NAWILIWILI HARBOR — Bonjolea II, with Bonnie Tiffany behind the big wheel of the Sydney 36, swept the five-race Wahine Seriess races, and continued its momentum by taking the first race of the Nawiliwili Yacht Club Shoreline Shorts Series.
“I have sometimes been less than enthusiastic about the four Short Series races that are all inside the harbor,” said Chris Jordan aboard OZone. “But this one I enjoyed. The course was 4.22 miles with four laps, more than we usually do, so the foredeck crew really got a workout putting up and taking down the spinnaker over a short distance.”
Winds were blowing at 13 knots out of the north-northeast, as OZone practiced their start at least four times by the pin end on starboard tack.
Practice paid off as OZone nailed the clean start ahead of Bonjolea II.
“On the first inside lap to the Kalapaki buoy, Bonjolea II was able to outpoint and outspeed OZone, and they got up to weather and side by side with OZone,” Jordan said. “But OZone had inside rights at the buoy and rounded first.”
OZone struggled to stay in front of Bonjolea II, and were able to get the inside overlap with rights at the G-7 buoy.
“Bonjolea II had gained a lot, and OZone was barely able to maintain an inside overlap at the G-11 buoy by the Coast Guard station,” Jordan said. “OZone rounded in the lead again.”
Jordan misjudged the northerly wind and OZone gave up a huge distance to Bonjolea II who maintained the lead for line honors on an elapsed time of 49 minutes, 2 seconds, followed by OZone sounding the finish horn on a 52:06 elapsed time.
“OZone was hoping that on handicap time they would beat Bonjolea II, but that was not to be and they finished in second place by 11 seconds,” Jordan said. “The OZone crew work was flawless, and if the skipper had better tactics, the race results might have been different.”
Bonjolea II corrected to 52:00 PHRF to OZone’s 52:11 PHRF correction. Weatherly, with Astrid Andersson on the helm, filled in third at 57:31 PHRF, followed by Papa A‘u in fourth at 59:23 PHRF. Double Espresso rounded out the field at 1:07:08 PHRF.
“The next race in the short series may have some new courses added, going to the G-9 and G-5 buoys to mix things up,” Jordan said. “So, keep a lookout for these new courses.”
The public is invited to view the race on Thursday when first flags fly at 5 p.m. at Nawiliwili Harbor jetty parking area.
Source: The Garden Island
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