NAWILIWILI — Bonjolea II, with Bonnie Tiffany at the wheel, captured its sixth straight race with a win in the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Ken Martinez Commodore Race No. 4 during the shoreline series at Nawiliwili Harbor where northeast winds at 13 knots blanketed the excitement.
Bonjolea II’s win was not a slam dunk as she took the race over the efforts of Jim Saylor and the Fast Company crew by just six ticks after adjusting for the handicaps. And there were the mid-race experiences that generated excitement for the spectators who joined the NYC Race Committee on the mole viewing area.
“It was really nice to have Kato back on the race course with Skipper Kevin Millett, although the OZone crew missed having Thor Temme who jumped ship to help Kevin on Kato,” said Chris Jordan, the skipper aboard OZone.
“At the start, Kato appeared to be a little early and they fell off down the line and did fine. OZone was barging and thought they could sneak in, but Jim Saylor on Fast Company wouldn’t allow that and forced OZone up. In retrospect, OZone should just have come up more and hit the buoy in which case they would have done one penalty turn,” Jordan said.
“But unfortunately, the two boats touched gently side by side, and although Jakki Nelson on the rail was able to pull her legs up, JT Schoonover had his ankles pinched in between the two boats. That hurt, and OZone’s skipper felt bad and apologized before doing two penalty turns, which put OZone way back in last place.”
Then, there was the large orange liquid propane tanker leaving Nawiliwili Harbor during the second leg of the race.
“It was tooting its horn to warn the sailboats to stay out of their (the tanker was accompanied by a pair of tugboats and the Pilot boat) way,” Jordan said. “Bonjolea II, in the lead following the Ninini buoy turnaround, perhaps got a little closer than the other boats. OZone stayed closer to the breakwater on the inside, or downwind side, and they slowed down a lot due to the huge wind shadow from the big tanker.”
Bonjolea II went on to take line honors and first place after adjustments with Fast Company dogging the Sydney 36 by six seconds for second place.
“OZone came back from being in last place to take third place,” Jordan said. “Kato, racing without using their spinnaker, took fourth place. Double Espresso with the junior sailors from the Kaua‘i Sailing Association rounded out the fleet in fifth place.”
The fifth race in the Ken Martinez Commodore Series will be held on Thursday with a 5 p.m. start.
