JUDES ECHAUZ steered Centennial III to a nerve-racking victory—even edging last year’s champion Reichel/Pug 76 Jelik from Hong Kong—in the sixth Standard Insurance Subic-to-Boracay Race (SBBR) last Sunday afternoon off Boracay in Malay, Aklan.
After churning up the waves and sailing a highly tactical battle, Centennial III ruled the IRC Racing Class with a time of 27 hours, 37 minutes and 39 seconds. Frank Pong’s Jelik was a close second with 27:45:06.
The event was a 200-mile ISAF Cat 3 offshore race that started off the Lighthouse Marina Resort in Subic Bay Freeport Zone, last Saturday noon.
Malaysia’s Ulumulu, skippered by Troy Yaw and Jeremy Koo, was third with a time of 28:11: 52, while highly regarded Hong Kong sailor Geoff Hill and his Antipodes placed fourth in 28:13:32.
American Race Officer Jerry Rollin said Ragamuffin 90-Dubois 90 Custom-designed and skippered by David Witt—arrived fifth in 28:37:48 and veteran campaigner and 2013 winner Karakoa, led by Ray Ordoveza, was sixth in 28:42:44.
In the Racing Class 2, elite Singapore sailor Jonathan Mahony and his Zanzibar Hyde RC42-designed topped the race in 28:48:19, followed by two Hong Kong campaigners—EFG Mandrake skippered by Fred Kinmonth and Nick Burns (28:48:19) and Vineta steered by Helmuth Hennig (29:19:02).
Finishing behind the foreign sailors were local competitors Centennial II helmed by Martin Tanco (30:42:32) and Selma Star commandeered by Jun Avecilla (31:39:04).
Action off the waters of Boracay got going on Monday with the Boracay Cup Regatta.
“Stakes in the race are high,” Subic Bay Yacht Club Comm. Ricky Sandoval, chairman of the organizing committee, and one of the stalwarts of the Saturday Afternoon Gentlemen Sailing (SAGS) Club, said. “It will be part of the basis for yearend honors in the Asian Yachting Grand Prix Circuit.”
The twin event was organized by the Philippine Sailing Association and the SAGS Club, in cooperation with the Subic Bay Yacht Club and The Lighthouse Marina Resort, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, the Department of Tourism, Philippine Coast Guard and municipality of Malay.
The event was also backed by Cebu Pacific, PLDT Alpha, Resort World Philippines, Tanduay, Seawinds Resort Boracay and the BusinessMirror.