Another spectacular  racing day at Kanaha for the Maui Fin company Open. Trade winds finally picked up enough about 1pm for the racing to begin, but it was going to be on the light side, well at least Maui light. Most of the men were using 7.0m and 6.6m sails while the women were on 5.9’s and 5.5’s.

The racing was hot and very close all day, with sailors pushing the starts to the limit, some of them being called over early and others who were consistent and that paid dividends.  The ever present Mike Yasak easily won the mens 50-59 division, showing once again he’s going to be the man to be for a long time in this division. Phil McGain battled with Elon Wong both using MauiSails for first and second in the mens 40-49 division. Mark Boersma finished third in the tough mens 19-39 division.

In the afternoon Phil McGain showed his consistency and board speed by sailing into First place in the men’s pro division. McGain switched to his 6.6 and showed superior speed off the start, but was pushed by Kai Hopf placing second and Dan Ellis rounding out the top three.

The most exciting division of the day was the Open Womens division and it was battled by current State Champion Tamara Bockius and visiting Japanese racer Yoshie Ishinoda. While both of these women are on MauiSails they both wanted to win and pushed themselves to the very last heat. Tamara and Yoshie both finished with 4.7 points, but with the tie breaker it was Yoshie who took first place, with Tamara a close second and Kristen Orth placing third.

For full results and details at www.mauiraceseries.com

Photos by Harry Wiewel