LATEST NEWS from SSS website: 11/19/2020 Year End Awards Presentation

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Originally Posted by BobJ

"Bali Ha'i will find you . . ."

There's just something about Hanalei Bay.

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Absolutely. I'd sure rather sail to Hanalei. I mean...it's Hanalei.

But if it got to be, say, the second week of April and Kauai was still requiring two weeks of quarantine, but the race committee and fleet friends could get to Oahu on the strength of a COVID test within 72 hours of boarding a plane... If it came to the point where ..... "we're going to cancel the race again", but we could sail to Haleiwa instead and still have a race, then ~Maybe~?

I would vote for sailing to Haleiwa over an outright cancellation.

Every photograph I've seen of the harbor shows open berths. North Shore is brutal in the Winter, but there are lots of pictures of people paddling around Haleiwa on SUP's in the summer. There's a reasonable anchorage off the north beach, and dinghies could land there. There are restaurants and hotels, though not a lot of them, and you have to drive a bit to get to them. I don't know about rental homes. There are a few stores, and a few more in nearby Waialua. RC could draw a finish line from the point just north of the harbor, due west, for a finish line, though they'd have to walk a couple of hundred yards from the road to get to it. There's a launch ramp in the harbor for little boats that might want to trailer down to Honolulu and load up on PASHA or MATSON.

Drone shot of the area again. It's obvious where the harbor is....find the place with no surf break.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5131/5...67ba3776_b.jpg

Anyway, I just throw this out there as an option.

My .02 on alternative finish points: Hilo should be considered. Like Hanalei, there is not much traffic on the approach. I was surprised on the recent passage here from So Cal that there was so little on radar/AIS on the approach -- almost nothing. The harbor is well protected inside a long breakwater, and there is ample anchorage in Reed's Bay. Temporary mooring permit required to stay more than 3 days, but permits are good for up to 30 days, and renewable up to 120 days per calendar year. And the rest of the archipelago is downwind from here.

That said, I hope the race finishes in Hanalei, because I'll probably have moved on from Hilo by then.

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Originally Posted by AZ Sailor

My .02 on alternative finish points: Hilo should be considered. Like Hanalei, there is not much traffic on the approach. I was surprised on the recent passage here from So Cal that there was so little on radar/AIS on the approach -- almost nothing. The harbor is well protected inside a long breakwater, and there is ample anchorage in Reed's Bay. Temporary mooring permit required to stay more than 3 days, but permits are good for up to 30 days, and renewable up to 120 days per calendar year. And the rest of the archipelago is downwind from here.

That said, I hope the race finishes in Hanalei, because I'll probably have moved on from Hilo by then.

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I looked over Google Earth maps and satellite images of Hilo last night, too. Hilo is a much bigger town, there are a lot more amenities, but there's a little corner of the harbor between the breakwater and the commercial wharf, with a beach and a canoe club. Dinghies could land there, though it would be good to get acquainted with the canoe club, first. The only downside to the harbor that I could see is that it is rather commercial. It's a lot nicer than, say Kahului, on the north Shore of Maui, though.

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Originally Posted by AlanH

I looked over Google Earth maps and satellite images of Hilo last night, too. Hilo is a much bigger town, there are a lot more amenities, but there's a little corner of the harbor between the breakwater and the commercial wharf, with a beach and a canoe club. Dinghies could land there, though it would be good to get acquainted with the canoe club, first. The only downside to the harbor that I could see is that it is rather commercial. It's a lot nicer than, say Kahului, on the north Shore of Maui, though.

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NOTE: There is a Hilo Yacht Club but it has nothing to do with boats. It's a private club; dining, pool, weight room kind of place. Not a boat to be seen.

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Originally Posted by AlanH

NOTE: There is a Hilo Yacht Club but it has nothing to do with boats. It's a private club; dining, pool, weight room kind of place. Not a boat to be seen.

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But there is this: http://www.hilo-sailing.org/

Despite the formal name "Na Hoa Holomoku of Hawaii Yacht Club," it seems to be every bit a 'not a yacht club' sort of thing. The 'club' has a fleet of 2 Folkboats, 10-15 Lasers, a West Wight Potter 19, and some other stuff. One of the Folkboats is on a mooring in Reed's Bay and the other is in the Wailoa Small Boat Harbor. The two boats engaged each other in what looked like match races inside the breakwater the past 2 Sundays. Turns out what they were actually doing was taking out kids from the sailing camp program to conduct water gun fights between boats.