crew, crossed on a 1:21:23 elapsed time and corrected to 1:16:33 Club for second place, followed by Papa A‘u, suffering the loss of Roger Cable the day before the race, crossing at 1:33:24 elapsed and corrected to 1:25:45 Club.
“Do you believe this?” said Rahn Honjiyo of the NYC Race Committee. “We only have until the Halloween race before the calendar shuts down for the winter season.”
The next race will sail on Thursday, when the first flags fly at 5 p.m. off the Nawiliwili Harbor jetty parking area.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 808-245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
