Stearns, McCullough place third in 2nd Philippine Hobie Challenge

Tony Stearns and Janet McCullough placed third among a top field of international competitors in the 2nd Annual Philippine Hobie Challenge.

The grueling long distance sailing event, held March 10-18, 2001 in the Philippines saw 12 teams of experienced Hobie 16 sailors race over 250 miles from Batangas province, near Manila, southwest over open ocean waters to Busuanga Island in Palawan Province.

The regatta participants included the best Hobie sailors from Australia, Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Saipan, as well as other top sailors from Italy, England, France and Germany.

The teams encountered highly variable and challenging conditions, from flat and glassy waters with one to five knots of wind, up to strong and gusty 35-40 knot winds with 10-12 foot seas.

The first and last days of racing were typical in-shore around the buoy races. Five races were sailed, with the Australian team edging out Hong Kong’s top team for the first place.

Stearns and McCullough placed a respectable fourth. The Australian team consisted of three members, including Aaron Worrell, the 1996 Hobie 16 World Champion, Andrew Keag, a world class sailor with experience in many different boats, and Naomi Angwin. These three sailors traded off during the regatta, depending on the day’s conditions.

The second part of the event was the tougher off-shore long distance race. Crews were equipped with hand held GPS’s, nautical charts, compasses and other emergency equipment.

Each day’s leg consisted of 30 to 50 miles direct line sailing, and upwards of 50 to 60 miles of actual sailing distance. Most of the sailing was from island to island over open ocean, and occasionally along the coast of the larger islands.

The goal of each leg was to get from the start to the finish as quickly as possible. There was no set course, with the exception of occasional mandatory way points along the way for safety purposes and to regroup the fleet in case of dropping wind and shortening of the courses.

The boat with the shortest total elapsed time for the five days of sailing would be the winner. Nights stops along the way included camping on uninhabited islands, or at small hotels in beach towns on islands along the way.

Stearns and McCullough started off strong with a first place finish in the first day’s racing. After racing in light and shifty winds for more than four hours, the race was shortened with Stearns and McCullough in first place.

The next morning the sailors encountered the toughest leg of the course, crossing the Calivete passage to Mindoro. This area is known for some of the most treacherous waters in the Philippines.

The fleet of Hobies sailed out across the passage with seas of 6 to 8 feet, and winds blowing over 20 to 30 knots. As the sailors neared Cape Calivete, winds were clocked at 30-35 knots, with gusts to 40 and the seas had built to 10 to 12 feet.

The course was set with the boats sailing across and then directly downwind and with the direction of the swells. All of the boat capsized at least once, most boats going over repeatedly in the heavy seas and winds.

Many sailors recorded boat speeds of more than 30 knots. The rescue boats were kept busy locating capsized Hobies, while the four teams in the front of the fleet made it through relatively unscathed to sail on to the finish another 25 miles down the coast of Mindoro.

After four and a half hours of intense sailing the lead teams reached Tayamaan Beach Resort. Stearns and McCullough finished the leg second just a few minutes behind the Australian team and close enough to hang on to first place overall.

Two of the Hobies were missing near Cape Calivete for over five hours, one having dismasted, the other being unable to right their capsized boat in the strong wind and seas. These boats were finally located and towed to the finishing beach.

Many of the teams had torn sails and broken equipment, and they spent the late evening and early morning repairing broken parts.

The next three days were much less eventful. The teams headed further down the coast of Mindoro to Pandan Island, and then out across the open sea to Apo Reef, one of the premier dive spots in the Philippines.

The final day’s racing was from Apo Reef southwest to Busuanga, at the northern tip of Palawan. Winds on the final day were extremely light and shifty, with the top teams taking on eight hours to sail only 22 miles.

The race was called at the midpoint of the scheduled leg, whereupon the winds picked up to 25 knots again and the sailors took just over an hour to sail the final 15 miles. The regatta ended at a beautiful isolated resort on Busuanga Island.

The Australian team finished first overall in the long distance part of the Philippine Hobie Challenge, with a total elapsed time of 23 hours, 1 minute and 13 seconds. The Papua New Guinea team was second at 23:54:17. Stearns and McCullough were a close third just three minutes back at 23:57:25. The fourth place team was another 30 minutes behind, and the slowest teams were seven to ten hours behind the top three boats.

The organizers are already planning the 2002 Philippines Hobie Challenge for another area of the Philippines, and expect more than twenty teams to participate.