NAWILIWILI — The last race of the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Bob Hamby Memorial Series comes up Thursday with Race No. 7.
This is the final race in the seven-race series that was taken by Bonjolea II in the Hamby Series, Race No. 6, last Thursday on St. Patrick’s Day.
Racing in winds of 8 to 10 knots out of the north, the Sydney 36 piloted by Bonnie Tiffany was buried in the pack at the clean start of the three-leg series.
“OZone had their large No. 1 sail up, but were sometimes overpowered,” said Chris Jordan, the OZone skipper. “Double Espresso had its slightly smaller No. 2 sail up, and Fast Company had their small No. 3 that appeared to be working well.”
Jordan said OZone, at the start, tried to go head-to-wind not only to slow down to prevent an over-early, but wanted to push Fast Company above the starting buoy at the pin end.
“Bonjolea II came in fast a little further down the line, and Double Espresso started on the port tack,” Jordan said. “After parking it and getting behind, OZone tacked towards the breakwater to clear their air. Fast Company also tacked to cover OZone from in front. Double Espresso also tacked and fell in behind these boats.”
Bonjolea II rounded the Ninini Lighthouse buoy with the lead, challenged by Fast Company, OZone, and Speedy.
Following the second lap, OZone did gain some on Fast Company going upwind towards the mole parking area.
“But when OZone’s skipper tacked early, he put the boat downwind right in Fast Company’s bad air,” Jordan said. “Fast Company’s skipper Jim Saylor could be heard thanking Chris for the dumb move.”
With little change in position, Bonjolea II took line honors on an elapsed time of 1 hour, 11 minutes, 15 seconds, sounding the finish horn ahead of the other boats by quite a distance, Jordan said.
But that was enough to overcome the handicap as Fast Company corrected to first place after crossing at 1:15:17 elapsed, and correcting to 1:15:45 PHRF, almost a minute ahead of OZone who crossed at 1:15:54 — 37 seconds behind Fast Company — and corrected to 1:16:22 PHRF. That was just 19 seconds better than Bonjolea II who ended in third place at 1:16:41 PHRF.
In Club class competition, Speedy (1:19:47 elapsed) corrected to 1:10:51 Club for top honors followed by Weatherly (1:19:19 elapsed) correcting to 1:14:37 Club for second place.
“Double Espresso put a hole in their spinnaker, early and didn’t use it after that so as not to make the hole bigger so that cost them lots of time,” Jordan said. Double Espresso (1:28:11 elapsed) corrected to 1:20:10 Club for third place in that class.
The public is invited to view the final race of the Bob Hamby Memorial Series Thursday when the first flags fly at 5 p.m. at the Nawiliwili mole parking area.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
