It was a perfect day for the technical sailor, the winds were moderate 10 to 20 mph and the tide was high. Strategy became the key rather than the use of brute strength like last year's edition of the Windbag Regatta, when we had to paddle hard the whole way in quirky winds. The kiters were there - Paul Tibbits, Merritt Burke, Jody Dingle, Dave Lonborg and his son, Chuck Ehrhorn, Stan McRae and Tom. They were all flying parafoils, but Merritt had a frame kite that looked like a giant moth. Chalsa Loo, Steve Harris, Phil Dang, Ed Rhinelander, and I had sails of various configurations. Chalsa and Steve had sails that featured a mainsail while Steve had a jib as well, both without amas or leeboards. Phil and Ed had their Scupper Pros fully rigged with sails and amas, and were impressive sights sitting on the shore at Maunalua bay. I had two triangle sails rigged, but like Chalsa and Steve, no amas or leeboards. Representing the umbrella sail category were Sam and Elly Cucinell in their Aire inflatable, which had leeboards.
Hui president Joe Hu had the honor of starting the race with everyone in the shallow waters off the boat ramp. Immediately, Chalsa and Steve had jackrabbit starts and Joe declared Chalsa as the fastest starter of the pack. Right behind were Steve, Merritt and myself. The lead pack held tight until Paiko Lagoon, where Steve, Chalsa and Merritt decided to take an outside track to avoid the Paiko dead spot. I chose to sail on inside the reef. Outside the reef, the dogfight started with Merritt paddling hard with his frame kite flying high, pulling ahead of Chalsa and Steve. The winds remained steady outside the reef, with the occasional gust rotating Merritt's kite vertically, reducing traction on his Tarpon. "That's why I had to paddle the whole way!" Merritt declared. Hooting and hollering, Steve turned on the adrenaline and gave hard chase to Merritt, paddling occasionally to catch up. Looking mauka, Merritt tracked my progress inside the reef. He later described his predicament to me: "I was actually ahead of you most of the way, but I had to make up the difference in the distance I was from shore compared to you." The question became, when to come back in through the surf to finish the race. The answer came at "Graveyards" at Wailupe, the famous surfing break on the Kahala coast. "A huge wave was breaking outside, and I had to surf it in!" Said Merritt. I had not seen Merritt the whole way, thinking I was way ahead of the pack. Steve's hooting had become softer and softer giving me a false sense of security. Suddenly, at the Kahala Mandarin Hotel I looked makai, and there was a giant Moth flying overhead - looking back I saw Merritt with his signature grin paddling hard. "Oh no! Not a repeat of last year!" I thought, as the memory of coming in second to Steve in the previous year's race came to mind. I knew that I would never hear the end of it if I allowed Merritt to slip ahead, so it was time to take some action! After a small prayer, a gust came. Pulling in the fore sail to take advantage of the gust coming from the northeast, my Scupper Pro propelled to 8 mph and I saw Merritt fading back, still paddling hard. The gust continued all the way into the shore at Waialae and I landed 1 minute ahead of Merritt. Looking much like a salmon that finally made it to his upstream spawning ground, he still had a big grin on his face. "I could have gone farther if I had to!" he said in the true spirit of the Windbag. Steve, last year's winner, came barreling in as he took a small key hole channel in the reef to sail in between sets of waves. "I was really sailing coming into Waialae, and I was catching up to both of you!" Steve informed us. Right behind him was Chalsa with her control line in her mouth as she deftly pulled up her rudder and paddled the short distance to shore. The first fully rigged kayak came in when Phil sailed his tricked-out Scupper Pro in. "I didn't have to paddle the whole way!" he said excitedly. Then the parafoil kites started to come in with Paul, followed by Chuck and Stan. Paul was still flying the parafoil when he arrived at the finish. In the air there was a clump of line 30 feet in the air, which looked like a new sailing technique. " It sort of got tangled as I was letting the line out." Paul explained. The Lonborg father and son tandem team came in with his kite a tangled mess in the kayak. Ed with his experimental ama set up finished next. This was the first time he had taken his new sail out, which was fashioned in the Polynesian "crab claw" style. Then Tom landed, followed by Sam and Elly with their parasol sail. Finally, Jodie came in to pull in the last place.
Another Windbag Regatta was in the bag with an exciting finish. Chalsa asked me what I thought gave me the edge to win this year and I told her in a very un-Windbag manner, "It was luck!" But I knew the real reason. Mahalo, ke akua!
(c) 2003 Hui Waa Kaukahi