President's Cup- Jelik takes IRC daily double

by Captain Marty Rijkuris www.asianyachting.com on 28 Mar 2008 Heavy cloud cover over the land delayed the arrival of the seabreeze. After an hours wait the glassed out sea finally grew some wind ripples, which then had to cover the entire racing area before PRO Gerry Rollin's race committee, mainly young Philippine girls got the starting sequence underway.

Despite the delay, the breeze increased throughout the afternoon and the two scheduled windward/leeward races for the racing classes and one passage race for the Performance Handicap class where completed in time. The starts were hotly contested with several yachts recalled for being over the line as skippers made there run in a bit early and had nowhere else to go.

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, any mistake, no matter how small, the boats placing will be heavily punished and need a miracle to recover 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 is helming Judes Echauz race winning Sydney 46 Subic Centennial this time around.

Ray Ordoveza's Andrews/Excel 53 Karakoa expertly helmed by Steve Benjamin managed to sneak into third place as only two minutes separated first and third places in race two Frank Pong's 76ft R/P Jelik has led the fleet at every mark and is constantly sniffing around the podium places, nailed the accelerator down on race three to take out the daily double of line and handicap honours. Once again Judes Echauz's Subic Centennial claimed 2nd place and as they have scored podium places in every race held so far, they take a clear lead in the overall pointscore. Neil Pryde's Welbourne 52 Hi Fi reveled in the stronger afternoon breeze to snatch third place from a hungry chasing pack, where only one minute separated third to seventh place.

IRC Cruiser/Racer Class
Geoff Hill got into all sorts of Strewth at the start of race two and was last seen doing circles to exonerate themselves and eventually finished down in tenth place. George Hackett's J-35 Jo De Ros Team Windshear stayed on the pace to claim their second handicap victory. Jun Avecilla picked the right downwind lane for his Beneteau First 36.7 Selma Star to slot into second place. Dick Morris shocked a few when it was announced that Salina has scored third place in race two.

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 seconds latter, Martin Tanco's X-452 Challenge slotted into 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 Sydney 38 Stella took third place. Only 18 seconds separated first to fourth places and a little over four minutes separated first to ninth place is a sign of how good the IRC handicap system is working during this regatta.

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 are getting caught up with the racing spirit and posting close results when David Mc Kenna's race one winner Raparee 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 nineteen seconds latter.

Racing continues tomorrow with one passage race scheduled for all classes