Just a heads up to let anyone who might be interested know...

My crew, Laura Sullivan, and I are leaving this Wed., 2/13, to race in the 9th Philippines Hobie Challenge from Feb. 17-23. This is a 250 nm endurance race through the Philippine Archipelago on Hobie 16s.

We have a helmet cam and we are planning to put together a video from the event. Plus pics. I have posted more detailed information on the Hobie 16 forum for anyone wanting more detailed info. It's really quite the race!!

Big thanks to the following sponsors who helped make it happen: Zhik, Harken, Sperry, Barz Optics, Layline, Murrays, Hobie Cats NW, Larabar, and Hobie Fleet 95!!

Good luck Peter. I hope its a great trip.

Good luck,sounds great.When you run into Arron Worrall put in a plug for the North Americans in Clear Lake.

By the way, I am a newbie to this sponsored thing. So if there is any special secret for putting decals on hulls and sails that I should know about (other than a clean surface), I'd like to know about it.

And do the decals come off as easy as they go on? After the event I may need to do some removal. Thanks.

Good luck Peter and Laura! Have fun, and be safe. All of your friends in the Northwest will be pulling for our "Home Team".

Caleb Tarleton

This sounds awesome!!

Are you renting a H16 there to use?

Wow, I'd go in a heartbeat. I can sail a H16!, done distance races, sleep on the boat/beach, etc.

Yeah, it's a pretty sweet deal, in my estimation. Entry fee of $2,200 covers breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks for the week, lodging Fri. and Sat. night (at the finish) at a resort which is famed for having the best surfing in the Philippines, airfare/busfare from Manila to the start and finish, plus all the usual stuff -- t-shirts, trophies, chase boats, etc. There may be other lodging included but I'm not sure.

The charter boat fee is expensive -- $1,000 for the week. In N. America the going rate is $100/day for a H-16, or $700 for the week. The boat is 1 year old, so it should be in good shape.

Since we shot our wad in Fiji doing the worlds, I am trying to do it on the cheap. It came on too late to sign a title sponsor. (I had a couple interested, but couldn't pull the trigger in time.) I cashed in airline miles and hotel nights. Sponsors helped with the rest.

Pics, video and story when we get back!!!

Good luck Peter and have fun!

Good Luck Peter!
I just got word from Laura and Grady, the other U.S. team going to the Philippines, hailing from Santa Cruz, that you have better been practicing for that last few months <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Have fun! Come back with some sailing stories!

OH! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> I watched the YouTube promotional video for this event. It looks like drinking on the beach is what everyone should be practicing. And if that's the case I'm sure the Santa Cruz Team may be the favored team after all. Bring it Bea-yaches <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

So Jeremy, want to get into a little smack talk, eh? You are chatting with Mr. Smack Talk Extraordinaire! I am the king of 'puff & fluff' (and not being able to back it up)!!!

I haven't been out since Worlds. But, hey, how tough can it be, right? Just like ridin' a bike, isn't it?!! Thank God we have a day of inshore racing to "tune up" before we head out. Now that I think of it, all of the locals have been racing all of their summer and should be in fine form! Gulp!! This could be tougher than it was supposed to be!!! I think they may be bringing this yachtie in for lunch!

But I got distracted from my smack talk! Where was I?

Exactly Don! The sponsorship that I've been offering the team from Santa Cruz has been a trip to the Crow's Nest 3 nights a week for the last month.<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> That should get them in shape!
And Peter, watch out if those Aussies start drinking Bundy! It only makes 'em faster!!!

Have fun! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />


And just to note the awesome character of Aaron Worall. After he completely annihilated the 16 fleet at the NAC's last year with pretty much a 5 day stint of straight bullets, he gave me his trophy with the strict instructions to give it to a youth in our division. I thought that was a pretty cool gesture.

Ummmm...do I qualify as a youth? I act pretty immature most of the time. Does that count?

I figure that may be about as close as I get to one of those. I can trade ya a 5th place in B-fleet trophy for it!!!

Jeremy - You are truly a supporter of multihull sailing. Your commitment is humbling. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

This type of coaching could be part of our problem regarding the lack of a strong youth program though. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

To corrupt a saying:

Drinking and driving causes accidents. Drinking and parking causes children.

So, if we assume that the teams will be drinking while off the water, we are breeding our own youth sailors <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

It was all in jest. I really only gave them a deal on sailing gear.

Got this this morning from our friend Ken,

"Hey Jeremy,
Just a quick note to let you know....Laura and Grady made it down to the Philippines and are experiencing some extreme weather conditions not sure if they have actually gotten out to sail yet.

Spoke to her by phone on Saturday 6:00 pm our time...10:00 pm Sunday theirs and they were in near hurricane conditions and being moved to a more sheltered beach !!!!

E-mail this morning saying possibility of racing later if the hurricane passes !?!?!?!? 70 miles starting from Magnot where they are now. Crazy stuff....."

Sounds exciting!

OK....we're baaaaacckk!!! I'm going to put most of the stories on the H-16 forum and HCA's website. But to give a quick synopsis...

A tropical depression (that is a weather state, not a mental state!) hit the Philippines the day we arrived. Conditions for the 1st 2 days were reported as: 35-45k winds, 18' seas, 10 sec. interval. So Sat. and Sun. was a bust. On Monday we moved the boats 2 hours south (to Mongot) and re-rigged. We started on Tuesday in about 20k with a 12' sea that was fairly confused between the 3k current and the leftover storm. After about an hour of that, the wind died down. For the next 4 days the wind was light -- 5-10k with occasional squalls to 20. It rained every day, so the weather made it pretty much a bust. We finished only one leg -- a 35-miler. All the others had to be shortened and we were towed. We were scored on 70 nm and figure we sailed about 100 nm. (The races would be shortened at gates, but we often were past a gate when the race was called off.)

Overall, in spite of the crappy weather, it was an incredible experience. The sailing, the scenery, the people, the experiences -- all of them were incredible!! Many thanks to Zhik, Murray's, Harken, Hobie Cats NW, Larabar, Barz, Sperry, and Layline for their support. I hope to do it next year knowing that the chances for 2 consecutive years of crappy weather is pretty slim. I'll leave more reports on the H-16 forum, including results.

Several people have requested pictures of this event. So here are the links. There are several websites up that have pictures posted. I'm not sure how or why they got so scattered, but they did. The best pics are from the event photographer, Kathy Chua. But there are gems in each of the albums.

Kathy Chua's PHC9 Pics
Roman Azanza's PHC9 Pics
Photobucket (username: phc9 password: challenge)
Eric Tomacruz's PHC9 Pics