1999 Senoritas' Fishing Tournament Report

In the spring of 1979, Hawaii Yacht Club board member Bill Walters attended what was described as a monotonous and cumbersome meeting at the club. Also in the room during that unpublicized meeting was an 18-year old recording secretary by the name of Skippy Turek. Taking meeting notes and completely unaware of Bill’s agenda, Skippy became the target of his wandering mind, and he got the urge to memorialize his thoughts by drawing her. After the marathon meeting was adjourned, on a sheet of paper laid what would become the cover for the July 1979 Hawaii Yacht Club Bulletin which in turn promoted that year’s Transpacific Yacht Race. Who would have thought then that the little mermaid Bill drew to pass time in a bored meeting would eventually become the logo of what is now Hawaii’s most famous women’s fishing event: the Senoritas’ Jackpot Fishing Tournament.

Twenty years of wahine fishing culminated in a powerful event over the weekend of April 17th and 18th, and we were able to pull off a wonderful tournament for all the lovely ladies-turned-animal-anglers competing for the cash. In the end, while only one boat of the 27 entries and one angler of the 174 took home the grand prize, everyone who participated in the celebration was a winner. Here’s a re-cap of who got the cash this time around:
1st place went to Kumulani, who won $5,000 and were also awarded the HYC John Mulledy memorial perpetual trophy for boating a 164.5 lb. Pacific Blue Marlin. The fish was angled by Mimi Bornhorst. Second place went to Alele II, who won $2,000 and the angler, Lalbie Bloomer, was awarded the perpetual trophy for top HYC angler. Their fish was a 107.5 lb. Blue Marlin.

Third place was won by Mazel Tov. Sharon Palencia caught a 90.5 lb. Blue Marlin, good for $1,500. Fourth went to team 7, Akele. Angler Nora Shelton caught a 39.5 lb. Ono, which earned them a check for $1,000. Fifth place went to Maggie Joe, as Lynn Sorensen managed to boat a 36.5 lb. Mahi, earning the team $500.00. Also, their total of eleven qualifying fish earned them the HYC perpetual trophy for most qualifying fish in the tournament.

Of special note was the Sea Verse III, skippered by Lee Severs, whose 249.5 combined pounds of qualifying fish earned him the HYC trophy for the most points accumulated in the tournament.

Fish of the day was Mahi on Saturday and Ahi on Sunday. Since no Ahi were caught Sunday, the prizes went to Maggie Joe for their 36.5 lb Mahi ($100), and Sea Verse for their 36 lb Mahi, also caught Sunday ($100).

senorita1.jpg (990874 bytes)
The anglers of Kumulani with the winning fish

Talus Wines was our major sponsor for the second straight year, and we thank Gary Hill for their support. The rest of our supporters and contacts, with their phone numbers (all area code 808 unless noted), are as follows (in alphabetical order by company name):
  • Steve Lewis at Ala Wai Marine 946-4213
  • Scott Okamoto at the Chart House 941-6669
  • Ed Cox of Cox Yacht Insurance in Newport Beach, California (949) 675-4006
  • Dana Queen of Dana Queen Publishing 732-8720
  • Damon Sweazy of Del Sol
  • Dennis Oshiro of GECH 527-8275
  • Hal Josephson of Hal's Hawaii Kai Taxi 366-6363
  • Rita and Jack of the Harbor Pub 941-0985
  • Chuck Johnston of the Hawaii Fishing News 395-4499
  • Hilo Hatties - Ala Moana Shopping Center
  • Pat Kuniyoshi of Island Landscaping 671-2623
  • Brad Walker of Kamehameha Garment Company 545-1148
  • Kewalo Marine Services 591-8726
  • Joe Kida of Kida's Fishing 597-8094
  • Joe Kimura at Kimura of Hawaii 591-8175
  • Dennis Smith at Marine Surveyors and Consultants 545-1333
  • Don Murphy of Murphy's Bar and Grill 531-0422
  • Dwayne Hartman at Pacific Machinery 676-0205
  • Tom McFadden of Paul Davis Systems 396-4040
  • Don Rohrbach of Skysurfing 637-3442
  • Paula McKnight at Snappers 941-2577
  • Mike Maher of South Pacific Jewelers 949-7615
  • Ted Tobby at Sunset Grille 521-4409
  • Garrick Ching of Super Threads 591-6633
  • Todd S. Liddy Marine Broker 988-5650
  • Adrian Lee of Video Slideshows (pager) 279-4003
  • Robert Kennedy at West Marine 845-9900


senorita2.jpg (996112 bytes)
Sea Verse III crew with their many Mahi's

Including the contribution from Sportfish Hawaii, we had 29 sponsors for this tournament!

Volunteers are also a big part of any event, so I also need to mention everyone who helped out with the tournament and what they did (please note some did more than one job):

  • Vicki Collins, Suzie Heidrich and Lyn Silva - initial mailout of invitations
  • Kathy House and Wendy Burke - banquet, pupu parties, cleanup, registration & recording
  • Dave Silvey, Jim Schoocraft, George Machado and Verne Russell - communications and electronics set-up
  • Tony Cole, Uncle Paul Blakemore, Kevin (fly guy) Faucheaux, Doug Allen and Kathy Mulledy - weigh-in team
  • Tony Miller, Bob Simpson, and Robbie Buck - start boat and rescue team
  • Katie Merril, Charlene Detro and whoever else I didn’t see at 5:00 in the morning (sorry) - continental breakfast
  • Mellette Hawksley-Smith and Peggy Barron Nelson - sponsors
  • Arlene Schade and Dail Halas - office
  • Rusty Leonard and Richard Ally - port captains
  • Larry Muttick - new photo backdrop sign and grounds set up
  • Roz Hunt and Gloria Shorthose - banquet decorations
  • Craig Mitchell - donation of food for the seafood banquet in the lower deck on Monday
  • Miles Anderson - MC
  • Patty Deacon (who was supposed to concentrate on her fishing) - banquet set-up and also her role in landing Talus
  • Al Bento - sponsor Talus and tournament conception 20 years ago
  • And most importantly, Barbara Silvey - the behind the scenes tournament coordinator who is really the reason why things went as well as they did.

I also like to thank Rocky Dimori of All Access Productions for his fine job on the music and congratulations to Rocky on his pending nationwide tour. Thanks also to John Davis for his great photography work, the bar guys, Fred, Kevin, Mike and Lindsey, who busted their tails all weekend, and Nick, Nina and the galley gang for providing us with amazing food.

Thank you all so very, very much. We’ll see all of you back, and a whole lot more, next year for the 21st annual tournament.

Mike

Click here for more Senoritas' Tournament photos.

Photos courtesy of Ocean Sports Photo

 

Back to State Schedule