ABW Dec 2019 -1

the first race for the Geese. The fleet then headed back to
the club to have lunch.
A little after two pm the weather started picking up and it
looked like there was enough weather to do the RTV race or
in this case the Round Bubuin race. It was a light Habagat
once again and the racers were off. After a great start by
the Hobies, race leaders Maria Vidoeira with Tomas Camelo
and Glenn Everret with Jana Everrett found themselves less
than one boat length apart for more than 40 minutes the
entire upwind leg towards Bubuin, every little adjustment to
improve speed was matched by the other to do the same. It
was challenging and technical sailing by both pairs. Because
of the lightening weather conditions the race committee
decided to shorten the Hobie RTV race, instead of going
around twice they only had to round it once. After the long
RTV race the Hobies still had time and enough weather to
complete another in-shore race.
It was a different story for the Geese, sailors with light wind
experience and have sailed around Bubuin during Habagat
clearly had an edge over those with experience in mostly in
moderate weather and have never rounded Bubuin. Michael
Storer lead the race all the way. There was still a good amount
of daylight when the leaders rounded the island, however at
around 5pm the wind was starting to disappear, as the sun
set, the Oz Goose fleet commander called TLYC for rescue
boats to start towing the stragglers while there was still some
daylight left. At around 5:15pm Michael crossed the finish
line and 15 Minutes later the race committee ended the race.
Ashley Best who was second, didn’t make it within the 15
minute cut of period and the race committee decided to just
determine the rankings based on where the boats were as they
ended the race, that way DNFs won’t be across the board. All
Geese eventually found themselves back at the club at around
19:30 with the last four being towed by the committee boat.
The shortened course for the Geese during first race meant
that the first race couldn’t be counted as the Noel Lim race.
Before the RTV race started the race committee decided that
the Noel Lim race and the RTV race will be the same race
since both fleets will go around the same course, this meant
taking finish times of all boats as they crossed finish.
Awards for the Governor’s cup or RTV race and the Noel Lim
memorial trophy were awarded in the evening of the first
day. Maria Vidoeira with Tomas Camelo won the Governor’s
Cup for the Hobie 16 Class and Michael Storer won it for
the Oz Goose Class, The Noel Lim Memorial Cup was a big
surprise and was won by Michael Storer beating Maria and
Tomas by more than 17 minutes in corrected time.
The wind forecast for the second day of the RTV regatta
showed better weather than the day before, however, for
most of the morning all the racers and visitors had was
paddling weather and for some reason it was fortuitous.
Broadwater Marine, one of the major sponsors of the
reggatta scheduled a stand up paddle board race with Red
Paddle inflatable SUP boards for the racers and the race
committee for the morning of the second day. Great prizes
were up for grabs for the winners, there were Barz Optics
sunglasses, Broadwater Marine caps and Dry bags. And
since the sailors and race committee had nothing better to
do, most participated in the SUP race and had a great time.
Words by ROY ESPIRITU
Photographs by BARRY DAWSON
lcano Regatta85