Subic Centennial emerges as IRC Overall winner of the Rolex China Sea RaceSource: www.regattanews.comMarch 24, 2008

The land-sea breeze off the Phil-ippine coast made and lost fortunes for the potential handicap winners in this 565-nautical mile offshore Asian classic. At the Philippine finish of the

Rolex China Sea Race, local enthusiasm and passion for sailing is evident, so it seemed fitting that the overall handi-cap winner was Philippine entry, Subic Centennial, co-skippered by Judes Echauz, Vince Perez and their young Filipino crew. Echauz and Perez won the China Sea Race in 1998 with the same boat, and ten years later decided it was time to try again. Echauz, President of the Philippine Sailing Association, head of the Philippine Sailing Team; likewise was involved in the ASEAN Games in Manila. Subic Centennial, a Sydney

46 from the Manila Yacht Club, is mostly composed of young Philippine Team sailors, training under Australian senior coach Jamie Wilmot.

Perez commented, “Judes really does a good job trying to involve young Filipinos who otherwise wouldn't enjoy the sport of sailing. He's provided scholarships for thePhilippine Sailing Association sailors, plus sent them to the Southeast Asia Games, so this is a great experience for them. Some of them haven’t been to

Hong Kong before, so it's a wonderful ocean race for them to participate in.”

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Congratulations Winners!16th President’s Cup Regatta

IRC RACING1st – Subic Centennial, E.Echauz 2nd – Quantum Racing, R.Roberts3rd – Fullmetal Jacket, C.Meads

4th – Jelik, F.Pong5th – Hi-Fi, N.Pryde

IRC CRUISER RACER1st – Jo de Ros, G.Hackett

2nd – Strewth, G.Hill3rd – Challenge, M.Tanco

4th – Selma Star, J.Avecilla Jr.5th – Rags, A.Burrell

Performance Handicap1st – Rapparee XXX, D.McKenna2nd – Adec Solution, J.Donovan3rd – Punta De Uian, R.Gipulan4th – Sorcerer, A.Chamberlain

5th – Fast Exit, Yamamoto /Nishi

President’s Cup Series 2008IRC RACING

1st – Subic Centennial, E.Echauz2nd – Full Metal Jacket, C.Meads

3rd – Hi-Fi, N. Pryde

IRC CRUISER RACER1st – Challenge, M.Tanco

2nd – Stella, R.Buser3rd – Jaywalker, P.Bankowski

Rolex China Sea Race 2008IRC Racing A

Subic Centennial, E.Echauz

IRC Racing Division BJaywalker, P.Bankowski

IRC Performance CruisingDream, M.Thornburrow

BARNACLEM a n i l a Y a c h t C l u b

Subic Centennial Wins 2008 Rolex China Sea Race and President’s Cup Regatta

Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi

Photo: Cristina Defensor

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Once again tactics played as much a part as luck. Echauz said, “We were trying to be close to the rhumb line – we did not want to go south, as we might have been stuck. The way we looked at it was to be on the rhumb line, or eventually trying to go north of the rhumb line, so that when we got further down (the course) and the wind conditions were northeast as forecast, on the last day it would be favoring us.” He continued, “The northeast was supposedly forecast for the last two days, but I guess in terms of weather prediction there was a big hole. Yesterday, true enough we got

caught up for four hours and were not moving. It was very calm, 2 or 3 knots, up until about four in the afternoon.” Echauz added, “We've seen Rolex as a sponsor in interna-tional regattas and their being the sponsor for the Rolex China Sea Race will really give it a big boost and a lot of prestige.”

A total of 23 entries entered the Rolex China Sea Race, which started in Hong Kong on Thursday 20 March 2008. The biennial 565-nautical mile race, organized by the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club with Manila Yacht Club Co-Organizer, run under the auspices of the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC), is con-sidered to be the ultimate Asian blue-water offshore sailing event. The 24th China Sea Race finished in Subic Bay, northwest of Manila, the Philippines.

