Commodore's Cup takes off, despite legal action

by Jeremy Simpson on 8 Apr 2010 Just a couple of days ago, the inaugural Commodore's Cup being run by the Subic Bay Yacht Club and SAGS (Saturday Afternoon Gentlemen's Sailing) was looking to be heading for a reef - the Manila Yacht Club obtained a court order to stop SBYC/SAGS running the event. However, the legal stuff wouldn't stick, so the regatta went ahead on schedule.

Subic’s beautiful Bay served up a cocktail of frustration and delight. A steady six knots of breeze bode well for the first day at the start of four days racing. Ten boats in the IRC Racing Division had a clean start and headed to the windward mark off the Marina hoping for the wind to build. By the time they reached it they had suffered a dozen 90 degree windshifts and boat speeds dropping to barely a knot.

Hopes of the wind filling in from the west were premature, and the lead changed every few minutes. The right side of the course, by the waterfront and the sponsor’s Lighthouse Marina, was favoured for a while until the boats fell into a hole, although those in the centre of the channel briefly enjoyed a freshening wind on the way to the mark off Kalaklan laid between the many small ships anchored off the point. But from here on for the next hour the wind played games, teasing the racers with promises not fulfilled. Boat speeds for the IRC Racing class weren’t even enough to hold off the IRC Cruising class which started five minutes later. The wind continued to play games that defied all physical laws, with boats 50 metres apart on the same heading but opposite tacks, and boats close hauled on the same tack on headings 90 degrees apart.

And then the south westerly finally kicked in at about 11 to 13 knots. It held for the beat to the mark off Hanjin and up to Grande, and continued to build to 17 knots for the long downwind leg back to Baretto.

Neil Pryde’s Hi Fi and Frank Pong’s Jelik III held most of their big boat lead, and the other 50-footers settled down to a close-hauled hiked-out blast back to the finish in the crisp 17 knot breeze that had been wished for all day.

Jelik III took line honours from Hi Fi by seven and a half minutes with Ray Robert’s Evolution Racing a minute later. Geoff Hill’s Strewth led five boats to the line within the next ten minutes. Amongst those was the Sydney 46 of Judes Echauz, Standard Insurance Subic Centennial, under the hand of Jamie Wilmot who never lost touch with the bigger boats and came home to win the day on handicap. Subic Centennial was skippered by Allan Balladares and crewed entirely by a team of 20-year old Philippine Sailing Association students, sponsored by Judes Echauz and coached by the helm Jamie Wilmot.

The IRC 1 Class, sailing a slightly shorter course, came home before the bigger boats. The Hong Kong boat, Ambush (Andrew Taylor/Joachim Isler) took line honours but were not able to stretch their lead win on handicap. The race went to the Philippine’s perennial winner George Hackett in the J/35 Jo de Ros, followed by Alan Chua in J-109 Joyride and Hong Kong’s 2009 San Fernando winner, Anthony Root in Red Kite II.