Chinese New Year Regatta Puerto Galera 2013
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Image Courtesy: Girlie Cervantes
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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.
The fun factor for most crews attending any regatta in Puerto Galera is the unique pursuit race format. Unlike most sailing events, where yachts have a common start time, the Puerto Galera Yacht Club has pioneered the pursuit race, staggered start time format. In a pursuit racing, yachts start based upon a start time, computed based upon the theoretical time to cover the designated course depending on the forecast wind on the day. Some say that this is not a true test of yachts and crew but, in recent years, with twenty years of racing records available to the handicapper, the race results usually mean that competitors finish within a few minutes of each other.
For the serious racing yachts, the Puerto Galera Yacht Club applies the IRC rating system to the results and, with few exceptions, the race results prove the validity of the pursuit handicap system. For example, during the Royal Cargo All Souls Regatta 2012, yachts in the IRC class that made the fewest errors finished within seconds of each other on both the pursuit handicap and the IRC rating system.
Other competitive sailing events in Puerto Galera each year include the: New Year Regatta (28-30 December); Easter Regatta (Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Easter Weekend); and, All Souls Regatta (holiday weekend around All Souls/All Saints day at the end of October) – the largest yachting event in the Philippines since 2004.
Book now for the Chinese New Year Regatta in Puerto Galera 9-11 February, 2013
To find out more about the Chinese New Year Regatta or to find out about renting a yacht in Puerto Galera, visit the Puerto Galera Yacht Club website.