Subic Centennial, Jo De Ros TEAM Windshear and Rapparee XXX – winners of the 16th President’s Cup RegattaSummary: www.asianyachting.com

ubic Bay turns it on... the sea b breeze arrived early, right on cue for the 10:30am start. As the breeze continued build-ing strength, the opening event for this year’s

President’s Cup developed into a magnificent day for racing sail-

boats. PRO Gerry Rollin sent the IRC Racing

and the Cruiser/Racer classes

off on a 22 nau-tical mile passage

race, while the Per-formance Handicap

class went on a 14nm point to point course

which took the yachts to the extremities of Subic Bay.

They had it all – long windward beats, square

runs, beam spinnaker reaches and close reaches

that soon sorted crew work. This proved a good test of the

effectivity of the IRC handicap system, estimating boat speeds

when calculating the results for such a diverse range of boat sizes, racing under similar conditions. At day’s end, crew who made the least mistakes and the boat which sailed their allot-ted handicap should be among the winners.

DAY 1, IRC Racing Class: After quite a bit of jockeying around during pre-start,

"Fortis Mandrake across the start line" crackled out over the radio as the hooter sounded. The long windward beat to the weather mark sorted out boats in order of size, IRC rating and relative boat speed. As they sped on, separation grew and without taking mark round-ing times, it was very hard to visually determine the han- dicap leader. After

whipping around the course in 2hrs 21mins Frank Pong's 76ft R/P Jelik took line honors but finished 34 minutes later at the rear of the fleet. Judes Echauz Sydney 46 Subic Centennial cor-rected out a mere six seconds faster than Jelik to continue win-ning. Neil Pryde's Welbourne 52 Hi Fi finished strong to secure 3rd place, only 18 seconds adrift of the leader. All boats corrected out within three minutes from first to last place. Chris Mead’s Corby 43 Full Metal Jacket tied for 4th place with exactly the same time as Ray Roberts’ DK46 Quantum Racing, showing just how close the racing was.

IRC Cruiser Racer: Unde-terred after losing the keel on his new TP52 Strewth during the China Sea Race, Geoff Hill and crew showed their true mettle by firing up Hill’s recently re-tired Lyons 49 Strewth, which luckily happened to be berthed in Subic Bay. Almost a faultless performance except being

beaten for Handicap Honors by a mere 37 seconds by George Hackett's J-35 Jo De Ros Team

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Centennial in Hong Kong. Rolex /Carlo Borlenghi

IRC Cruiser Racer Fleet. Photo: Capt. Marty

Jo De Ros. Photo: Capt. Marty

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Windshear. They last won this class in Subic two years ago. Boats in the 36ft range staged a good battle around the course with Jun Avecilla's Beneteau First 36.7 Selma Star coming out best to score 3rd place. Only 12 seconds separated third to fifth places.

Performance Handicap Class: A slight misinterpretation of the sailing instructions saw three boats sail the wrong course and regretfully score Did Not Finish. With the crew happy that “... the fridge is now work-ing”, David McKenna's Sun Odyssey 42 Rapparee XXX sailed the correct course and scored the daily double of Line and Handicap honors. By finishing five min-utes behind Rapparee XXX, Jeremy Simp-son's Warwick 42 Shibumi slotted into sec-ond place. Austin Chamberlain's Irwin 37 Sorcerer managed third spot.

" DAY 2, IRC Racing Class: This time it was Neil Pryde's Hi Fi and Ray Ordoveza's Karakoa turn to be over the start line. As these yachts are crewed by highly skilled racing teams, mistakes no matter how small, will heavily penalized position-wise, need-ing a miracle to re-cover during the race. Ray Roberts took advantage of every windshift, gybing his DK46 Quantum Racing numerous times downwind to finally put one over Jamie Wilmot, his former sailing master who helmed Judes Echauz’ race winning Sydney 46 Subic Centennial this time around. Ray Ordoveza's Andrews/Excel 53 Karakoa ex-pertly helmed by Steve Benjamin managed to sneak into third place, only two minutes separating first and third places in race two. Frank Pong's 76ft R/P Jelik led the fleet at every mark, constantly sniffing around the podium places, floored the accelerator on

race three to take the daily dou-ble of line and handicap honors. Once again, Judes Echauz's Subic Centennial claimed second place. Scoring podium places in every race so far, they clearly lead in the overall point score.

