ABW June 2017

Unexpected heroes
Racing Tales
To make things more interesting, I had convinced
sailor friends to help bring in a Manila-based female
skipper. Clytie is my only other female National
para sailor, who we trained in 2010. She was born
in San Agustin, Romblon but grew up in Mindoro.
This was her first time to ever come home, and she
wondered why she had ever been away, seeing and
experiencing the breathtaking Romblon seascape.
Shortly after we arrived at RYC
to prepare the boats, Angelique
arrived, who turned out to be
the club grounds keeper. Aside
for keeping the place clean,
she proved invaluable in being
of assistance. Once it became
apparent we lacked 2 crew, I
asked what happened to the
kids enrolled in the sailing
program a few years back. Kaiser Madrona and Alvin
Molleda were two young male crew who were very
willing to race (with permission of their moms). The
girl sailors volunteered to run race management,
specifically getting signatures on entry forms,
keeping time for scores, doing scores and other race
management duties.
One danger though
was the possibility
of slamming into
coral if racing thru
shallow reef areas.
Saturday’s 3 Island Challenge had a predicted
low wind, with lead boats by Mang Ruben/ Tots
Benedicto on the Nacra, closely tailed by Willi/
Kaiser on the 18 foot Topcat K1 and Clytie/ Oniok
on the 16 foot Topcat F2, the same Clytie with only
a few hours familiarization with this kind of boat.
Meanwhile, I was not very thrilled watching the
disappearing sterns of the race leaders, being a
miserable 2nd to the last, the Tornado meandering
somewhere behind me. The
low wind would stretch the
race from the usual 3.5 hours
to 5 hours in roasty, toasty
sunshine.
Competiveness mode kicked
in: Started shortening my path
around the islands, focused
on finding patches of wind
and finally caught Clytie becalmed and confused
at North Cobrador. Snuck past her, noted Henry’s
K1 Topcat was too far out trying to catch wind. I
tacked after Willi instead until I overtook him close
to the finish line. Who then overtook me to make
line honours. The Nacra had of course finished much
earlier but with our PY and corrected time, results
Below: New cat
sailor boys
Below left: The Nacra
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