Philippine Sailing Association (PSA) is the governing body for the sport of sailing in the Philippines, recognised by the International Sailing Federation.
Last January 27, the 2018 Philippine Sailing Association (PSA) Board of Directors election was held at the Philippine Sailing Center. A part of the annual general membership meeting where members of the PSA, representatives from different sailing clubs in the Philippines (Taal Lake Yacht Club, Puerto Galera Yacht Club, and the Subic Sailing Club) and hobie sailors that were also represented under the Philippine Inter-island Sailing Foundation (PHINSAF) together with several athletes and coaches of the Philippine Sailing Team, with Mr. Julian Camacho, the current treasurer of the Philippine Olympic Committee and Ms. Cynthia Carreon, President of the Gymnastics Association gather and discuss issue-related to the development of sailing in the Philippines.
The newly elected 2018 Board of Directors of the Philippine Sailing Association are:
Mr. Ernesto “Judes” Echauz
Mr. Donnie Altura
Mr. Martin Tanco
Mr. Jerry Rollin and,
Atty. Tulay.
It was also announced during the gathering that Standard Insurance has donated six (6) FarEast 28R boats. Mr. Echauz, Group Chairman of Standard Insurance said,“We want to promote keelboat sailing. The idea here is to allow the FarEast 28r boats to join regattas like the recent Punta Fuego Regatta, the Boracay Cup Regatta and the Commodore’s Cup Regatta.” Boats are available to be used provided that the team is qualified to properly handle the boats. Practice can be scheduled with the head coach of the FarEast 28r - Mr. Allan Balladares, one of Asia’s top match-racing skipper and a gold medalist in the Singapore SEA Games back in 2015. “We would like to invite all the clubs in the Philippines to get involved in racing by conducting sailing events”, Balladares stated. There are no charter fees to join the regattas but a refundable deposit of $1,000USD is required to be able to use the boat and compete in the race.
Marcus Avecilla, Operations Director of the Subic Sailing Club said, “We are truly excitedwith the development of the FarEast 28r and the steps that the PSA is taking to ensure that we continue to develop top sailor athletes and coaches. Their support to the clubs is amazing and we truly admire and respect the commitment of Standard Insurance in the development of keelboat sailing in the Philippines. It is understood without a doubt that PSA is alive because of the funding from Standard Insurance. We also believe that Filipinos can be the best in the world when it comes to sailing.”
In terms of support for other clubs, Mr. Echauz also mentioned that the Philippine Sailing Association is offering coach trainings for the Optimists, Mirror Dinghy, Laser, 470, 420, FarEast 28r and Hobie 16 n whereas meals and accommodation will be provided at the Philippine Sailing Center. This is truly a great support to the development of sailing in the Philippines.
Is this funded by the Philippine Sports Commission? "If you have enough money and enough management, we can improve. We have manage to improve the performance of sailing. But most of the money doesn’t come from the Philippine Sailing Commission but from Standard Insurance.” said Director Donnie Altura. “Everybody says that the philippines is full of island, surrounded by water, and that we should all be good sailors. However without money and international exposure, all of our raw talent will always be just raw talent.” Altura added.
Other matters such as the need to train more people to run races were also discussed. Director Jerry Rollin said, “There will be training courses in the sailing center and we hope to go to other sailing clubs and do some training there as well”. Majority of the race management are young people and active sailors. “You do that work to support your sport when you aren’t sailing. So you sail one weekend and you got to help run the race the next weekend.” Rollin added.
For the safety and security, the 101st Squadron of the Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary (PCGA) has a radio room situated at the sailing center equipped with VHF radio and a repeater in Corregidor Island that can monitor distress signal within its range. All distress calls will be forwarded to PCG in case of emergency. Currently the PCGA 101st Squadron has five (5) ribs which a range of 200 nautical miles. The Squadron 101 is headed by Commodore Ernesto Judes Echauz PCGA.
There was also the topic of boat registration. Registering pleasure crafts/boats with the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) is difficult that is why not all the local boats here are registered with the MARINA and some of the local boats are registered in places like Hong Kong or Belize. Mr. Jerry Rollin said that he is currently part of the working committee of MARINA that is trying to define rules that the yachting people can comply with. “I don’t know when this will be resolved, but eventually there will be a proper MARINA registration that we can register on.” Rollin added.
Congressman Sandoval of the Subic Sailing Club, announced that he is also part of the technical working group for the revision of the SBMA Charter which he will include a Subic Yacht Registry. Cong. Sandoval believes that this will help invite foreign boats to come and visit the Philippines. He is inviting all stakeholders from different clubs to join the public hearing on February 8 in Subic to come and share your ideas on how this Yacht Charter Registry should be.
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