All Souls Regatta opens new Philippine Champs Series

by PGYC Media on 7 Nov 2016 The Puerto Galera Yacht Club Regattas are unique in Asia and probably in the world. The events consist of one pursuit island race per day. Competitors are given their start time and the course to sail at a 0900h briefing each day. Classes race different courses on the first two days, and all race the same course on the last day. Positions are determined by their class finishes for their first two days and by their position overall on the last day. Handicaps have been established over the last 14 years that the event has been run, and new arrivals are magically slotted in with adjustments, if necessary, after the first race. All handicaps are assessed at the end of the regatta ready for the next event. The main events are at All Souls (1 November), Easter with other local events at Christmas and Philippine Independence Day.


Classes this year consisted of Racing (11 entries), Cruiser (12) and Ocean Multihull (6)

Chris Pooley from Aberdeen Boat Club has been working with the Puerto Galera team to introduce some new courses into the programme, and RO Jerry Rollin managed to use all new courses for all the races.

Saturday 29 October saw a bright sunny day with a steady 12 to 15 knots of wind from the north east. After crossing the starting line inside the safe anchorage of Puerto Galera, boats set off on a 7nm reach across the Verde Island Passage, followed by a beat to windward, and a reach back for the cruising boats and a down wind run for the racer cruisers.

The fleet was lead home by the Cruising Class which saw a win for Paul Leggatt and Xiao
Long (a family crew plus dog on a Gulf 32) followed by David Wheeler’s Freewheeler (a 1977 Ted Brewer Cape Carib 33) and a group of four boats within three minutes of each other led by Papaya (Jeanneau Sun 36, Rene Ticson) carrying the flag for Papaya Yacht Charters and Services.

Great Party at the yacht club followed as usual. Of course.

Day 2 saw boats heading off to the east with the racing fleet going around Verde Island (skippers could choose to take the island to port or to starboard) and the Cruisers and Multhulls going to a mark on the west coast of Verde Island and back. Generally, the wind remained the same at 10 to 12 kts, but many of the Racing fleet managed to find some holes in the wind around the edges of Verde Island which tested their skills more than usual.

The Racing division was led home by Anthea, owned by John Quirk. This is a 1928 Camper and Nicholson 8 metre skippered by Oliver Cully with a team from Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. She was followed home by Michiel Brinkers and Bella Uno, a 72ft Alan Andrews design, and then Red Shift, a custom 29ft flyer with wings. skippered by Austin Chamberlain.

Another great party with a fancy-dress theme; Tiamat (Jeff Williams) from Subic excelled them self and won most of the prizes for their Joker-themed fancy dress. And the band played on and on and on…

For the final race, all boats headed around Escarceo Point and south to the San Teodoro mark. Slightly lighter winds but still enough to drive the heavier cruising boats home at a good pace.
First home was Myg 2, a Roberts and Caine 40ft cat skippered by Vincen Ruais. She was followed by Michiel Brinkers’ Bella Uno, and then and Hanafe, a newly arrived Hanse 445 owned by Victor Santos.

The final result saw a win for Vincent Ruais and his catamaran Myg 2 from Puerto Galera Yacht Club. In second place was Michiel Brinkers and Bella Uno from the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club (based in Subic) and in third place Hanafe of Victor Santos from the Manila Yacht Club.

The Regatta saw the launch of the Philippine Championship Series. This series will be run as a ‘circuit’, with boat allocated points for joining events as well as for their performance.

Five events are included in the series:
1 The Puerto Galera All Souls Regatta 29 – 31 October 2016
2 The Punta Fuego Regatta 21 – 22 January 2017
3 The Subic to Boracay Race and Boracay Cup 18 – 24 February 2017
4 Nasugbu to Busuanga Race (a new event) 10 -12 March 2017
5 The Commodore’s Cup, Subic 17 – 22 April 2017

For the Puerto Galera Regatta the positions have been calculated using the elapsed and corrected times and not the first past the post results.

After the first event there is a tie for top spot between Victor Santos’ Hanafe from the Racing class, and Gundolf Ahrens 60ft Passat Aragon from the Cruising Class, both with 15 points. In third place is Vincent Ruais’ catamaran Myg 2 with 13 points.