PalmOne nat’l hobie to churn up Taal waters

The PalmOne Philippine Hobie National Championships reels off tomorrow at the Taal Lake Yacht Club in Tagaytay with the country’s top sailors from 25 teams vying for pride, prestige and honors as they race around the lakeside Olympic-style course.

The two-day regatta, sponsored by PalmOne through its distributor Microwarehouse, also lured four international squads set to compete in the Open Class, including Hong Kong which features the current Asian champion Tong Shing.

Jun Villanueva of Microwarehouse said they decided to sponsor the national championships because it is a prestigious event which underscores the growing interest in this popular class of sailing boat.

The Hobie 16 class is the largest fleet in the world with more than 100,000 boats.

Expected to grace the pre-event cocktails today are the country’s top sports officials, including Philippines Olympic Committee (POC) president Celso Dayrit, International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Francisco Elizalde, Philippine Sailing Association president Jude Echauz, and DOT director of sports tourism Cynthia Carrion.

Since it debuted in 1996, Hobie sailing has reached a highly-competitive level in which we are considered among the best Hobie sailors in Asia.

In fact, the event has been attracting not only the top teams in the country but crack international squads as well. Already, there are 15 international teams registered for the fifth Philippine Hobie Challenge (PHC) slated next month.

The PHC is a marathon 200 nautical mile inter-island race from Boracay to Palawan which will take the 30 teams (60 sailors) through the most beautiful islands over seven days of grueling sailing.