Competitive Sailing In Puerto Galera

Image Courtesy: Girlie Cervantes

For the first time in the club's history, the Puerto Galera Yacht Club will host a Chinese New Year sailing regatta with courses set across the Verde Island Passage. This new sailing event is designed to provide an alternative for both local and international yachtswo/men who would like to enjoy their vacation while sailing in the warm spring breezes along the Verde Island Passage, instead of in February's frigid waters around Hong Kong.

One of the challenges with gaining support from yacht and crews from outside the Philippines is the three to four day sail required to get here from Borneo, Taiwan or Hong Kong (longer from Singapore and Malaysia). In order to allow more sailors to join in the fun, local yacht owners are being encouraged to offer their boats for use during the Chinese New Year Regatta. This will be a first in the Philippines and, if it proves successful, will be repeated for other events in Puerto Galera.

Competitive Rowing On The Pasig River

Image Courtesy: Martyn Willes

The Philippines is slowly becoming the recognized venue for international sporting events and in particular, water sports events. For example: in December 2012 the holiday resort paradise of Boracay Island hosted the windsurfing RS:One World Championship; in 2013 the waters off Boracay's famous white-sand beach will be the venue for the Asian Moth sailing championships.

A lesser known water sport in Asia (particularly in the Philippines) is the sport of rowing. For the first time in its 70+ year history, the Philippines has been chosen as the 2013 venue for the ARAE-FEARA Regatta ("Amateur Rowing Association of the East" - "Far East Amateur Rowing Association"), running from 13th to 20th of January 2013 at Paoay Lake, Laoag, Ilocos Norte. The host organization for the event is the Manila Boat Club.

Super Typhoon Bopha (Pablo)

Image Courtesy: Kochi University, Japan

Super Typhoon Bopha (locally “Pablo”) made landfall around 6am (4th December, 2012) just South of Baganga town in the province of Davao Oriental. The expected track will take super typhoon Bopha across central and northern Mindanao to near Dipolog, Zamboanga del Norte, and then to Northern Palawan. What is unusual about super typhoon Bopha is that it has tracked so far South, for so long.

The weather system started as a tropical depression, some 1300 nautical miles East of Davao City, near 2.5N 159.0E, on the 25th November, as reported by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center and subsequently via the Puerto Galera Yacht Club email Typhoon Warning service. At that time, the storm system was expected to track west-northwest, with only a small chance of touching land in the Philippines.