The rest of the inventory used by Jo de Ros were a 2001 Checkmate All Purpose Pentex 155% Genoa, a 1998 Checkmate Mylar Heavy Number One, a 1998 Series-2000 Half Ounce Runner, a 1999 Series-2000 Three Quarter All Purpose Spinnaker, and a 1999 Asym-2000 Three Quarter Flat Asymmetric. It must be noted that the .5oz and .75oz Spinnakers are only used during President’s Cup Regattas. The rest of the inventory is used full time during the nine-month-long Manila Yacht Club Season along with other major events.

The first day of racing saw both Karakoa, an Andrew’s-53 skippered by Steve Benjamin from the Open Division and Jo de Ros starting to set the pace for the regatta. Both boats won their classes and Karakoa and Jo de Ros were first and second respectively in Fleet. In third was Subic Centennial, the Sydney-46 skippered by Judes Echauz, a Pro-sailed boat like Karakoa.

The second day of racing was marred by a rating issue. Again, Karakoa and Jo de Ros were first in Class and One, Two in Fleet. The rating problem came when after the race the IRC Office in England e-mailed the new ratings of Lethal Weapon and Jo de Ros. The Race Committee only wanted to accept Lethal Weapon’s new rating but not Jo de Ros. The reason being, that if they accepted Jo de Ros’s new rating, she would beat Karakoa in Race 3 by seconds. Under the old rating, Karakoa would beat Jo de Ros by two seconds.

The third day was the long distance race which started with the annoying knowledge that this has been Jo de Ros’s Jinks Race. Historically, this is the race that Jo de Ros always goes mental. However, that was to end as by this time the crew was really motivated. A wind shift just before the start made the pin favored and Jo de Ros was able to control the fleet and win the pin start. Several boats including Subic Centennial had to tack away from the lee bow effects of Jo de Ros. Several minutes later, Karakoa came on like gang busters and sat on Jo de Ros. Jo de Ros put in a false tack but Karakoa did not bite. So Jo de Ros put in a double tack and shook off Karakoa. Jo de Ros then tacked back and wound up third at the windward mark behind Karakoa and Subic Centennial and in front of the Sydney-36 MBK Consulting and the X-119 Lethal Weapon.

For most of the race, Jo de Ros was able to keep in touch with the fleet and was most likely in second overall. It was towards the end of the race that another major shift came in that saw the back enders coming on strong. The Farr-1104 Rags took Fleet with the Yamaha-36 Rapparree II taking second. Jo de Ros finally beat Karakoa for third with Karakoa in fourth. In Class, both Karakoa and Jo de Ros maintained their clean records of firsts. Jo de Ros finally broke the Jinks.

Mathematically, both Karakoa and Jo de Ros had sewn up their classes and first and second in fleet going into the last day of racing. Jo de Ros’s motive to race the last race came from genoa trimmer/pole trimmer Boy Pantoja when he replied. "What did I get dressed for?", in response to the question of whether to race or not that day. So this became the Boy Pantoja Race and our goal was to beat the Sydney-36 and X-119 boat for boat!!??

For the first time in the week, the winds came out of the North East sending the fleet towards the beach. The start was normal and Jo de Ros played the left side of the course as did Karakoa. At the windward mark, Jo de Ros was several boat lengths ahead of the Sydney36, MBK Consulting and the X-119, Lethal Weapon. The surprise was that Jo de Ros was able to hold this lead on the downwind leg, the next beat and next downwind leg. It was on the final beat that both MBK Consulting and Lethal Weapon finally got the better of Jo de Ros.

This turned out to be the perfect series for Jo de Ros. This J-35 crewed by an all-amateur crew got all bullets in class and beat a Pro-sailed boat in Fleet and gave another Pro-sailed boat a run for its money. The crew work was exceptional especially since this crew has been together since Jo de Ros first came to Manila. The age range of the crew runs from fifteen-year-old bowman Chazy Mitchell to Boy Pantoja at fifty one. The two hardest working crew members were the women. Millet Bonoan is the full-time upwind genoa trimmer and Rainbow Hackett as Crew Boss and full-time spinnaker trimmer kept things running smoothly. The rest of the crew consisted of Kurt Frankenberger at mast, Mari Imperial in the pit, Al Duqe and Ed Umali at grinding, and Expi Garcia trimming main and calling tactics.

Team Jo de Ros was sponsored by Windshear International Philippines Inc., Jaguar Philippines, Bose Philippines and Draeger Safety Philippines. And now thanks to the great efforts of this amateur crew, a major sponsor is now in early talks with Team Jo de Ros.