The Third Philippine Hobie Challenge

by Mark Haswell 26 Feb 2002 15:07 GMT

Bilis Biik after a tack Denise / Maldita 2 in trouble Photos©: David Robinson,Fragrant Harbour Magazine

The Third Philippine Hobie Challenge was staged between February 9 and 16 and the ‘Blood Red’ Team, skippered by Australian Chris Steilberg with Britons Dave Harris and Krishan George alternating as crew, took the prestigious Challenge Trophy home with an accumulated time of 33 h 31 m. 39 s for the 210 nm course.

Billed as the toughest beach catamaran event in South East Asia the 15 one design Hobie 16’s covered the southerly course down the western Luzon Island coast from Santa Maria, in Ilocos Sur, to the Zambales port of Subic Bay in 5 daily passages. During the course of the week overnight bivouacs would be made on uninhabited Islands intermixed with some nights in white sand beach hotels for more comfort.

The North Easterly ‘Amihan’ trade winds were expected to drive the challengers down the course but on some days clear skies and a blazing sun formed strong sea-breezes by midday to cancel them out. They also gave the sailors some headaches navigating through the transitional zones! On the final day however Katabatic winds in the lee of 1,100 meter peaks gusted at up to 42 Kts., or Severe Gale strength, and reminded the sailors that sailing in paradise is not always easy.

The British duo of Peter Davies and Mike Scantlebury skippered ‘Rumpleteazer’ to second place just 20 minutes behind Blood Red whilst the ‘Fil/Italia’ team of Luigi Manzi and Gia Veloso were hot on their heels for third place.

As well as the Challenge Series 5 inshore course races were held, the first two in Santa Maria and the deciding 3 in Subic Bay. With only one bullet, three seconds and a third Rumpleteazer took the Manila Bulletin Inshore series from the Philippine ‘True North’ team of Raul Bulaong and Nestor Soriano whilst the British / Filipina crew of Mark Haswell and Ana Katigbak were second runners up in ‘Bilis Biik’.

The first challenge, in 2000, took 5 teams 180 nm from Lucena to the world famous 5 km long beach of Boracay. Last year 12 teams raced 164 nm from Maya Maya, just outside the entrance of Manila Bay, to the pristine beaches of Club Paradise in the North Palawinian Island of Busuanga. With over 7,100 separate Islands to chose from, when the tide is out, the organisers aim to blaze a different route each year.

Tentative arrangements are being made for the Fourth Philippine Hobie Challenge already. A Route from the Southernmost Luzon province of Sorsogon to Mactan Island Cebu, deep in the central Visayan Islands, from February 2 – 9 is looking likely. For more details of this exciting event visit www.philhobie.com

Other Photos: (© David Robinson,Fragrant Harbour Magazine)

Click thumbnail for full picture - the winning 'Blood Red' Team & Lucky T-Yan at speed

Results: (Inshore Trophy, Races 1 & 2; Camp Hope, St. Maria, Ilocos Sur, Races 3, 4 & 5; Subic Bay, Zambales)

Pos	Nat	Boat Name	Helm	Crew	Sail No	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Pts
1	GBR/HKG	Rumpleteazer	Peter Davies	Michael Scantlebury	58	3	2	2	1	2	10
2	PHI/PHI	True North	Raul Bulaong	Nestor Soriano	07	6	1	1	2	3	13
3	GBR/PHI	Bilis Biik	Mark Haswell	Ana Katigbak	105159	1	3	9	6	1	20
4	ITA/PHI	Team Fil-Italia	Luigi Manzi	Gia Veloso	46	2	10	4	4	8	28
5	FRA/FRA	Sea Trek	Pascal Croly	Zavier Philippon	105162	4	4	7	11	5	31
6	PHI/PHI	Cataclysm	Peter Capotosto	Michelle Soriano	12	7	11	6	9	4	37
7	FRA/FRA	Tack-of-Hobie	Laurent Le Morvan	Charles-Patrick Segonzac	no nu	13	8	3	8	7	39
8	PHI/PHI	Lucky T-yan	Noel Lim	Carol Pablo	105178	9	12	10	3	6	40
9	HKG/FRA	Catastrope	Douglas Hanson-Luke	Ardoignt Albanel	105035	16	5	5	7	10	43
10	PHI/PHI	Maldita 2	Charlie Clements	Monchu Garcia/Charlie	104497	10	9	11	5	9	44
11	GBR/PHI	Cavalier	David Levinge	Norman Jaravata	104995	14	15	8	10	11	58
12	CHI/UK/ROM	Blood Red	Chris Steilberg	Dave Harris/Krishan George	103034	5	6	16	16	16	59
13	PHI/PHI/USA	Hobie One	Eric Tomacruz	Elle Singson/Erin Prelypchan	04	8	7	16	16	16	63
14	GBR/FRA		Clive Rigby	Alain Le Jalle	105071	11	13	16	16	16	72
15	FRA/HKG	Parts/Hong Kong	Bernard Mignucci	Deborah Fo	104674	12	14	16	16	16	74

