Fiesta time at Punta Fuego

by Jerry Rollin on 11 Nov 2009 Club Punta Fuego (which features a 9-hole golf course as well as a marina offering full berthing service) has been involved in sailing activities for many years. In 2002 the China Sea Race finished at Punta Fuego, to be followed by the President’s Cup Regatta.

The annual Sailing Fiesta, which takes place at the start of the Philippine sailing season, has become a major event on the local sailing calendar. The regatta has always attracted the Hobie fleet, which makes the Fiesta a part of its seven-part Traveller Series that visits seven different locations during the year. The keelboat fleet has gradually expanded their participation, and this year 12 entries were received which, when added to the 19 from the Hobie fleet, made for the biggest event yet.

A primary element has always been the Fiesta with Club Punta Fuego providing a full social programme, which started with a party in the Punta Fuego Yacht Club bar hosted by the Club Punta Fuego General Manager Mikel Villaverde. To the surprise of many, good Spanish wine was available at no cost all night. Even some hardened rum drinkers were seen to weaken at the offer.

Over recent months the Philippines has suffered very badly from typhoons, flooding and storms. But last weekend things changed, and for three days the sun shone and the wind blew with 10-15 knots throughout the day and night, keeping the racing hot and the partying participants cool.

As is tradition, the first race was the Punta Fuego – Fortune Island – Terrazas Race. This is a 16-mile race, which sets off downwind seven miles out into the China Sea to round a buoy off Fortune Island. The taxing conditions offshore this year meant the boats saw winds gusting up to 24 knots, and a steep choppy swell.

During one of these gusts Paul Symes was washed off his Hobie 16, and in the ensuing mêlée his crew (Mrs Symes) suffered a serious cut and broke her ring finger. Hobie teams racing offshore always carry cellphones, so Paul immediately called Race Officer Jerry Rollin who despatched one safety boat to take Joanne ashore and another to take the Hobie in tow so that Paul could go with her to hospital. The latest prognosis is that the finger has been saved in an operation that lasted some four hours.

The winning keelboat was Jun Avecilla in Selma, his Beneteau First 31.7, with Mike Ng taking the title for the Hobie 16s. While the bigger boats took the long route the Hobie Bravos and Getaways stayed inshore with Noel Lim (Bravo) and Philip Hagedorn (Getaway) reaching Terrazas first.

After all the excitement, the keelboats anchored off the long sandy Terrazas beach and the Hobies pulled themselves ashore and everyone enjoyed a relaxing lunch – some swimming in the large infinity pool, some at the bar and some snoozing gently. At 1500 hrs all were rallied back to the water for the sprint back to Punta Fuego Marina. Again, Mike Ng and Jun Avecilla were victorious.

That night’s party was at the newly renovated Upper Beach Club on the northern side of the peninsula, where a sumptuous buffet was served and sailors and guests were able to shake the food down with a bit dancing to a reggae band from Manila.

The next morning witnessed a goodly number of sore heads making their way out to the bay in front of the Yacht Club and Marina for the first race on Sunday morning. A good 12-14 knots was blowing from the north east, which allowed the course to be laid with the windward mark just below the Yacht Club - which stands a full 300 ft above the water, providing the spectators with spectacular views of the race course from the bar. [This sounds like my kind of regatta – Ed].

The first race was a windward/leeward course with a 1.2 mile beat, whith the Hobie 16s and keelboats going round three times. Fortunes had changed - Mike Ng could not maintain his winning ways in the Hobie 16 fleet, while Maria Vidoeira put into practice some of the lessons she had learnt earlier at the training camp in Hong Kong conducted by British Olympic Coach Brian Phipps. She also acknowledged invaluable help from her new crew Cons Castaneda, who has extensive sailing experience as bowman on Vida, Karakoa, Irvmiren and Maligaya.

A little over-exuberance at the start saw Raparee and Joyride both OCS, but both heard the Race Officer’s radio call and returned to start correctly. Ray Ordovesa’s Karakoa, though shorthanded, showe that she still had what it takes and finished 3rd in the race which once again was dominated by Selma.

Alan Burrell sailing his Sydney 36 Sandoway suffered the ignominious fate of wrapping his spinnaker around the forestay on the first leeward mark rounding and having to sail way off downwind while it was cut away. (The word is out that his crew deliberately wrapped the spinnaker to make him buy a new one, as that one arrived with the boat some eight years ago, and was only held together with repair tape).

The last race was another islands course which had the fleet visiting a number of local bays to give the holiday home owners and local residents a spectacular show of colour with the keelboat spinnakers and the Hobie multicoloured sails. Once again this race, in glorious sunshine and 10–14 kts of wind, was dominated by Selma and Maria Vidoera.

For the awarding ceremonies the sailors returned to the Yacht Club for another Spanish buffet with copious amounts of wine, Tanduay rum-and-coke and San Miguel beer.

In his brief but meaningful speech GM Mikel Valleverde thanked the competitors, Race Management and admin teams and the sponsors for their invaluable help - Landco, Fuego Hotels, Rudy Project, Shell, Ipanema, Rene Barbier, Manila Bulletin, Business World, Rider and Broadwater Marine.

Results

Keelboat Class
Selma Jun Avecillia Beneteau First 31.7 4
Joyride Alan Chua J 109 10
Rapparee XXX David McKenna Sun Odessy 42 11

IRC Class Winner
Joyride Alan Chua J 109

Hobie 16
Maria Vidoeira Cons Castaneda 9
Mike Ngu Samuel Amadeo 10
Monchu Garcia Diego Garcia 13

Hobie Bravo
Noel Lim 5
Mikel Garcia 8
Alannah Symes and Clair Woldring 14

Hobie Getaway
Phillip Hagedorn Santi Pickonell 4
Grady Guinnee 8