Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii
April 24-27, 2025
Thursday kicked off the event with light and shifty breeze. We saw every direction in the bay beginning with light trades, shifting north, then shifting west before the sustained southerly for the sail in. Multiple races gave us 180º shifts and large holes in the course. This proved to be very tricky and somewhat up to chance keeping the top 5 all within a few points. The race committee did an excellent job to get 3 races in with the little breeze we had. After racing some of the fleet joined in for the Thursday night bulkhead race and a classic KYC night at the bar.
Friday the fleet was welcomed with 8-12kt tradewinds bringing the top speeds of the event. Mikey Radziejowski and Evan Sjostedt put on a masterclass in the fresh breeze with a 1,1,3, DNF (disappearing tiller issue while leading the race).
Friday night the fleet was invited for a BBQ at the hilltop house in Lanikai which is a historical home filled with surf and sailing memorabilia including the original Transpac Trophy from 1906!
Saturday kicked off with our youth i14 clinic where we showed off the boats. The beautiful light wind morning allowed us to take some incredibly talented and stoked young kids for a rip! Racing begun at 2pm with light 6-10kt tradewinds dying to a very light 3-6kt final race.
Congratulations to Brad Ruetenik and JP Barnes in single spreader B6 1200 “Astragulus Too” for an expertly sailed regatta in a challenging variety of conditions. Michael Pacholski and I took 2nd in double spreader B6 1202 “Blue Balls” followed by Channing Hamlet and Paul Allen in the single spreader red B6 1193. The whole fleet is improving with the top 8 boats winning races throughout the regatta.
In the classics fleet, we had a close battle with 6 boats with old style rigs with upper shrouds to the mast. Congratulations to Gavin Ball and Zach Severson for taking the win in a freshly renamed B5 1167 “One Ball” run up by Maddy Kennedy and Mackenzie Cook in B3 1176 “Miss Match” and Pearl Lattanzi and Aaron Tsuchitori taking third in the B3 1187 “Nanotek”.
Sundays Hawaii State Championship distance race found light conditions and had to be modified to a bay tour. It was a reverse order start pursuit race beginning at the launch ramp, out the south channel around F buoy to starboard, E to port, RG to starboard, A to starboard, in the south channel to the finish. Congratulations to Gavin Ball and Zach Severson for crushing it in the light breeze and bringing home the gold. Runner ups Kristian Henderson and Martin Fabiansson from Sweden in 1192 “Bondage” followed by John Clark and Eike Ehrig from the German fleet in the new Ovington B6 120 6 “Amused”.
-Patrick Wilkinson, USA 1202
