Bohol Wakefest 2012 Pandanon Island

Image courtesy The Board Shop

The beautiful Pandanon Island will be the venue for Bohol Wakefest 2012 – a month long wakeboarding and wakeskating festival for everyone interested to get into the sport of boarding in the Philippines. Bohol Wakefest 2012 also includes a two–day Wake Jam. The Wake Jam is where invited, top–class wakeboarders and wakeskaters, from all over Asia and the Philippines, will be demonstrating their skills and performing some astonishing tricks, for the entertainment of spectators and to motivate local enthusiasts to excel.

The Bohol Wakefest 2012 is enabled by a new, straight–line wakeboard cable system (Sesitec System 2.0), which is a mobile wakeboard and wakeskate facility that could be located across almost any short stretch of river, lake or bay.

Santa Ana Yacht Club burgee

Image courtesy Girlie Cervantes

It is not often that a new yacht club opens in Asia, even less often that one opens in the Philippines. The Santa Ana Yacht Club has this month announced its opening in the northeast corner of Luzon, in Santa Ana, Cagayan.

If you are a cruising yacht or power boat owner, and you have previously wondered where to tie–up in the North of the Philippines, the Santa Ana Yacht Club has the answer: tie–up in Cagayan. The facilities are a little bit limited at the moment but it is just a question of time before moorings, a clubhouse, restaurant and a bar will be finished to satisfy everyone’s needs. In the meantime an anchorage and partner beach resorts will more than satisfy.

Ryan Binidel and Sam Chan (left) match racing Flying Fifteens in Subic Bay

Image courtesy Martyn Willes

Subic Bay, 12th April 2012 – The first two of five Flying Fifteen class sailing yachts were launched at Watercraft Venture today for exhibition match racing event between international sailing champions Sam Chan and Neil Pride. The Flying Fifteens were donated to SAGS (Saturday Afternoon Gentlemen Sailors) by the Hong Kong Flying Fifteens Association in order to encourage young sailors from around the country to embrace the spirit of yachting and, in particular, to prepare them for competition in the Flying Fifteen Worlds, to be held in Hong Kong, 24th October to 7th November, 2013.

According to Ricky Sandoval of Watercraft Venture, these donated boats will provide the foundation for a reinvigorated Philippine Flying Fifteen Association fleet, with more boats to be added as soon as sponsorship from government and industry can be secured.

Engineers off to survey wind turbine site

Image courtesy Martyn Willes

During the month of March, PhilCarbon has had a team of engineers in the field (literally) surveying for sites for Mindoro’s first wind farm in Bulalacao. An estimated 20MW wind power capacity may be installed in 2014 if the famous Bulalacao breezes check out.

Twenty sites are being surveyed in Bulalacao from which three will be chosen for a eighteen month wind analysis. A anemometer will be installed at the three best sites and the analysis of the wind data will dictate how many wind turbines can potentially be installed. According to Bulalacao Mayor Villas, “the wind turbines will be one of two renewable energy resources for Bulalacao . . . we are also seeking funding for a small hydro electric plant in one upstream location.”

Tri Bird airplane before sinking off Boracay Beach

Image courtesy Martyn Willes

Some three years ago a three–engine jet airplane suffered a heavy landing (only the airplane was hurt) at Caticlan airport – the closest airport to Boracay Beach. Unable to repair it with the facilities available at Caticlan and being unable to fly the aircraft out again without repair, the airplane waited patiently at the airport for a solution.

The Boracay Island Scuba Diving Association – an organization made up of all of the dive shops on the island – acquired ownership of the aircraft with the intent of sinking it off the reef, so that it may become a subterranean attraction for both marine life and scuba divers.

Exotic Red Breasted Bird Spotted In Cagayan

Image courtesy Girlie Cervantes

UPDATED 5 March 2012

This bird has been positively identified as a sub-specie of Purple-throated sunbird, indigenous to the area around Cagayan and the Babuyan Islands: Leptocoma sperata henkei

original article

This red breasted bird was spotted while walking a forest trail in Santa Ana, Cagayan, Philippines, in early February 2012. It was one of a pair that were heard calling to each other from the treetops of a remote, lowland forest area near the seashore, facing the Pacific Ocean; the other of the pair was not seen before they both flew deeper into the forest cover.

Searching the Internet we can find only the red-breasted blackbird/blackbill (Sturnella militaris) that apparently has a close approximation to the general shape and size of this bird but: the beak of our bird is much longer and thinner than that of the blackbird/blackbill; the red plumage extends to the legs whereas the blackbird’s red plumage stops a long way short of the legs; and, this particular specimen is a little smaller.

Superyacht TV photographed in Subic Bay January 2012

Image courtesy Martyn Willes

A few years ago “the Philippines” was the whispered word in the world of superyacht destinations, now it seems everyone wants to come and check out the Philippine islands, from the perspective of the bridge of their own superyacht. Could it be that the Wow of the Philippines is even more fun for the ultra–rich?

Superyachts that used to come here did so in secret; privacy and seclusion was the objective. I recall when one such superyacht arrived off Puerto Galera in 2007, just long enough to dive the famous Canyons dive site off Escarceo Point. Staff at Asia Divers, who supplied the divemaster, were sworn to secrecy; the next morning the yacht was just a memory.

Philippine Windsurfing Championship, Puerto Galera

Image courtesy John Smart

Every year in February, Puerto Galera traditionally hosts the second leg of the Philippine Windsurfing Championships on the waters off Boquete Beach. In 2012 the event will be expanded into the Puerto Galera water sports festival, to include all manner of wind–powered and human–powered water sports.

In addition to the windsurfing championships there will be competitive kite–boarding, dinghy racing and paddle banka racing and potentially dragon boat racing. The goal is to make February the on–water eco–water sports tourism festival month in Puerto Galera and to provide a vacation–extension for windsurfers and kite–boarders who usually travel to Boracay for the Funboard Cup in January and then have nowhere else to go.