Building on the success of the '97 President's Cup, the '98 regatta drew the top competition from the region in what was to prove a showcase of Asian yachting. In the CHS open division Neil Pryde with 'Hi Fidelity' lined up against Judes Echauz' all conquering China Sea Race winner, `Subic Centennial' and Klaus Lienau's 'Mahligai'. This triumvirate of Sydney 46's were picked to fill the top spots, along with last year's winner, the Sydney 36 'Triple V Centennial' with English Olympian Ossie Stewart at the helm. Other hopefuls included Dr. Nicholson's BH 41 'Intrigue', Lethal Viper, a well sailed Mumm 30, Russ Peart with the evergreen X-372 'Vixen', and 3rd place getter in the China Sea Race, Ian Wilkinson's J-105 'Legende'.

Dark horses for the series were Ray Ordoveza's (of Vida fame) new yacht `Karakoa', an Alan Andrews 53 (formerly Persuasion) bought to compete in the Galleon race from Acapulco to Manila and RHKYC Commodore with his new X-482, 'Hocux Pocux'. With a second from the China Sea Race already under his belt, and an injection of new crew for the inshore series, David Kong was clearly hoping to equal or better his performance, and had his eye on an overall China Sea Series win.

The battle lines were clearly drawn on day one with 15 Kts plus of sea breeze for the 22 miler that took the yachts on a long windward leeward oriented scenic tour of Subic Bay. Karakoa took off like a scalded cat, and defied the pundits by beating the three Sydney 46's to the weather mark. Scooting off downwind at over 10 Kts she left the fleet wallowing in her wake to record the first of her 4 wins of the series. Owing the Sydney 46's a little over 2 minute per hour, the ease of her victory left a few CHS pundits scratching their heads, but Karakoa's impressive performance off the wind, combined with more than adequate speed upwind in anything over 12Kts of wind plus Steve Benjamin at the helm and a tight and experienced crew meant that the fight was really going to be for second spot.

As the regatta progressed with 2 windward leewards followed by 2 trapezoid courses over the next 2 days in strengthening winds the pattern of big boat dominance continued. Very close boat for boat racing between Hi Fidelity and Subic Centennial finally saw Centennial get the upper hand, though often valuable seconds were lost by these boats covering each other rather than racing the fleet. Behind on the water, but always close on handicap came Hocux Pocux, with Intrigue putting together a string of good races to be in there with a shout. More often than not only seconds separated 2nd to 6th with one small mistake costing 4 or 5 places. Stories of 'if only ...', and 'that bad tack cost us 3 places' were rife, and bore testament to the closeness of the racing.

The final day dawned light and hazy, and skippers of the smaller boats finally saw themselves with a chance to get in the money. The land / sea breeze conflict had the fleet run out to the head of the bay only to run all the way back up the bay again as the sea breeze managed to kick in. Some of the lead boats fared better than others with David Kong scoring a second place - only beaten by a Platu 25 sailed superbly by local helm Louis Perfectua. 3rd in race 6 was Legende, finally getting in the placings ahead of the big guns.

The upshot was that Karakoa logged an emphatic victory with second place going to Hocux Pocux. Subic Centennial held out Hi Fidelity for 3rd, and Intrigue and Triple V Centennial tied on points for 5th, with Intrigue getting the benefit on the count back. The calculators came out and to the delight of the Hong Kong contingent the China Sea Race Series went to Hocux Pocux by a slim 2 point margin over Subic Centennial.

The magnificent new Subic Bay Yacht Club opened their doors to the competitors for the duration of the regatta and Mango Daiquiris by the pool managed to ease the pain of defeat for most. With the level of competition reaching new heights, near perfect wind conditions and highly professional race management the President's Cup would now have to rank amongst the best, if not the best, CHS regatta in Asia.

OPEN RACING CLASS (17 entries)

Place Yacht Name Owner's Name Type CHS Places Total

1 KARAKOA Ray Ordoveza Andrews 53 1.242 1-1-2-1-1-10 5.00

2 HOCUX POCUX David Kong X-482 1.142 2-3-11-2-6-2 15.00

3 SUBIC CENTENNIAL Ernesto Echaus Sydney 46 1.201 6-4-1-4-2-7 16.75

4 HI-FIDELITY Neil Pryde Sydney 46 1.204 5-2-9-3-5-6 21.00

5 INTRIGUE Ian Nicholson Bashford 41 1.146 3-5-5-6-4-5 22.00