9:17 AM Sat 10 Apr 2010 GMT
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'Commodore’’s Cup, Subic Bay, Philippines - 2010 (Photo: Zed Avecilla & Chaos) Day 3'
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Subic Bay keeps on giving. Day three had 10 to 15 knots of breeze consistently all day - well almost consistently. Jamie Wilmot was not happy. The wind took a while to get going. When the boats arrived at the start area, there was a beautiful shiny millpond. Awnings went up and boats motored in gentle circles to push a breeze across the deck to cool the 35 degree temperatures. 1030 came and went but by 1100 there were signs that the wind gods were waking.
By 1115 there was an 8 knot breeze building to 10 knots from the South West. When it was settled, Jerry Rollins the Race Officer placed the windward mark and the IRC Racing class was off to a clean start about an hour late. All but Hi Fi were across the line on a Starboard tack within a few seconds of each other. Hi Fi was way off to the left and above the line at the start but eventually stowed her retractable prop, hoisted her headsail and rolled round to start about 4 minutes adrift.
Jelik III lead to the windward mark, down to Baretto and thence to
12 and
4 buoys where Amendment
3 was bravely ignored and she stormed off to
1 buoy which had been deleted from the course. Evolution Racing turned left at
4, stepped up to the lead and proceeded to hold that until Jelik caught up seconds before the finish. The usual parade of Strewth, Ffreefire, Mandrake, and Jelik V followed, with Karakoa and Centennial mixing it with the hotshots. On the way up at
12 buoy, Subic Centennial always closely marking the big boys, had his reasonable hopes of a win, dashed by a fickle fluke of the wind that parked him in a hole with only 4 knots of breeze, while the leaders soared away on the main wind.
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Commodore’s Cup, Subic Bay, Philippines - 2010 (Photo: Zed Avecilla & Chaos) Day 3 -
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By the time they arrived at the buoy at the Marina, Neil Pryde had clawed back to a minute or two behind Evolution, Jelik II was third round the mark followed by Ffreefire, who might have been further advanced it they hadn't briefly flirted with the notion of visiting
1 buoy. Ffreefire rounded rather loosely because the kite wouldn't behave, and was followed by Mandrake with Karakoa close behind.
Jelik took line honours from Evolution by 9 seconds with Hi Fi 5 minutes behind. On corrected time Evolution finished 6 minutes ahead of Karakoa who sailed a cracking race. Hi Fi pulled back all the way to hold third place.
In IRC1 Ambush led the pack the whole way round the course, followed by Avant Garde. Jun Avecilla's Calibre Selma Star kept hold of third until the bottom mark at Baretto where they succumbed to a strong challenge from Martin Tanco's Challenge and gave up their place. Jo de Ros out-pointed most boats on the upwind leg to
4 but Red Kite came through the fleet to steal third place. Thereafter Selma slipped a place, and Vivaldi never completely recovered from accepting a 720 penalty for obstructing Selma.
At the finish, Ambush took line honours from Avant Garde and Red Kite, with Jo de Ros behind. On corrected time, Red Kite took first again, Avant Garde second and Ambush third.
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Commodore’s Cup, Subic Bay, Philippines - 2010 (Photo: Zed Avecilla & Chaos) Day 3 -
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Arch rivals Red Kite and Jo de Ros met in hospital after the race - George Hackett after taking sailing too seriously by stopping a gybe with his head, and one of Anthony Root's crew, Nicolas Leluan, nearly sacrificing three fingers to hold a tack line. Our commiserations. We trust both will recover without permanent damage. Rivalry on the water is not carried off the water. George lent Anthony P1,000 for his hospital bill!
asianyachting.com
by Jeremy Simpson
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