Asian Yachtmaster Examination - Ervin Celoso

Easter Friday 14th April
After a couple days of packing up the shipping container and getting the yacht ready for the delivery to Hong Kong to be ultimately shipped to Europe, Ervin gently guided the 80ft Maligaya out of her Manila Yacht Club berth and onto a glassy bay. His hard working four Philippino crew of Totong Lagamot, Reden Tabangay (Red's) and Renie Eimedorial (on loan from Andriana) re-ran the halyards, jackstays, stowed the dinghy, prepared the delivery sails and amongst other things are good cooks and jack of all trades.

Everyone chips in and are not frightened to tackle the difficult tasks like climbing out to the end of the boom or scaling the mast to complete a job. When the wind picked up as we exited Manila Bay the sails were hoisted with the help of hydraulic winches and the 80ft Swan happily moved along at 9-10 knots. Navigation is made easy by the most advanced electronic plotters, gps and even a computer connected to the mobile phone system to download the latest emails and weather maps.

Quite surprisingly all the electronics and extensive mechanical, electrical and hydraulic systems are all in working order and Ervin maintains the vessel in top class condition. No easy feat in this part of the world, believe me! As the crew took turns to pilot the vessel a lovely Philippine prawn and vegetable platter was prepared below and devoured with copious quantities of rice by a ravenous crew in a matter of minutes.

The work never seems to stop as there is always something to do, especially with only four people aboard such a large yacht. When the boat finally came to rest in Subic Bay Yacht Club marina berth the huge task of packing her up for the night and giving the yacht a complete wash down and tidy up followed for a few more hours after arriving. This is a daily chore for everybody concerned and conducted in a very efficient manner with no complaints. Some of the rock-star crews I have sailed with over the years could certainly take a leaf out of their book.

The AY Yachtmaster examination took place over four days by testing Ervins yachting knowledge, seamanship and ability to run the vessel from top to bottom and everything in between. It should not come as a surprise that he passed with flying colours and the crew are recommended to become Coastal Yachtmasters on yachts up to 40 meters. This is a huge responsibility and the owner Andres Soriano III has complete confidence in them to safely take his US$3-4m yacht anywhere in the world. As the AY Examiner all I can add is to watch out when they appear on the entry list at European events this summer as they are certainly competent and capable enough to give the rest of the fleet a run for their money!

Asian Yachtmaster Examination - Ervin Celoso
Preliminary Report

Capt Marty the AY Examiner is off to the Philippines as Ervin Celoso the skipper of Andres Soriano's magnificent Swan 80 Maligaya has chosen to join a growing band of qualified and certified Asian Yachtmasters operating in the region. Maligaya was last seen in Malaysia cutting a fine line around wind swept Bass Harbour during the 2001 RMIR, winning four Langkawi triangle races in a row.to snatch overall victory in the Cruising Class.

Ervin has completed the 12,000 odd nautical mile delivery from Finland to the Philippines twice, first on his bosses privately owned Swan 68 Irvmiren (1993) then on the Swan 80 Maligaya in 2000. On both boats he has racked up thousands of miles as skipper, traversing across the South and East Asian sea's including a tour down to Sydney, Australia and back in 2002.

As the sailing plan now is to return the boat back to Europe and for Insurance purposes to legally pilot a large 80ft private yacht around over there, he needs to qualify and hold a minimum of Offshore Yachtmaster Certificate of Competency. By officially logging up a total of over 45.000 nm plus holding a number of Philippine (MARINA) Commercial Seaman's and Yachting Association safety Certificates of Competency (which are presently good enough to sail in the Austral - Asian waters) Ervin has indeed met the AY Offshore requirements of 25.000nm and has completed at least one long (2500nm) ocean passage will be examined on a delivery from Manila in the Philippines to Hong Kong from the 10th to 14th April.

Depending on the ICT equipment onboard we will try to keep you updated as we go at: While there on my first trip to the Philippines and Hong Kong I will at least be able to report on how things are coming along at the Manila Yacht Club for the President's Cup and with the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club's bi-annual classic China Sea Race coming up in mid-April.

Most people are probably not aware that when AsianYachting was first launched on the web back around 1997 it was purely a Training Scheme which took over a year to produce and still today is taking up well over half of the storage capacity. Most of all It's FREE to browse and probably the only International Sailing School Assoc (ISSA) approved syllabus to provide simple step by step maneuvers on the web. Oh buy the way keep your eyes peeled on it as we also will be improving the site with movie clips in the near future, to simplify the learning process as we go down the present path.