Round Taal Volcano Race 2006 - Day 1
Arrival
I arrived at tlyc around 8:30 sans Andrew as he was down with the flu. Rolly and 
wife Marte were already there about to launch Pawprint, their 15′ runabout which will help serve as a safety boat for the race. after helping them lanch Pawprint, Marte helped me out with setting up my boat. and soon after Eric arrived with his unfinished but ready to race Kalayaan dinghy, we then helped him rig and launch his 
boat . The other home built in the Race was Tato’s Vagabond 20, a 20 foot cabin cruiser that he was able to finish just in time for the RTV. The Vagabond had been at TLYC for the past week as they’ve 
been doing some sail trials and final tuning of the boat. Mario and his daughter were also there to race on Toppers and so was Fast Exit skipper Arvin. After a short briefing we were ready to go. Prior to the actual Round Taal Volcano Race there was to be a short buoy race around two buoys (a hot dog course)
The Race to the Volcano
So everyone went out. In getting ready for the buoy
race, I had an unfortunate incident which caused my boat to have 6 inches of water inside the cockpit.
A bad jibe caused my boat to heel too much and scooping up a whole lot of water in the process. I tried to do the hotdog course with the water in the boat, and while trying to race I actually saw eric’s boat demasting, I thought he capsized when I frist saw it, but I noticed the kalayaan was still right side up, I was going to try and help out but 
noticed that Rolly and Marte also saw and were on the way to help. Later I found out that one of Eric’s stays came off and caused his mast to fall over. With my boat still weighed down by the water it was just to heavy to make any significant headway, so I decided to head back to the starting line and wait for the actual RTV race at the same time try to bail out as much water as i could.
I managed to bail out atleast half of the water before the start of the next race, but lack of racing experience on my part resulted in a late start, there was also another topper that started late and was way behind me, but she was able to catch up as I still had a lot of water balast. As soon as I got to the downwind part of the course I was able to cleat the sheet and bail out most of the water while under way. Wind was fairly strong at around 16kts
With almost all of the water out of the boat, my speed picked up and there were several times that I was really feeling the boat plane. I got to the lunch area and four toppers were there, as well as Tato’s vg20. I was actually expecting 5 toppers to be there but found out later that the other topper with lilly on board had an unfortunate encounter with a ferrier trimaran’s bowsprit.
several really bad things happened as a rusult of the swamping incident. one was that my phone which was supposed to be water proof was water damaged as it wasn’t stored inside the hatch but in my bag which was tied to the bottom of the mast, and two the worst one was that Mario’s cigarettes which was inside one of the aft hatches was soaked as I forgot to tighten the lid. 
I had lunch of pork adobo, and soon after, the hobies started arriving from the other direction. as the hobies took the island from the west (longer course) and the dinghies took the island from the east.
shaking from the lack of nicotine in me, I managed to pull up the nerve to ask one of tlyc’s boatmen for ciggy. 
soon after, rolly and marte arrived in the pawprint, then eric came in. Which was great releif me, as atleast I know I didn’t come in last in the homebuit class. 
hehehe
Mario being boy scout that he is, had Rolly carry another pack of ciggys as backup and thus ended our nicotine drought.
The Race BacK
soon it was time for the next race. I swore to myself that, i’d improve on my meager placing in the first race.
winds were a lighter this time, and I was still last off the line but atleast it wasn’t as late as before. I followed the girls on the toppers which were heading out to more open water, while mario and arvin took a course that was closer to shore. winds were light enough to be able to light another ciggy, so I did.
pretty soon the winds died down and it was drifting match, light winds meant 
shifty winds, and pretty soon sails were fluttering all over the place. I decided to stay with the current and sat as far back on the boat to get as much transom in the water so the waves would have more area to push against and I managed to get some headway from it. pretty soon I found myself ahead of everyone (except the hobies ofcourse) even the bravos.
then the winds started to pick up again and I was on course towards a fishcage. the topper behind me tacked to the right to avoid it, but I saw an opening on the left side that I could squeeze though so I did. then I thought, good move! I passed several other fishcages this way and the all of the toppers were still 
behind me. then all of a sudden full stop, it was like someone slammed on the brakes. aw fuc*! I knew it had to happen (so I guess it wasn’t a good move after all). my dagger board was caught on a net, easy enough fix, but I had to head back to the nearest opening in the fish cages to get to open water again. then went my lead, soon the 3 toppers were ahead of me, mario and the two girls. soon as I was free of the fish cages it was a straight close reach to tlyc.
arvin was still behind me and so were all the other homebuilts. I saw arvin was closing the gap and took off my sail consevatively cap and started sailing through the gusts. Looking behind me at arvin I was thinking, this guy must have rock hard abs. as he was hiked out most of the time. while I was in a very comfortable position leaning back against cockpit sides.
soon I passed mario which looked like he had equipment problems as he was holding on to his boom with his hand and standing upright inside the boat while sailing ala windsurfer. later I found out that his mainsheet was twisting and jamming in the block, him standing up in the boat was just a macho effect.
Then I passed Eric, sailing in his kalayaan. WTF! what wormhole did he go through to get there!? last time I checked he was miles behind me. later on, I found out he got a tow from one of the commitee boats.
Guess What? I won!…. sort of
It was already dark when we got back, and among the PHBYC members, I was first to arrive , then arvin, then mario, then eric I think and tato and his crew. Tato arrived late as they were also caught in fishnets
but them having a bigger boat compounded their woes as it was a little more difficult to free.
we then had our showers and proceeded to dinner and the awards ceremony for the races for that day. All was all still pretty sureal to me as I still coudn’t beleive that I completed the race. compounding that was the fact that I was the only one homebuilt class to finish both legs, thus the trophy. Arvin also got 3rd in the Topper class. everyone had a great time exchanging stories and stuff. We all retired early as there were still buoy racesfor the next day.
coming up in the next post: events for the next day as well as the story of my first capsize. 
