The Philippine Sailing Association (PSA) team is the back-to-back champion of the Asian Sailing Federation FarEast 28R Championship in the 12th China Cup held in Shenzhen, China last November 7-12, 2018. The FarEast 28R will be part of the 2019 SouthEast Asian Games which will be held in Subic Bay Freeport Zone at the end of November, 2019.
Ernesto “Judes” Echauz, President of the PSA and team leader of the Standard Insurance Centennial 3 team who also topped the IRC A Premier Division in China Cup with his all-Filipino PSA crew, is in-charge of the preparations of our national sailing team for the SEA Games. “As the host country, we have the luxury of choosing the events that we want in the SEA Games,” said Echauz, the Philippine Sportswriters association co-executive awardee together with San Miguel Corporation Chief Ramon S. Ang. “Sailing the FarEast 28R will give us an edge in the medal race,” Echauz added. The FarEast 28R was the overall winner of the “Boat of the Year” award for 2015 by the prestigious Sailing World magazine.
Last March, Ernesto “Judes” Echauz, who is also the Group Chairman of Standard Insurance, announced the donation of six (6) FarEast 28R boats from the insurance company to the PSA for the use of the national sailors to further hone their skills and develop competitive keelboat sailing in the Philippines.
The FarEast 28R boats will be delivered this weekend in Subic Bay together with three more additional boats, increasing the fleet to nine boats, in preparation for weekly practice races including the upcoming Standard Insurance Subic Bay Cup Regattafeaturing a match racing and fleet racing for the FarEast 28R. This regatta together with the Subic Bay Around Verde Island Passage Race that will take place from February 22to March 2 of 2019 in Subic Bay and is part of the prestigious Asian Yachting Grand Prix.
The Philippines beat teams from Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, US, and China in the Standard Insurance Subic Bay Cup and Commodore's Cup Regatta FarEast 28R Fleet Racing held in Subic last March. An additional Match Racing division is added for next year's event to also prepare our athletes for the upcoming SEA Games. National Coach Allan Balladares, gold medalist in the keelboat match racing event at the 2015 Singapore Southeast Asian Games will be in charge of the training fleet.
We will be seeing a lot of sailing action in 2019. Stay tuned!