Results: (Challenge Trophy, Race 1 - Vigan to San Fernando, Race 2 - San Fernando to Bolinao, Race 3 - Bolinao to Hermana Major, Race 4 - Hermana Major to Capones, Race 5 - Capones to Subic Bay)

Pos	Nat	Helm	Sail No	R1 Time	R1 Pos	R2 Time	R2 Pos	R3 Time	R3 Pos	R4 Time	R4 Pos	R5 Time	R5 Pos	Total Elapsed Time
1	CHI/UK/ROM	Chris Steilberg	103034	10:13:00	1	07:51:17	3	03:54:05	4	07:13:20	2	04:19:57	3	33:31:39
2	GBR/HKG	Michael Scantlebury	58	10:34:47	7	07:53:58	4	03:59:35	9	07:15:48	4	04:07:00	2	33:51:08
3	ITA/PHI	Luigi Manzi	46	10:22:00	2	07:47:50	2	03:36:19	1	07:14:38	3	04:44:48	4	33:55:35
4	GBR/PHI	Mark Haswell	105159	10:22:02	3	08:09:18	8	03:54:11	5	07:32:10	14	04:04:30	1	34:02:11
5	PHI/PHI	Raul Bulaong	7	10:27:24	5	08:06:26	7	03:52:16	2	07:24:18	7	04:48:50	5	34:39:14
6	FRA/FRA	Pascal Croly	105162	10:38:30	9	07:42:20	1	04:10:29	13	07:21:43	6	04:55:26	6	34:48:28
7	PHI/PHI	Charlie Clements	104497	10:43:33	11	08:18:20	11	03:53:52	3	07:21:22	5	05:02:40	8	35:19:47
8	HKG/FRA	Douglas Hanson-Luke	105035	11:13:55	15	08:13:55	9	03:54:18	6	07:29:21	12	04:58:06	7	35:49:35
9	FRA/HKG	Bernard Mignucci	104674	10:32:03	6	08:05:28	6	03:56:28	8	07:28:27	11	06:50:40	10	36:53:06
10	GBR/PHI	David Levinge	104995	10:38:50	10	08:18:02	10	04:02:58	11	07:12:25	1	07:02:15	11	37:14:30
11	GBR/FRA	Clive Rigby	105071	10:24:50	4	10:15:31	13	04:03:14	12	07:43:55	15	06:32:02	9	38:59:32
12	PHI/PHI	Peter Capotosto	12	10:37:30	8	08:32:56	12	04:11:14	15	07:25:18	9	08:27:00	12	39:13:58
13	FRA/FRA	Laurent Le Morvan	no nu	11:02:30	13	08:03:20	5	04:02:22	10	07:26:08	10	09:52:24	13	40:26:44
14	PHI/PHI/USA	Eric Tomacruz	4	11:06:44	14	10:15:31	15	03:56:03	7	07:24:47	8	09:52:24	13	42:35:29
15	PHI/PHI	Noel Lim	105178	10:54:07	12	10:15:31	14	04:10:42	14	07:31:50	13	09:52:24	13	42:44:34