For those of you who do not yet know, Laura and I have been invited to race in the 9th Philippines Hobie Challenge Feb. 16-23. This is a 250-mile endurance race over 5 days through the Philippine archipelago. Besides the 5-day Offshore Series, there is also an Inshore Series. The Inshore Series consists of 2 buoy races the day before the endurance race, and 3 races the day after.
We will be camping on remote islands in the Philippines during the 5 days with the other 19 world teams from 8 countries. It will be a mini-Survivor!! Names to watch (besides ours!!) will be: Aaron Worrall (AUS) who won the 16 NAs last summer in Alameda; Bob Engwirda (AUS) who has won the event a couple of times before; Bruce Tardrew (AUS) who finished 48th at Worlds (to our 51st; ggrrrr!); Mark Haswell (PHP) who organizes the event and has won legs and inshore races against some of the best; Andrew Locke (AUS) who finished 37th in Fiji; and Tony Stearns (NMI). So there are at least 6 out of the 19 that I know. Plus the other 'sleepers' that I don't know. Should make for some exciting racing!
I hope they will update results at the event website:
www.philhobie.com.
Many thanks to our sponsors -- Harken, Gill, Layline, Larabar, Fisheries Supply, and Barz Optics.
P.S. In raising sponsors, I went onto Murray's Marine website. Has anyone noticed that the cover of the 2008 catalog is a picture at Skamokawa? I recognize Tim Webb's boat and Scott Chapman's. But I don't know the others. Pretty cool.