IRC Cruiser/Racer Class: George Hackett's J-35 Jo De Ros Team Windshear stayed on the pace to claim their second handi-cap victory. Jun Avecilla picked the right downwind lane for his Beneteau First 36.7 Selma Star to slot into second place. Dick Morris shocked quite a few when Salina

scored third place in race two was announced. The bigger boats seemed to benefit when the wind increased for race three. Geoff Hill's Lyons 49 Strewth rebounded in the best possible way by posting a first and fastest. Twelve sec-onds latter, Martin Tanco's X-452 Challenge took second place. Talk about close racing, the second hand on the watch had barely completed another beat when Roland Buser's Swiss Team on the Syd-ney 38 captured the third place.

Performance Handicap Class: After sailing the wrong course on Day 1, James Donovan's very slippery Beneteau First 47.7 Adec Solution made amends by posting the daily double (First and fastest)

on the score sheets. Even the PH yachts caught the racing spirit and posted close results when David McKenna's race one winner Rap-paree XXX corrected out in second place by a mere four seconds. The ink on the paper had barely dried when Rolly Gipulan's Yamaha 36 Punta De Uian claimed third

place only 19 seconds later.

" DAY 3, IRC Racing Class: Judes Echauz Sydney 46 Subic Centennial having the lowest IRC handicap rating in the racing fleet meant, if they were ahead of any boats, then Centennial beat them on corrected time. Having caught up with the fleet, then picked their way through the transition zone, Centennial came out in the lead. A straight forward reach to the short-ened finish added another win to their score, giving a six point advantage with

two races left. Chris Meads Corby 43 Full Metal Jacket made second place 24 seconds from Quantum Racing’s third. This may have spoiled Ray Roberts’ chances of keeping up with overall leader Subic Centennial who dominated the series so far. Unfortunately Frank Pong's Jelik line honors transformed into seventh place on corrected time, as the jury upheld the re-quest for redress.

IRC Cruiser/Racer Class: Allan Burrell's vintage Farr 1104

Rags won this class in the past and still manages to win at least one race each year against the newer, lighter and faster yacht designs. Today was that day. Dick Morris Shock 35 Salina did one better than yesterday to secure second place. The un-flappable George Hackett's J-35 Jo De Ros Team Windshear man-aged to dig their way out of the hole and won third place.

Performance Handicap Class: Japanese sailors Nishi and Yamamoto’s turn on the X-99 Fast Exit helped score first place. That made three different winners for the three races held so far. Rolly Gipulan's Yamaha 36 Punta De Uian made it back on the podium this time for sec-ond place. James Donovan's Beneteau First 47.7 Adec Solution led the fleet by the proverbial mile until the transitional zone landed them on third place. Race 5 started with Jun Ave-cilla's Beneteau First 36.7 Selma Star called over the line and as they failed to return, dropped to fourth overall.

DAY 4 – Final Race, IRC Racing Class: Coming into the final day, Judes Echauz Syd-

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Photo: Capt. Marty

Photo: Capt. Marty

IRC Racing Class. Photo: Capt. Marty

B A R N A C L E! M a n i l a Y a c h t C l u b

ney 46 Subic Centennialheld a comfortable 6.5 point lead. When they corrected out with first place in race 5, the en-graver got to work on the overall trophy. They must be very happy as it is the second major Asian race regatta victory for the Philippine boat in the same week. Ray Roberts crew on his DK46 Quantum Racing did their

damndest to reduce the deficit with a second in race 6 and first place in the last race to end up with second place in the overall stakes. Once again only seconds separated the 7 racing boats on corrected time to show just how hard it is to win a race, let alone the series in this class. Two third places for Chris Meads Corby 43 Full Metal Jacket lifted them to third overall after a very up and down regatta and no doubt with more fine tuning to do.

