NAWILIWILI — Emily Martin steered Kato to her third win to take the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Wahine Series in very light air on a shortened, five-mile course.
“Emily was steering the Olson 30 sailboat Kato for the fifth race of the Wahine Series,” said Chris Jordan, owner of OZone, another Olson 30 participating in the seven-boat competition. “However, with her stellar performances in the previous four races, she didn’t even need to race the final race to win the series.”
Kato started further down the line at the start, moving full speed to take the early lead over Fast Company and OZone.
“Fast Company nearly caught Kato at the Kalapaki buoy with the crazy air patterns in there,” Jordan said. “At the G-11 buoy near the Coast Guard station, it was Kato in the lead followed by Fast Company and OZone.”
Kato and Fast Company had a nice battle going, covering each other tack for tack and, heading out of the harbor, Kato was to weather of Fast Company, Jordan said.
“Kato decided to tack back towards the beach at the Timbers Resort, which usually pays off with a lift in there,” he said. “But not this time. The extra two tacks cost them some time, and at the lighthouse buoy they had to duck Fast Company, who was coming in on starboard and took the lead. Kato answered with a nice spinnaker run and went above Fast Company to take their air and retook the lead.”
Martin steered Kato to line honors, stopping the clock on an elapsed sail of 1 hour, 14 minutes, and 8 seconds, correcting to 1:14:56 PHRF for the win — of both the final race and the Wahine Series. Fast Company with Lydia Lintermans on the helm followed on a 1:15:37 elapsed sail and correcting to 1:16:05 PHRF, earning second place in the series because of their close standing with OZone entering the final race.
OZone finished third in the PHRF class, sounding the finish horn on a 1:20:51 elapsed sail and correcting to 1:21:21 PHRF for the honor.
Speedy, the Olson 30 with Kristina Chapman steering, topped the Club class with a 1:32:02 elapsed sail and correcting to 1:20:16 Club for the honor. Weatherly, with Astrid Andersson on the stick, pulled the young crew to runner-up honors with a 1:29:09 elapsed sail and correcting to 1:21:23 Club.
Bonnie Tiffany steered Bonjolea II in the light air to a 1:22:57 elapsed sail, and the Sydney 36 corrected to 1:21:49 Club for third-place honors, 26 ticks behind Weatherly.
Thursday, the Gene Wells Memorial Series resumes its seven-race series with three races remaining, and one throwout allowed.
Currently, Fast Company is comfortably in the lead of the series with five points (three first finishes and one second), followed a point back by Kato with six points (three second places while not competing in one race). Weatherly is in third place on 15 points (3, 4, 5, 3).
The public is invited to view the competition with the NYC Race Committee from the Nawiliwili Harbor jetty wall parking area, when the first flags fly at 5 p.m., and for a descriptive Jordan account of the final Wahine Series race, visit nawiliwiliyachtclub.org.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
