Lane All Souls Regatta 2005

by Martyn Willes on 9 Nov 2005 It was the regatta that had everything: sun, wind, celebrity chefs, beautiful media stars, major television and press coverage, no wind, tides, reefs, music, babes and so much more.

In the end, twenty boats participated in the racing and some 350 people from all over the world invaded the Sandbar Resort and the Puerto Galera Yacht Club for the parties; many more boats arrived just for the parties. Plus, no less that eighteen sailing scholarship students took to the water in the built-in-Puerto-Galera Lawin dinghies to show the skills they had learned during the past month when the PGYC opened its door for sail training.

Sunday started with a televised cooking-aboard presentation in the galley of that most elegant of cruising schooners, Star Gazer. The television cameras then passed through the fleet taking gigabytes of footage of the yachts as they beat up the Verde Passage, rounded the Sabang Beach mark and proceeded around to Encenada Beach before running back to the finish off Haligi Beach.

First to finish in the cruising boat class was Vincent Ruais’s Suncharm 39, Rosie, complete with visiting crew who flew all the way from Bombay and Hong Kong for the event. Second place went to Australian Dennis Shepard’s Adams 54, Southerly Change. John Carruthers’s beautiful little ketch, Surprise II, sailing her first regatta since leaving Labuan earlier in the year, took third place with joint skipper Steve Pike at the helm.

In the racing (‘boats that can point worth a fig’) class, first place honours went to Dirk van Straalen’s The Judge with Lukas Marquardt’s Kalayaan II, with German-flag spinnaker billowing, taking second. Third place was snapped up by Dick Morris, just returned from the USA, aboard his Shock 35 Salina.

But that was only part of the story. Also participating was the 67 foot, ex-BT Challenge, Devonport dockyard built, Spirit of Outward Bound Hong Kong. Skipper Sandy later admitted that he was elated with the performance of his novice crew in executing the maneuvers around the islands and reefs, coming at the midpoint through the two-week sail training course out of Hong Kong. Regrettably, Sandy and crew were not able to participate on the second day because their schedule required them to head back to Hong Kong on Monday morning.

During the racing Graham Gilbert’s Artemis III achieved something that nobody has done in the history of this event: she landed herself unceremoniously on a coral reef and had to be towed free. It could have been that the skipper of the day – none other than PGYC’s Commodore, Jurgen Langemeier -- was unfamiliar with the handling of Graham Gilbert’s boat or it may have had something to do with the prize that Artemis III also won during the regatta: 'the most babes on-board award'. Whatever, only pride was actually damaged and Artemis III did go on to compete the following day.

The main weather feature of the race was the excellent, easterly sailing breezes at the start followed by a lull in the middle of the race and then a complete change to a westerly while most of the racing class boats were still only half way around the course.

The wind shift did not affect the enthusiasm of the camera crews aboard the media pursuit boat or aboard Alan Burrell’s Farr 1104, Rags. Rags was skippered for the day by Kelly Zaldarriaga (Alan was aboard Susie Burrell’s normally slippery Bashford 36, Sandoway), She whipped her all media crew, Sports Unlimited hosts Dyan Castillejo and Marc Nelson in pride of place, into shape to place respectably in fifth place.

On Sunday evening the party started on the lawns of the Sandbar Resort on Boquete Beach with free beer and a prime spectator position for the sailing scholarship students aboard the Lawin dinghies inside the bay.

As the sun slid gracefully behind Lubang Island far out to the west, the Puerto Galera Jazz Festival took over from the regatta party and the stars started twinkling in the heavens as well as on stage. The FCC’s Allen Youngblood led eight of Asia’s top jazz luminaries, Tots Tolentino, Rowena Michaels, Paul Candaleria, Ria Osria, Blaine Whittaker, Guy Le Clare and Larry Hammond on stage for the climax perfomance of the three day Jazz Festival. Beach festivities largely finished around 10.30pm when the last transport to / from the beach stopped but, for those with enough stamina, the nearby yacht club bar continued to host the day’s victory boasts and commiserations until 0400 hrs.

Monday morning saw the fleet sail out towards Bonito Island where the cruisers had to make a round of both Bonito and Chicken Feather before reaching to the finish off Haligi Beach; the racers performed two rounds of the island pair before pursuing their quarry across the slackening tide.

Once again the racers had to tough out a mid-race lull, this time coupled with surface-boiling tide races ‘twixt the islands, before being rewarded with a close reach back across the Verde Passage and home.

The cruising multi-hull and Hobie racers found the conditions perfect and stamped their authority on the results with Chris Boddington’s trimaran, Windjammer, taking full advantage of the conditions, closely followed by Martin Shanks’s, Suzie Q. Frank Doyle had a whale of a time on his Hobie 16 and made short work of the 10 to 15 knot reaching winds.

In cruising class John Carruthers’s Surprise II continued to surprise with a first place finish and Trish‘n Fitz’s, Columbus sneaked a second. Southerly Change again came near the top with a third place finish despite taking aboard more than their fair share of visitors who wanted to be part of the action.

The racers had a real tussle for the finish but Dick Morris finally overcame all aboard Salina. Jun Avecilla’s purposefully driven Selma crossed the line in second place ahead of Dirk van Straalen’s The Judge.

The post-race yacht club party, primed with copious amounts of sponsored San Miguel beer and plates of tasty munchies, started with the awarding of prizes before the kitchen opened for the culinary expertise of hired-for-the-regatta chef and smokehouse meats producer, Mason Ring.

The overall winner of the Lane All Souls Regatta, 2005, was Dirk van Straalen with The Judge. In second place were John Carruthers and Steve Pike aboard Surprise II followed by Dick Morris and his shockingly quick Salina.

Special participating club recognition awards were presented to: Selma of the Subic Bay Yacht Club; and The Judge and Salina of the Manila Yacht Club. Special cruising boat participant awards were awarded to Ton and Mina’s Cocobolo, Dennis Shepard’s Southerly Change and Trish’n Fitz’s Columbus.

Alan Burrell had the fishing net -- 'acquired' on the Friday night race down from Manila to Puerto Galera -- mounted and returned to him in remembrance and special thanks were extended to Southerly Change for their enthusiasm in introducing visitors to the delights of cruiser racing in the Philippines.

To the eight or so yachts who did not take the plunge but let a little rain stop them from racing from Manila and Subic down to Puerto Galera on the Friday feeder races for All Souls weekend, all we can say is: you missed probably the most fun regatta held in the Philippines in the last decade, certainly this century. For more regatta fun in The Most Beautiful Bay In The World, visit the Puerto Galera Yacht Club in December or April or, if you must, wait till the 2006 All Souls Regatta when the Taal Lake Yacht Club have threatened to bring their entire Hobie 16 fleet down from their fiery volcano lake home.