ABW March 2024

Clytie and Karlo sailing upwind
Pong with his son Axis
Officiating this year’s Nationals was the Philippine Sailing
Association (PSA), headed by International race officer Jerry
Rollin, he gladly came down to the Nationals to help run the
races, the committee boat was headed by Rye Lee of PSA.
After a pre-race briefing at the Lighthouse by Jerry, it was
off to the races. A brief delay in the arrival of the mark laying
boat delayed the start for about an hour, but once the race
course was set, the AP flag came down and the first race
started just before 10:00.
Course two was indicated which meant that the racers had to
complete the windward-leeward rounding twice. 28 boats all
jostling for position on a relatively short starting line meant
that it was a real traffic jam during starts.
The racing was furious and serious, so much so that Zoren
found his boat punctured by another team in the first race
and had to go back to shore and borrow Pong’s spare hull,
while his younger brother Bobot who was racing for Subic
Sailing pushed their boat so hard that they snapped two
masts in the first two races in the morning.
After the first two races, the fleet came back in for a quick
lunch of pizza on the beach, the organizers lent Bobot a
beefier than normal “fat boy” mast so he could continue
to race, the mast partner on their boat had to be enlarged
slightly to take the fat boy mast.
Four more races were held in the afternoon, and at the end
of the day’s racing, the three teams from Puerto Galera
helmed by Kyla, Mark and Bryant occupied the top three
spots, with Zoren occupying the fourth, Clytie of Sailability
taking fifth, Sonya of Subic Sailing in sixth, and Jazmine
a 15-year old sailor from Talisay, Batangas of TLYC and a
participant in three Nationals who was sailing single handed
this year came in seventh.
Sonya and Migue
of SS showing their
championship form
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