IRC Cruiser/Racer Class: A similar fate awaited the eleven IRC 1 class yachts when George Hackett's J-35 Jo De Ros Rudy Project once again sailed above their handi-cap rating to score first place in race five and seal the deal on first overall. In the fresh breeze, Geoff Hill's Lyons 49 Strewth climbed back into contention with a third and first place plus after the dropping 1 race, they ended up second overall. Not bad considering they lost the keel on the new boat, had the sheer tenacity to turn up at Subic plus perform so well, all in the space of a week. From near disaster to hap-

piness. Martin Tanco's X 452 Challenge started the regatta in fourth place but improved as the event wore on, espe-cially in the fresh breeze where the longer waterline came into play, to take a well earned 3rd place overall. At the start of race five Jun Avecilla's Beneteau First 36.7 Selma Star was called over

the line. As they failed to return dropped down to 4th overall.

Performance Handicap Class: After winning race three yesterday Japanese sailors Yamamoto and Nishi on the char-tered X - 99 Fast Exit, continued having the good fortune to win today's final race. Unfortunately the 9, 6 finish in the first two races sent them to 5th overall. James Donovan's Beneteau First 47.7 Adec Solution led by the proverbial mile

but lost some min-utes with a bad spin-naker drop which left them with second place in the final race and second overall. Although David McKenna's Sun Odyssey 42 Rapparee XXX could only manage third place today he survived the onslaught to claim victory in the overall class title.

Thank you to the all partici-pants for sup-porting the 16th President’s Cup Regatta 2008!

My 1st China Sea Raceby: Lester Troy Tayong

ast 6 March 2008, we delivered the Subic Centennial a Sydney 46 yacht from Manila to Hong Kong. This was my first time to cross the South China Sea on a sail-boat. I got to do big boat sailor duties and responsibilities which I’ve only heard of be-fore. The big waves made the ride exciting,

pushing us onwards. We even caught a big fish! After 78 hours, we arrived at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, in Causeway Bay. After preparing a few days in Hong Kong, the time that we’ve waiting for...THE RACE!!! But before the race started, Kuya Balting asked me to dive to check

the propeller, which he usually takes care of. I was very nerv-ous because that was my first time to dive, also, in the cold, strong current of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor.

After that, I had to concentrate on the race, especially pay atten-tion when trimming the main sail, which was my assignment. The first gun went off, the prepara-tory signal! All of the boats join-ing this race started to get ag-gressive at the starting line, 5 minutes later the final gun fired and the race started.

Jamie Wilmott, our senior coach advised us to keep focused on the race. We changed sails a lot. During the approach to Phil-ippine waters, we encountered very light wind, so we were not moving for almost 4 hours. Al-most two days passed of not see-ing a single sailboat also. On the last race day, one of the yachts of our class was ahead of us. Very light wind got us again before we crossed the finish line. As the breeze came in, a speedboat ap-proached, and took pictures! We heard the gun while crossing the finish line. At last!! Later on, we found out that the speedboat was taking lots of pictures of us be-cause we had won the race!!!

I'm very happy because we won the first place and it was a great experience for me, espe-cially because it was only my first time to join this kind of race. And I'm very proudto be part of this team!! 

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Fast Exit. Photo: Capt.Marty

Principal sponsor,16th President’s Cup Regatta

SUBIC CENTENNIAL. Photo: Capt. Marty

Rapparee XXX. Photo:Capt. Marty

F I R S T H A N D

Lcially because it was only my first time to join this kind of race. And I'm very proudto be part of this team!!

cially because it was only my first time to join this kind of