The temperatures may be falling in Tagatay but the racing just gets hotter and hotter. 9 boats ventured out on Sunday for the November Round of the Club Championship series. Strong winds peaking at over 18 knots provided hard packed action, but not all were to last the course of the days 5 races. 

THE CHAOTIC FIRST RACE 
The first fatality sadly was Noel Lim and Mintoy Lopez. They set out on the first race at a good pace but a 3' split in the hull/deck seam on the Starboard hull aft meant their boat was taking on water fast. The Hobie is not well known for performing well with a hull full of water (Ask Rich Wald) and the inevitable downwind bow burying capsize followed.  ( This turned out to be a blessing for you the reader, because Noel became the official Photographer! And its to him that we owe the pics on this page. Thanks Noel!) 
   Rex Puentespina, Mark Haswell, Peter Capotosto and Luigi Manzi were  
having a good battle for the lead exchanging places on the first Triangle. Rex and Carol Pablo however fluffed a tack going through the gate on the second beat and capsized backwards as a result. Then Mark and Ana Katigbak failed to follow the course correctly and headed off for the wing mark after the second rounding - and everyone else followed !!!! 
 
That was not enough for Peter and crew Michelle Soriano (Eldest daughter of Nestor) who decided to join Rex in the capsize game and did a spectular nose dive on the reach (which should have been a run anyway.....) 
Mark and Ana realised their error whilst gybing around the wing mark and headed straight back towards the club to pass through the gate of the run to complete the course properly. 

Sportsman of the day (or missed opportunity) award must go to Luigi and Gia Veloso who realised everyone else was going the wrong way but followed as winning by taking a short cut 'would not be a good victory'. (Luigi - do you honestly think Peter would have missed an opportunity like that if he spotted it ????) 
 
After a quick recovery Peter and Michelle were on there way again and ahead of Mark and Ana by the leeward mark. However his victory grin was short lived after he realised he had sailed two triangles rather than a triangle and a sausage!   In the end Mark was First, Luigi second,and a congratulations for  Art and Charlie, who came in  third. Not only did they manage a great race, butArt was not bleeding from any wounds at the end of the day nor had they damaged anything on their boat - nor anyone elses!!  ;-)   
                  

 
NEW RACE COURSE INTRODUCED 
During the lunchtime break Peter introduced  the new TLYC "Standard Amihan" course,  which will allow for safer roundings at the windward mark, and make the course even more spectator friendly.  And the crews clowned around obviously incredibly impressed about how peter had further complicated the racing. 
 
BUT NOW WE HAVE A PHOTOGRAPHER! 
In the second race Rex completely blew any hope of avoiding forfieting the standard crate of SMB wager with Mark by Capsizing on a gybe with only 50 seconds to go to the start. (and then we find out why he cannot right his boat - in a quest for more speed he soaps his hulls down allegedly - or was he soaping Carol down ..... ????? ) Either way they could not stand on the lower hull to right the boat properly. Mark and Ana got a clean start and lead race 2 start to finish followed by Peter and Michelle with Luigi and Gia coming in Third. 

Following is a great sequence of photos that show how imoprtant it is to hit the correct end of the start line on time! 
  

Peter set off in race 3 at a blistering pace and had a lead of 150 yds on the first downwind leg, BUT THEN he sailed between the ID mark and the shore!  He lost the 150 yards, and five places places sailing back upwind to unwind himself! (you wrote the course Peter!?!). Erwin Valdez and his crew however spent most of their time on this race on Capsize drill breaking most of their jib battens in the process! 
 
 Erwin had a good start of race 4,  as shown in the Photo at left.  Dr. Denis Cruz and Dr Lopez showed good  form in that race,  when they were second around the windward mark and held onto the position for most of the run.   However Eric Tomacruz and and Elle Singson, another team preparing for the Hobie Challenge in 4 months time, showed good form for their light weight in strong winds to come in third behind Mark and Rex respectively. Here's a shot of Luigi and Gia inching out Peter to take fourth in race 4. 
 
In race 5 the winds were starting to drop a little and a shift to the left 
meant the first reach of the triangle had become a gybing leg so places could be gained by gybing on a wind line. Again Mark and Ana won to post 5 straight  bullets in the Club Championship (a far cry from last months 4th and DFL out of 6 in the Punta Attalya cup for this new partnership) 
 
Final results to be posted.