The First Philippine Topper Nationals, held Feb 22, and 23 2003, and sponsored by “Ford Philippines” and “Dinghy World”, was as much fun for the spectators, as for the participants. The regatta was a success and the 2004 event has been tentatively scheduled for Feb.21.
The 2 day format scheduled the Womens division and Youth division on the Saturday. Novice and Open were held on the Sunday. The event was held at the same time as the second Philippine Windsurfing Fedreation Regatta, so there was a lot of action on the beach that day.
Toppers were rotated among competitors, so sailors could sit out races, and watch their competitors on the water. Races of different divisions were staggered, so a whole division would sit out a couple of races while having lunch, but a different division would be racing, and each division could watch the other.
DAY 1
It was unfortunate that we did not have enough notice for the Youth division to be organized properly. This gave us a lack of competitors, but the Womens division more than made up for any “entertainment” shortfall.
WOMEN’S
The week before, they had already complained that the original “ladies division” title was inappropriate. It should be “women” because there might be some of them that (in their minds anyway) did not “qualify” to be ladies.
OK, fine. We changed it to “Womens”, and had the mugs engraved. But then, on the morning of the race, they decided that they liked “B fleet” better. Why? Because “B” stood for “Bitches”. (JB Dimayuga at this point asked if he could join “B” fleet, but fearing for his safety, I advised him that he would be safer doing race Committee) It was clear that this was going to be interesting racing!
The first race proved the point.
To make things easy, the First race was a “Bitch” start. The competitors stood behind a line on the “Bitch” and we went through the proper flag sequence. at the start horn, they ran to the boats, and launched them from the “Bitch”. They went around “B” mark, and back to the “bitch”.
Very easy warmup course. But upon returning to the “Bitch” there were already protests galore! In the end, the only one to get thrown out was the winner of the race, Guen, who said ” I wanted to go around the mark, but she was blocking the way, so I had to run over the back of her boat because she was in the way”!
This disqualification made the succeeding races more exciting than ever. Guen, the second placer in the “Ladies Toppers” in the “2002 Round Taal Volcano Regatta” was determined to win this event. Before the racing, she thought she had it sewn up, but carrying the DSQ was going to make it very tough indeed. She had to win practically every race to win the series, and the pressure was on.
She won the second race, and it looked like her competition might be Leng Laysa (2nd) and Carol Pablo(3rd), but it became clear in succeeding races, that Elle was going to be a major Challenger. Guen slammed out two more firsts, but then Caroline took race 5, elle took second, and Guen 3rd.
The last race became a tie breaker. In the end, Guen won out, with a first overall by one point! Elle took second overall, and Caroline came 3rd.
Certainly, it had been an exciting well fought day, and it almost won them the right to change the name of the division. 🙂
Day 2
On day 2, We had 8 participants in the “Open” and very thin participation in Novice. The lack of notice was again a major factor, but the fact that we were able to stage the event at all, is, I suppose, the positive outlook.
OPEN
Mark Haswell, Peter Capotosto, and Charlie Clement dominated, but newbie John Balass punched upward as the series wore on, and landed a very respectable 4th, edging out Norman Jaravata in the end. I certainly hope we see more of John, and I promise to try to avoid hitting him with my mast again if I capsize on top of his boat (that was after I hit Norman twice).
The racing was actually pretty intense, and as all of us “Good sailors :-)” have been saying all along, its no less exciting than it is in the Hobies.
Collisions are just less expensive.
NOVICE
Like “Youth”, I wish we’d had more participation, and I’m quite hopeful for next year. This year, George Wang and Leng Laysa took first and second respectively. The lack of participation in certain classes did not detract from the fun however. The excess boats were used by competitors to take kids out sailing, or to practice. Kids made out that weekend, and were able to do race committee stuff like raising flags at the sound of the horn, and fun stuff like that.
FUTURE PLANS
For the current season, Carol Pablo has committed to organize some regular racing in Toppers. Its the best class for training, both in terms of learning to sail, and learning to race.
SPONSORS
Again, a big thanks to Dinghy World for donating the nice mugs that we used as trophies, and to Ford for an ongoing Topper Sponsorship programme.
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